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03-Aug-2021
Coursera, Inc. (COUR)
Q2 2021 Earnings Call
Coursera, Inc. (COUR) Q2 2021 Earnings Call
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CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS
Cam Carey Director-Investor Relations, Coursera, Inc.
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc.
Kenneth R. Hahn Chief Financial Officer, Coursera, Inc.
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
OTHER PARTICIPANTS
Stephen Sheldon Analyst, William Blair & Co. LLC
Thomas A. Singlehurst Analyst, Citigroup Global Markets Ltd.
Rishi Jaluria Analyst, RBC Capital Markets LLC
Josh Baer Analyst, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC
Joseph Meares Analyst, Truist Securities, Inc.
Jason Celino Analyst, KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.
Ryan MacDonald Analyst, Needham & Co. LLC
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION SECTION
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Coursera's Second Quarter
Fiscal Year 2021 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. And please be advised that
this call is being recorded. After the speakers' prepared remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session.
[Operator Instructions]
I'd now like to turn the call over to Cam Carey, Head of Investor Relations. Mr. Carey, you may begin. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Cam Carey Director-Investor Relations, Coursera, Inc.
Hi, everyone; and thank you for joining our Q2 earnings conference call. With me today is Jeff Maggioncalda,
Coursera's Chief Executive Officer; and Ken Hahn, our Chief Financial Officer. Following their prepared remarks,
we will open the call for your questions. Our press release, including financial tables, was issued after market
close and is posted on our Investor Relations website, where this call is being simultaneously webcast.
Additionally, downloadable versions of our prepared remarks and supplemental slides have also been made
available.
During this call, we will present both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of non-GAAP
measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure can be found in today's press release and
supplemental presentation, which are distributed and available to the public through our Investor Relations
website located at investor.coursera.com. Please note that all growth percentages refer to year-over-year change
unless otherwise specified.
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Additionally, I'd like to remind you that all statements made during this call that relate to future results and events
are forward-looking statements based on current expectations. Actual results and events could differ materially
from those projected due to a number of risks and uncertainties which are discussed in our press release, SEC
filings, and supplemental materials. These forward-looking states are not guarantees of future performance or
plans and, therefore, investors should not place undue reliance on them. We assume no obligation to update our
forward-looking statements.
And with that, I'd like to turn it over to Jeff. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc.
Thanks, Cam, and good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate you joining today's call. Coursera's number one goal
has been and always will be to serve learners. Working closely with our educator partners, we're working towards
a world where anyone, anywhere has the power to transform their life through learning. A year ago at this time,
our platform served a critical role during one of the most challenging moments of the pandemic. As schools and
offices closed and learning and work shifted online, both individuals and institutions turned to the platforms like
Coursera. And today, I'm really excited to talk about unlocking the next phase of opportunity, the transformation of
higher education and adult learning more broadly.
For our Q2 results, I am pleased to report another strong quarter. We grew quarterly revenue 38% year-on-year
to $102.1 million, crossing the $100 million mark for the first time. Performance was strong across the business
with sustained momentum in each of our segments: Consumer, Enterprise, and Degrees. Institutions, including
business and governments, are using Coursera to launch large scale reskilling efforts and individual learners are
coming to the platform to upscale for high demand digital roles. In particular, we continue to see strong interest in
our growing portfolio of professional certificates which are redefining the opportunities people have to get fast
growing digital jobs.
These credentials created by some of the greatest global brands, including Google, IBM, Facebook, and others
allow a learner with no college degree or prior industry experience to develop the skills required for an entry-level
digital job fully online in less than a year. But, a career pathway isn't the only option. In addition, with these career
pathways, we're collaborating with universities to offer degree pathways that enable learners who finish
professional certificates to earn academic credit towards a college degree if they want to continue their education.
This kind of institutional collaboration among universities, industry and governments, enabled by Coursera's
three-sided platform make higher education more flexible and affordable. And we believe greater flexibility,
accessibility and job relevance is the future of higher education and adult learning.
