{"id":202906,"date":"2017-10-04T14:16:09","date_gmt":"2017-10-04T12:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=202906"},"modified":"2017-10-04T14:16:09","modified_gmt":"2017-10-04T12:16:09","slug":"cape-town-startup-concludes-r1-4-billion-deal-with-us-edtech-giant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/202906\/cape-town-startup-concludes-r1-4-billion-deal-with-us-edtech-giant\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Town startup concludes R1.4 billion deal with US edtech giant"},"content":{"rendered":"

US-based technology firm, 2U has concluded a $103 million (R1.4 billion) acquisition of GetSmarter, a South African startup that delivers short-term online certification courses to distance-learning student<\/span>s.<\/p>\n

The deal, which is believed to be the biggest ever for a South African edtech company, was first announced in May, and further bolsters Cape Town’s position as a leading technology hub in the country.<\/p>\n

2U partners with top colleges and universities to bring their degree programs and credit-bearing courses online.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are proud and excited to join the 2U family,\u201d said Sam Paddock, CEO and co-founder of GetSmarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe now have an even stronger base from which to realise our full potential globally, which will only further enhance confidence in the broader South African technology ecosystem.”<\/p>\n

Since it was founded in 2008 by brothers Rob and Sam Paddock, GetSmarter has provided online adult education to over 50,000 students, with an average course completion rate of 88%, furthering the company’s vision for 2030 of improving the lives of one million people through better education.<\/p>\n

2U\u2019s investment will accelerate growth in the next few years, enabling GetSmarter to offer in-demand career opportunities to even more South Africans, the company said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Read: University of Oxford launches online FinTech programme in SA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US-based technology firm, 2U has concluded its $103 million (R1.4 billion) acquisition of GetSmarter, a South African startup that delivers short-term online certification courses to distance-learning students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":202908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9882],"tags":[12398],"class_list":["post-202906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-getsmarter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202906"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202918,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202906\/revisions\/202918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}