MOUNTAIN VIEW, California; March 7, 2024 – IT MNC Accenture acquired Udacity, a digital education pioneer with deep expertise in the development and delivery of proprietary technology courses that blend the flexibility of online learning with the benefits of human instruction. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Udacity’s team of more than 230 professionals will join newly launched edtech platform Accenture LearnVantage, which provides Accenture’s clients with comprehensive technology learning and training services that will help them reskill and upskill their people in technology, data and AI to reinvent their organizations and achieve greater business value.
The company will invest $1 billion in Accenture LearnVantage over three years. According to Accenture research, business leaders say their No. 1 challenge is their inability to upskill their workforces, with 51% of organizations starting to see negative impacts from worsening IT skills shortages. In addition, 94% of workers say they want to learn new skills to work with generative AI, but only 5% of organizations provide gen AI training at scale.
Udacity is recognized for its cutting-edge learning approach that emphasizes the acquisition of practitioner-level technical skills. The acquisition will bring to Accenture Udacity’s capabilities in integrating proprietary content, expert services and scalable learning technology while seamlessly bridging the gap between online education and workplace relevance.
Since its founding in 2011, Udacity has evolved from primarily consumer-focused to a talent transformation platform bringing customer value creation through career development in AI and tech. Through its highly regarded network of more than 1,400 experts and a vast library of exclusive content co-created with industry leaders, Udacity has served more than 21 million registered learners in 195 countries, providing localized course offerings in multiple languages, including English, Arabic, Korean and Spanish. In a crowded market, Udacity has differentiated itself through its combination of high-quality content and ‘human in the loop’ learning, coupled with an outcome-focused approach.