As we look to the future of learning and work in a world reshaped by the pandemic, technology continues to
emerge as the primary driver of both cause and effect. Technology is accelerating change and transformation
around the world, destroying jobs, and creating new demands for knowledge and skills. And it is also the means
by which society is adapting to this accelerated change. Online learning has the potential to enable anyone,
anywhere to access a new world of educational opportunity and remote work has the potential to enable anyone,
anywhere to access job opportunities if only they have the knowledge and skills required to perform them.
I'd like to take a few minutes to discuss in more detail the fundamental forces we see at play. First, our world is
accelerating, driven by technology and globalization. This force of technology, especially the Internet, Cloud
Computing, and AI continues to transform industry after industry. Over the last year, we've been fast forwarded to
a new normal of online learning, digital skills, digital jobs, and remote work. The pandemic is ushering in a new
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world of remote work, which is fundamentally changing, not only how companies work, but also who they can hire
as employees.
The pandemic has amplified the criticality of technology and digital tools in the way that we all work. And by
separating work from place, the pandemic and remote work have opened new opportunities for companies to
build more diverse distributed workforces. We believe that companies that harness the potential and the power of
a truly global talent pool, not just those fortunate enough to live near the corporate offices, will gain access to
greater talent at lower cost than those companies who do not.
And we believe that because of remote work, individuals who harness the power of online learning to acquire in-
demand knowledge and skills will be rewarded with a growing selection of job opportunities as more remote jobs
become available around the world. We believe technology is both, lowering the cost and increasing the benefit to
education. In this sense, technology is increasing the return on investment of education on a global scale.
This leads me to a second trend. As the world becomes more digital, jobs that are repeatable and predictable are
being automated by technology. Recently, a McKinsey Global Business Executive Survey found that 67% of
employers have accelerated automation and AI deployment during the pandemic. And the jobs most at risk of
being automated, like freight movers, retail clerks, and waiters are typically held by lower skilled workers making
lower wages. These are also the jobs that have been most impacted by COVID-19, leaving to businesses and
governments around the world looking to upscale people, so that they have the knowledge, skills, and credentials
to enter digital jobs.
In June, Coursera published our 2021 Global Skills Report, [ph] which draws on the (00:07:54) performance data
of millions of learners on the Coursera platform to benchmark skills proficiencies across business, technology,
and data science domains for over a 100 countries. And these insights provide us with a glimpse into what our
post-pandemic world might look like. First, the pandemic created a complex economic landscape that threatens to
leave millions of workers unprepared for the digital future. In the report, there was a stark contrast between the
hardest hit sectors, such as tourism, retail and construction, and positive job growth in industries, like technology
and finance. These shifts in the economy are expected to persist, implying a difficult uphill climb for displaced
workers. But, on a positive note, our research shows that the top skills needed for entry level jobs of the future are
more accessible than commonly thought.
Our data suggests that these digital skills are attainable and can be learned in as little as 35 to 70 hours, not
years of online learning. But, the impact did not stop at low-skilled roles. Our data also shows that the pace of
change is requiring every person, in every job to keep learning throughout their life to stay relevant, as the
organizations evolve and business models adapt to a changing economy. This is particularly important for
learners that pursue careers in fast-moving domains, like technology and data science. In these disciplines, the
median half-life of a skill or the number of years it takes for a skill to reach half of its value in the labor market is
about seven years shorter than the half-life of a skill outside of these domains.
And finally, our Global Skills Report points to a growing divide between countries. For example, high-skilled
countries' skill proficiency on Coursera is associated with superior performance on the Global Innovation Index,
higher labor force participation, reduced concentration of wealth and increased economic output. During the
pandemic, Coursera offered our Global Workforce Recovery Initiative to help governments stabilize their
workforce and boost their economies' resilience through job relevant training, and we expect this need to continue
in the coming years with governments undertaking large reskilling initiatives.
