Instructure

Last updated
Instructure, Inc.
Company type Private
NYSE: INST
IndustryEducational Technology
Learning Management Systems
Assessment Management Systems
Assessment
Founded2008;17 years ago (2008)
FounderBrian Whitmer and Devlin Daley
Headquarters
Salt Lake City, Utah
,
United States
Number of locations
7
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • Steve Daly
  • (CEO)
ProductsCanvas, Catalog, Studio, Portfolium, MasteryConnect, Videri, CASE Benchmarks and Item Bank, Navigate Item Bank, Academic Benchmarks, Certify, DataConnect, Program Assessment, Pathways, Canvas for Corporate Education
Revenue$475.2 million (2022) [1]
Number of employees
1,466 (2022) [2]
Website instructure.com
Canvas
Developer(s) Instructure
Written in Ruby on Rails
License AGPLv3
Website https://www.instructure.com/canvas

Instructure Holdings, Inc. is an educational technology company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It is the developer and publisher of Canvas, a web-based learning management system (LMS).

Contents

History

The company was founded in 2008 by two BYU graduate students, Brian Whitmer and Devlin Daley. [3] Its initial funding came from Mozy founder Josh Coates, who served as Instructure's CEO from 2010 to 2018 and chairman of the board through 2020. [4]

In December 2010, the Utah Education Network (UEN), a representative of a number of Utah colleges and universities, announced that Instructure would be replacing Blackboard. [5] By 2013, the company's customer base had increased to 9 million users. [6]

In 2011, Instructure launched Canvas, a learning management system. [7] The company announced that Canvas would be made freely available under an Affero General Public License (AGPL) license as open-source software. [8] [9] [10] Canvas became available on iOS in 2011, and on Android in 2013. [11] As of 2020, Canvas was used in approximately 4,000 institutions worldwide. [12]

In 2015, Instructure launched Bridge, a cloud-based corporate learning management system. [13] It was acquired by Learning Technologies Group (LTG) in 2021. [14]

As of 2015, the company had raised $90 million in funding from investors. [15] On November 13, 2015, the firm began trading as a publicly held company on the New York Stock Exchange. [16]

In 2020, Thoma Bravo acquired the company for $2 billion. [17] In June 2021, Instructure again filed for an IPO, [18] and began trading under the symbol INST. [19]

In 2024, it was announced that KKR and Dragoneer had completed their purchase of the company for $4.8 billion. [20]

In 2024, Instructure announced the acquisition of Parchment, a credential management platform. [21]

See also

References

  1. "Instructure Company Profile". Craft. Retrieved September 8, 2023.
  2. "Instructure 2022 Annual Report" (PDF). Retrieved March 6, 2024.
  3. Kim, Joshua. "An Instructure Canvas LMS Timeline". www.insidehighered.com. Retrieved 2025-03-17.
  4. Neely, Karissa. "Instructure CEO change, Survey shows affordable housing concern, Powerful U Experience event". The Daily Herald. Archived from the original on 31 October 2018. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  5. "New Statewide Learning Management System Selected". UEN News. Utah Education Network. December 14, 2010. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  6. Empson, Rip (November 2012). "With 4.5M Users, Instructure Takes On The Courseras & Udacities Of The World With Its Own Open Course Network". TechCrunch.
  7. Tate, Emily (2018-07-16). "How Canvas came to unseat Blackboard as the leading LMS". EdScoop. Retrieved 2025-03-17.
  8. Michael Arrington (January 31, 2011). "Instructure Launches To Root Blackboard Out Of Universities". TechCrunch.com. Interserve dba TechCrunch. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
  9. Josh Keller (January 31, 2011). "Upstart Course-Management Provider Goes Open Source". Wired Campus. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
  10. Christopher Dawson (February 1, 2011). "There are alternatives to Blackboard and Moodle: Instructure Canvas goes open source". ZDNet Education. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on February 4, 2011. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
  11. "Instructure Releases Canvas for Android". canvaslms. Archived from the original on 8 February 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  12. "Why Colleges and Universities Are Adopting Canvas". eLearningInside News. 2018-10-24. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  13. Buhr, Sarah (2015-02-18). "On The Way To An IPO, Education Technology Startup Instructure Is Close To Raising A Big New Round". TechCrunch.
  14. "Behind the Deal: Why LTG acquired Bridge". Learning Technologies Group plc. 2021-06-28. Retrieved 2022-08-20.
  15. Locke, Charley (2015-02-24). "Instructure Plots Path to IPO, Corporate Customers After $40M Series E". Edsurge.
  16. Schaffler, Rhonda (2015-11-13). "Instructure IPO Debuts on NYSE With Double-Digit Gain". TheStreet.
  17. "Instructure files for U.S. IPO after 2020 take-private deal with Thoma Bravo". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2023-04-24. Retrieved 2025-03-17.
  18. Bamforth, Emily (28 June 2021). "Instructure, creator of Canvas, files for initial public offering". edscoop.com. Scoop News Group. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  19. Saleh Rauf, David (4 July 2021). "Another Education Company Goes Public: Instructure IPO Gives Ed-Tech Firm $2.9 Billion Valuation". marketbrief.edweek.org. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  20. "KKR and Dragoneer complete $4.8bn take-private acquisition of edtech firm Instructure". PE Hub. 14 November 2024. Retrieved 2024-11-21.
  21. "KKR to take edu-tech firm Instructure private for $4.8 billion". Reuters. July 25, 2024.