Udacity Cuts 20 Percent of Staff in Quest for Profitability

Edtech Business

Udacity Cuts 20 Percent of Staff in Quest for Profitability

Apr 10, 2019

Online education company Udacity has laid off 20 percent of its workforce, TechCrunch reports. CEO Sebastian Thrun told the publication that the cuts will allow Udacity to “break-even or profitable company by next quarter and then moving forward.”

The latest round of layoffs follows news last December that the company, which is valued at $1 billion, laid 125 employees as part of a broader reorganization effort. It hit hardest at the company’s offices in São Paulo, Brazil, which closed after the company let go of its 70 employees based there. And two months before that, the company let go of 5 percent of its staff.

Udacity rose to prominence as one of the major players to offer microcredentials in the form of “Nanodegrees,” its short-term courses that offer digital credentials and prepare students for tech jobs. It still currently has 300 employees.

Learn more about EdSurge operations, ethics and policies here. Learn more about EdSurge supporters here.

More from EdSurge

Get our email newsletterSign me up
Keep up to date with our email newsletterSign me up