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In many ways, the pandemic has accelerated trends that have been at play for decades, and we believe this
moment presents a unique opportunity to build a more inclusive, modern, and scalable education system, which
brings me to my third dynamic at play here. And that is the digital transformation of higher education. Higher
education, one of the largest industries in the world at $2 trillion, has seen relatively little innovation. We believe
the world needs high-quality education to be more accessible and the need for this kind of change has never
been more urgent. Traditional college degrees are not affordable to many people.
Their episodic structure doesn't meet the needs of continued lifelong learning and they do not provide the
flexibility previously desired, but now required by working professionals who do not want to quit their job or
relocate to get a college degree. As our Q2 results demonstrate, the Coursera platform is playing an increasingly
important role in enabling the digital transformation of higher education. And unlike other platforms, we are an
enabler, not a disruptor. We work directly with leading universities, businesses, and governments to equip them
with the technology, scale, and insights they require to better serve the needs of learners.
Let me share some updates on the progress that we've been making to expand and enhance the value of the
Coursera platform. The Coursera platform centers on three primary advantages: first, the leading educator
partners that are attracted to Coursera by our global reach; second, the quality and breadth of the content and
credentials that they've created; and third, the technology and data that powers this global platform.
First, educator partners. Our expanding ecosystem of educator partners, who are attracted to Coursera for a large
growing learner base and global reach, continues to expand. We now have 87 million total registered learners on
the platform with the vast majority coming from outside of North America. And these learners are served by a
growing list of more than 200 university and industry partners. As they shared on the last call, we announced 10
new university partners in conjunction with our Coursera Conference held in April. We're also collaborating with a
number of new industry partners in recent weeks, including Intuit, InfoSec, Tencent, and Blue Prism.
For industry partners, the development of these high-quality branded courses and credentials is becoming a
business imperative. Coursera's scale and reach allows them to build a global community of developers and
users critical to growing their ecosystems. In addition, it also allows them to specifically address the growing job
displacement that their technology, automation, and platforms have been creating in the pursuit of economic
progress and efficiency. And with their job-focused credentials and career pathways, our industry partners are
increasingly becoming part of the solution, helping to develop in-demand skills that prepare learners for career
changes and career advancement.
This brings me to our second strategic advantage, our broad catalog of world-class content and credentials
created by these educator partners. Our stackable system of branded high-quality freemium content enables us to
attract learners at low cost and serve them at a range of price points. Learners come to Coursera for our
freemium content and bite-sized learning, including hands on projects and short courses, enabling us to grow our
top of funnel and attract registrants at low cost. As these learners look to progressing their careers by earning
more valuable credentials, we aim to maximize lifetime value with the premium credentials from our partners,
including specializations, professional certificates, and fully accredited bachelor's and master's degrees.
And our catalog of the world-class content and credentials continues to grow. In the past two months, we
announced a number of new certificates from our university and industry partners, including four certificate
programs in the high-demand fields of business, strategy, marketing, and product management from our new
university partner, the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode. We've also added new entry-level professional
certificates, including the Bookkeeping Professional Certificate from Intuit and a Marketing Analyst Professional
Certificate from Facebook.
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For Degrees, we announced a global master's in English Language Teaching Leadership from Tomsk State
University in Russia which, in addition to the five degree programs announced at Coursera Conference in April,
brings our total portfolio to 31 degree programs, 19 of which are outside the United States.
Now, onto our third major advantage which is our platform. This world-class content is delivered on a system of
technology and data that underpins the Coursera learning platform. We continue to enhance the experience of
our learners, institutions, and educator partners, as well as the scalability of our model. For learners, we recently
expanded the availability of Coursera Plus as a monthly subscription, offering unlimited access to more than
3,000 courses and all of our Guided Projects for one all-inclusive accessible price per month. We see early
evidence that Coursera Plus is improving retention of paid learners.
