Friday, March 28, 2014

2U Raises $120M In IPO

2U, an online education company which has significant operations in Los Angeles, has had a successful IPO on the NASDAQ Global Market, debuting Friday morning as TWOU. The company--which runs online degree programs for the University of Southern California (USC) and many other schools--had been backed by Redpoint Ventures, which funded the company out of its Los Angeles office. Those investments were led by former Redpoint VC Greg Martin. Redpoint Ventures owned 23.2 percent of 2tor as of the IPO, and the company's other investors included Highland Capital Partners, Novak Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, as well as Archer Capital, which is now run by Greg Martin. 2U was previously known as 2tor, and first raised funding back in 2009, when Redpoint was a very active Los Angeles area investment firm. 2U's first, online degree program was with USC's Rossier School of Education. 2U priced at $13.00, at the high end of its $11.00 to $13.00 estimated range, and was trading up around 7.31 percent at 13.95 in morning trading.

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