[4] Coursera works with universities and other organizations to offer online courses, certifications, and degrees in a variety of subjects.

[8] Coursera was founded in 2012[9] by Stanford University computer science professors Andrew Ng[10] and Daphne Koller.

[15] The nine-year-old company brought in roughly $293 million in revenue for the fiscal year ended December 31 — a 59% growth rate from 2019, according to the filing.

[20] The startup raised an initial $16 million funding round backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and New Enterprise Associates.

[23] Coursera priced its initial public offering (IPO) at $33 per share in New York on March 31, 2021, valuing the company at approximately $4.30 billion.

[24] In September 2013, it announced it had earned $1 million in revenue through the sale of verified certificates that authenticate successful course completion.

[27] In January 2016, Coursera rolled out fees to earn grades and assessments for "the vast majority of courses that are part of Specializations".

TechCrunch notes that the company "opened itself to additional revenues from the lucrative corporate e-learning market, which some reports suggest was worth $12 billion in the US alone".

Coursera has announced partnerships with the Institute for Veterans & Military Families (IVMF) in the United States and entities in Egypt, Mongolia, Singapore, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Kazakhstan.

[33][34][35] In March 2018, Coursera launched six fully online degree courses, including bachelor's and master's qualifications in various domains.

[36] In 2020, reports indicated that Coursera operates on a mixed model, with fewer than 10% of students choosing to pay for courses, whereas the vast majority preferred the free options available.

Coursera's CEO describes the platform as a "managed marketplace," akin to Apple's app store, where the company curates courses, sets format standards, and establishes pricing guidelines.

According to 'Coursera Impact Report 2020', the top five most popular courses that people learn from Coursera were contact tracing, digital marketing, project management, Python programming, and social psychology.

[51] Also as part of their MBA programs, there are some courses which are offered separately, which are included in the curriculum of specific MBAs when enrolling in classes such as their digital marketing courses, and now days they also offer Master of Science in Cyber Security from University of London besides Bachelor of Science in Marketing.

[citation needed] Google, IBM, Meta[52] and other well-known companies, launched various courses for professional certificates, allowing students to fill the workforce in various sectors, such as data analytics, IT support, digital marketing, UX design, project management, and data science.

[61] Called "Science Matters: Let's Talk About COVID-19", the course was the most popular launched on Coursera in 2020, with over 130,000 enrolled learners that year.

This is part of an outreach initiative for people who may have lost their jobs, been retrenched, had their salaries reduced, or merely want to improve and grow by learning and developing their technical skills through recognized certifications.