Additionally, we're investing to localize the learner experience in fast-growing economies, like India, including
payments, pricing, partnerships, and content discoveries. These localization efforts appear to be improving
conversion rates in our Consumer segment. For institutions, we launched three Academies earlier this year: the
Data and Analytics Academy, the Cloud & IT Academy, and the Software Engineering Academy. These
Academies offer companies a skill-first approach to enterprise learning, focusing first on the critical roles that
need skilling; then specifying the skills and proficiency levels needed for those roles; and then finally, linking the
skills to content that teaches those skills at the appropriate proficiency level.
We believe our broad catalog and our skills graph that connects roles to skills to content makes Academies and
SkillSets a differentiated offering. And they appear to be resonating in the marketplace with more than 70
enterprise customers using them in Q2. Now, for educators, we're making it easier to bring their content to
Coursera. In June, we announced general availability of our new learning content ingestion solution. This feature
allows educators to more quickly and seamlessly migrate large amounts of online content between a learning
management system and Coursera, and currently supports content ingestion from edX, Canvas, Blackboard,
Moodle and others. Individually, our ecosystem of partners, world-class content, and technology are important
strategic advantages. But, the real power is the way that these assets are reinforced by and leveraged across our
single unified platform.
There is a flywheel effect as a growing selection of content and credentials attract more individuals than
institutions, which in turn motivates our educator partners to create more content on the platform. This growing
content, technology and data allow us to better meet the needs of learners, educators, and institutions. That in
turn fuels our business, increasing scale, reducing our acquisition cost and, ultimately, maximizing the lifetime
value of learners on Coursera.
We believe the transformation of higher education is only in the early innings. So before I turn it over to Ken for a
closer look at our financials, let me remind you of some of the key priorities we're focused on to drive long-term
sustainable growth.
First, we continue to invest in our enterprise sales force using a land-and-expand strategy to acquire new
customers while growing our relationships with existing customers. In Q2, we increased the total number of paid
enterprise customers to 584, a 109% increase over the prior year that included customers from all of our
institutional categories.
Large customers like Go1 in the UK and PwC ProEdge in the US expanded programs with Coursera for Business,
integrating Coursera into their digital upskilling enterprise products and others like Pernod Ricard, a leading
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beverage company based in France are using Coursera to upscale their technology talents in cutting-edge digital
schools – skills.
Additionally with Coursera for Government, we launched large-scale nation and statewide reskilling programs
including the Government of Barbados National Transformation Initiative, the US Tennessee Department of Labor
and Workforce Development and an expanded partnership with the Commonwealth of Learning, serving 54
member nations. And finally, we're seeing strong adoption of Coursera for campus with leading public and private
universities around the globe. In one example, the Morocco Ministry of Education approved a Coursera campus
deal covering 13 leading universities in Morocco reaching 80,000 students across the country starting with
Université Hassan II de Casablanca.
Next, we are only in the beginning stages of our degree business and looking forward to growing the number of
students in our current programs, while increasing the number of degree programs offered on the platform. The
expansion of our program catalog includes the types of degrees offered bachelors and masters, a greater variety
of subject matters as well as programs for more regions.
And finally, we will continue to scale the Coursera platform investing in growing our registered learner base,
increasing our network of educator partners and the content credentials and expanding our reach into more
countries and for more learners around the world.
And now I'd like to turn it over to Ken. Ken? .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Kenneth R. Hahn Chief Financial Officer, Coursera, Inc.
Thanks, Jeff, and good afternoon, everyone. We are pleased to report strong results in our June quarter. In Q2,
we generated total revenue of $102.1 million, which was up 38% from a year ago on consistent strength across all
three of our business segments. This growth was on top of the 61% year-over-year growth delivered in the year
ago quarter which was our first full quarter impact from the COVID-19 pandemic. So we grew quite well over a
tough comp.
As Jeff mentioned, we've witnessed a global trend of learners, educators and institutions looking to Coursera to
provide the job relevant skills required to compete in a post-pandemic digital economy. And given our broad
catalog of world-class branded content and credentials, we're able to meet their needs whatever the stage of their
learning journey.
