Life-long learning will become a bigger part of education going forward. How we educate students, train employees and track progress is all adapting and merging. Instructure is already the preferred platform by both users and their large list of partners. There’s a $52B industry that spans from K-12 education to job seekers to talent retention where they are the leader and the only company in their sector currently capable of being a one-stop solution.
Building an Edtech Ecosystem
Instructure started with a single solution, Canvas LMS, but has grown to become the edtech leader (#1 in market share) as a next-generation ecosystem. In less than a decade, Canvas disrupted the industry and displaced the market leader, Blackboard, who once held a commanding 80% market share. Blackboard now sits at 15% market share. There are several reasons why Canvas was able to disrupt the industry leader. Blackboard had their solution deployed on-premise for thousands of customers around the globe. As a nimble SAAS solution, Canvas, committed to open standards, was flexible and extensible, allowing institutions to customize based on their unique needs. Instructure hired former educators (consistently with over 30% of employees coming from the education industry) and built a workforce that understands the needs of educators. A number of other factors fueled its ascension.
Instructure has evolved its go-to-market motions beyond the LMS, now serving educators, students, and professionals across the entire lifespan of the learner journey.
They are already used by more than half of the top K-12 institutions in the country, 83% of research universities including the entire Ivy League and 4M lifelong learners acquiring new skills. Google, Apple, AWS, Microsoft and 900 partners integrate their platform and services.
Growth strategy with a huge runway
With close to half of higher education students and a third of K-12 students in the U.S. using Instructure on a daily basis, and a growing international market share, Instructure is the consistent hub of learning that learners will use throughout their lives.
To capitalize on market opportunities, Instructure has acquired several companies over the past few years, since taking the company public again. Now a true learning ecosystem, Instructure is addressing more market segments than ever before. The emergence of the lifelong learner means recent acquisitions of Parchment (and previously Concentric Sky, makers of Badgr) open enormous opportunities to Instructure as it helps serve the new traditional learner. Credentials have become critically important as these learners take personalized learning journeys and need the ability to demonstrate skill mastery.
Its recent trajectory demonstrates that Instructure is doing more than talking about being a “learning platform.” Through building on its home-grown solutions or strategic acquisitions, Instructure is building a true ecosystem, not just the technology that powers learning across the learner’s lifetime. While it’s the most-used LMS in North America K-12 systems and is growing rapidly internationally not just as a K -12 student, not just as a higher ed student, not just as an adult learner, or not just as a non-traditional learner, but in every segment of their learning journey.
Instructure’s massive opportunity is to turn all of those learning experiences into opportunities. For many learners, that means jobs. While many edtech companies today are still focused on one aspect of learning, Instructure is the only one positioned to capitalize on these trends and help learners get the skills they need to improve their quality of life.
What this means for investors
A financially disciplined company that has delivered very consistent results over the past several years is considered elite. Instructure has done that. In an unstable sector they are the one stable and consistent performer. They have followed in the footsteps of Amazon, Adobe, Oracle and more to make the use case that you never need to look past their cloud for anything you need and it would be inefficient to consider otherwise. They have made smart, fiscally savvy deals to augment their offerings and expand.
Edtech has seen countless solutions promising to disrupt the industry, only to go out of business. Educational institutions deserve stable partners like Instructure as they seek to solve enormous problems such as making learning more accessible to students everywhere. They need partners doing good in the world while doing well. The investment community has long seen Instructure as a solid investment for these reasons. But with a clear runway and the infrastructure built to capitalize on these market opportunities, Instructure is at the point of becoming more than a learning platform. It’s the one company sitting at the center, whether you’re a learner, an educator, or an employer, who can connect learning with job opportunities.
The LMS is already where the eyeballs are attached and where learners are spending their time. Instructure is the connective tissue across and for this massive audience of learners. Also across these segments, Instructure already has the top customers. For example, all ten of the top ten universities in the United States use Canvas.
They are already used by more than half of the top K-12 institutions in the country, 83% of research universities including the entire Ivy League and 4M lifelong learners acquiring new skills. Google, Apple, AWS, Microsoft and 900 partners integrate their platform and services.
We’re now entering the first generation of students who began using Canvas in elementary school, used it throughout their high school and college years, and are now entering the workforce. This product familiarity is almost unprecedented in the learning environment. This results in very sticky customers who don’t leave. That’s one of the reasons Instructure delivers such predictable results. Instructure has still never lost a fully deployed higher education institution as a customer.
