Pluralsight Accelerates Expansion

Pluralsight received a significant investment from Insight Venture Partners to accelerate its already rapid expansion.

The financing marks the first outside investment in Pluralsight, which was founded in 2004 as a classroom-based training company, designed for developers by developers. In 2008, Pluralsight began a major pivot to move its training business completely online, with the goal of providing the same professional content through a flexible subscription model priced for worldwide scale. Today, Pluralsight has more than 200,000 users in more than 100 countries and offers more than 400 online courses, with 15-20 new releases per month. Pluralsight offers anytime, anywhere access to its entire library for as little as $29 a month.

"This investment is a big leap in Pluralsight's journey," said Aaron Skonnard, CEO and co-founder of Pluralsight. "So far, we have had great success in building a profitable and sustainable business with our own funds. With this deal, we get both the financial and intellectual capital of Insight Venture Partners to really accelerate our growth at what we believe to be a critical time in the market."      

Skonnard said the investment will lead to more quality content for customers. Pluralsight intends to use the funds to speed up the expansion of its course library to provide more breadth and depth in topic areas of interest to software developers around the world. Already, he said, none of its peers can match the quality, timeliness and relevance of Pluralsight's course library.

Pluralsight has attracted a world-renowned team of authors who deliver the most advanced and effective educational experiences available today. These authors are experts in their respective fields – they also write popular books, articles, and blogs, and speak at leading industry events around the world.

"It's no secret that online education is becoming a mainstream learning and training method," said Ryan Hinkle, a partner at Insight Venture Partners. "Pluralsight has carved a big niche by appealing to software developers, an audience ideally suited to online learning. We believe the opportunities for developers will continue to expand exponentially and Pluralsight is positioned to take advantage of that.  Insight sees great prospects for this business."

Insight will have two board seats on Pluralsight's seven-member board of directors.