Please note that for the remainder of the call, I'll discuss key operational metrics as well as non-GAAP financial
metrics excluding pro forma adjustments unless otherwise noted. These non-GAAP adjustments removes only
stock-based compensation and related payroll tax. Nothing else.
Gross profit was $61.8 million, up 60% from a year ago and 60.6% of revenue, that is gross margin. And that
gross margin percentage was approximately 810 basis points higher than the year ago quarter. As a reminder,
there are two components of our cost of services, the first is our content costs, which various based on the
revenue mix amongst our three businesses as well as the content margin rate within each segment. For example,
our higher margin Enterprise and Degrees segment accounted for 39% of our overall revenue mix in Q2
compared to 32% in the prior year period. This long-term mix shift is key to our structurally expanding margins
over time.
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Additionally, we see changes in the segment content margin rates, which continue to be a positive variance in the
second quarter, particularly for our consumer business. Our consumer segment content margin rate increased
from 54% in the prior year to 66% this quarter as learners consumed a larger proportion of content with lower than
average content cost. The second component of our cost of services is our non-content cost, margins for which
were roughly flat on a year-over-year basis at 9.6% of total revenue.
Before moving to operating expenses, I'd like to remind you from our last call that we expected a large stock-
based compensation charge associated with restricted stock units, for which amortization began with the
completion of our IPO. This is typical for companies that make the IPO an RSU vesting trigger, which is the now
common practice due to employee tax considerations. As previously mentioned, the non-GAAP income statement
measures that follow, excludes stock-based compensation and related payroll tax. But I didn't want to gloss over
that GAAP expense.
Total operating expense was $68.2 million or 67% of revenue compared to 66% in Q2 of last year. Sales and
marketing expense represented 32% of total revenue, slightly down from a prior 33%. We continue to expect our
overall sales and marketing expense in 2021 to represent a similar percentage of total revenue as in full year
2020.
Research and development expense was 22% of revenue, in line with the year ago period. We expect our overall
R&D expense in 2021 to represent a similar percentage of revenue as this quarter. General and administrative
expenses was 13% of revenue versus 11% in the prior year, given incremental costs associated with being a
public company. We expect this high expense as a percentage of revenue to continue throughout 2021.
Net loss was $6.9 million or 6.8% of revenue and our adjusted EBITDA loss was $2.9 million or 2.8% of revenue.
This is a very strong quarter for EBITDA margin. But importantly, I want to remind you of our consistent
messaging on this metric and how we're managing the business. In a brief time as a public company and
consistent with our operating framework before the IPO, we plan to deliver annual EBITDA margin improvement
over the long-term.
As you'll hear shortly in our outlook discussion, we continue to see 2021 as an investment year, and our [ph] four
(00:25:58) EBITDA guidance reflects this focus. We intend to invest our strong performance this quarter over the
remainder of the year to one, pave the way for future growth initiatives; and two, secure leadership in our large
and rapidly evolving markets. This includes growing our learner base and customer base, expanding our
partnerships and content offerings and delivering new innovation on our platform. We believe that deepening our
competitive moats and further defining our leadership position utilizing the strategic advantages, Jeff, articulated
is the right answer for the benefit of all our constituents.
That overarching comment made though, we plan to demonstrate scale and increased leverage over time, once
again targeting ongoing improving EBITDA margins on an annual basis. Free cash flow with the use of $8.5
million compared to $8.3 million provided a year ago.
Turning to the balance sheet, we ended Q2 in a strong cash position. As of June 30, we had over $800 million of
unrestricted cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities with no debt. And combined with the strong
performance in the business this allows us to invest confidently in our future.
