Coursera, the Mountain View, Calif.-based online course provider, has purchased Rhyme, a San Mateo, Calif.-based provider of in-browser projects for software training. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Coursera made the purchase to support a new product that it has been testing, according to a statement Wednesday. Dubbed “Coursera Labs,” the product is expected to release broadly by the end of the year and will allow the company’s partners to offer coursework and projects completed through a web browser.
Programming assignments and software projects sometimes require that users download third-party apps on their computers. But Labs aims to make that unnecessary, says the company.
Goldsmiths, University of London piloted the product, creating an app where introductory programming students write code to solve puzzles. The University of Michigan and the University of Illinois are expected to develop content with Coursera Labs later this year.
As part of the acquisition, Rhyme will expand its office in Sofia, Bulgaria, to assist the Labs product. Founded in 2016, Rhyme has worked with companies including Google. Its projects focus on machine learning, business intelligence and other technical areas.
Founded in 2012, Coursera claims to have 3,600 courses, 14 degrees and serve 190 university and industry partners. The company raised $103 million earlier this year in a Series E round.