Now, let me get into more detail on each of the business segments starting with Consumer. Consumer revenue
was $62 million, up 23% from the prior year. In particular, we saw a strong demand from our career-oriented
professional certificates targeted at entry level digital jobs and as Jeff highlighted earlier, we continue to expand
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on these offerings with new and existing industry partners, building a wider portfolio of products aimed at the
global reskilling opportunity. Additionally, we're seeing increased adoption of Coursera Plus following the general
availability of a monthly payment option for the subscription offering.
Segment gross profit was $40.7 million or 66% of consumer revenue, as we benefited from a lower content costs
rate during the quarter. In addition to its financial contribution, our consumer business is a strategic asset serving
as a top of funnel source for our enterprise and degree segments. And we added another 5 million new registered
learners during the quarter for a total base of 87 million as of June 30th.
Next is Enterprise. Enterprise revenue was $28.2 million, up 69% from a year ago on a combination of strong
renewals and growth in new customers. All three of our Enterprise customer categories, business, governments,
and campuses saw strong growth. The total number of paid enterprise customers increased to 584, up 109% from
a year ago. And our net retention rate for paid enterprise customers was 114%. Segment gross profit was $19
million or 67% of Enterprise revenue, which was slightly lower on a percentage basis from the prior period due to
a large mix of indirect customers utilizing the Coursera platform in Q2 a year ago.
And lastly, our Degrees segment. Degrees revenue was $11.9 million, up 78% on scaling of prior cohorts and
newly launched programs. Our total number of degree students reached 14,630, up 81% from a year ago.
Segment gross margin was 100% of Degrees revenue. Students pay tuition directly to the university and the
university pays us a fee based on the tuition amount. So there's no content cost attributable to the Degrees
segment.
Now, on to our financial outlook. As a reminder, we have fairly good visibility into revenue on a quarterly basis in
both our Enterprise and Degrees segments. So significant variance to expectations is most likely to occur in our
Consumer segment. Additionally, the Consumer segment is where we can experience seasonality. For example,
last year, we saw a lower Q4 following a strong Q3. For the upcoming third quarter, we're expecting revenue to be
in the range of $105 million to $109 million. This represents a growth rate of 29% compared to last year and the
midpoint of the range versus Q3 of 2020.
For adjusted EBITDA, we're expecting a loss in the range of $7.5 million to $10.5 million which translates to an
adjusted EBITDA margin of negative 8.4% at the midpoint. Four full year 2021, we anticipate revenue to be in the
range of $402 million to $410 million, representing approximately 38% growth compared to last year at the
midpoint of the range.
As Jeff discussed earlier, this reflects a sustained structural demand we're seeing for online learning as
businesses, governments and individuals seek the skills required to compete in today's economy. And for
adjusted EBITDA, we're expecting a loss of $38 million to $44 million or an adjusted EBITDA margin of negative
10.1% at the midpoint. This outlook for full-year 2021 reflects ongoing investments in personnel-related costs,
sales and marketing, product development, and general and administrative costs associated with being a public
company.
As a reminder, we do not optimize performance for any single quarter and we'll strategically invest for the long-
term sustainability of our business. In 2020, this included substantial investments in our fourth quarter. We
manage our business on an annual cadence for expenses and adjusted EBITDA. And as I said earlier, we intend
to demonstrate scale and the leverage over time as our business grows.
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Before Jeff's closing comments, I want to leave you with three important reminders about our long-term
framework. First, our freemium model, global scale, and singular unified platform, allows us to attract new
registered learners at low acquisition costs that support our high margin businesses.
Second, we expect to have clear forward visibility on our top line in the years ahead as our mix of revenue
evolves, particularly our Degrees business which naturally and predictably builds over time.
Third and finally, in addition to our rapid growth, we expect ongoing structural gross margin expansion over the
long-term, driven by revenue mix shift and our scaling platform. We see an enormous opportunity ahead of us.
The impact of the pandemic was not temporary. It has accelerated both the pace of change and automation, while
amplifying the importance of digital skills and tools. This is a permanent acceleration and shift requiring people to
regularly enhance their human capital through life-long learning.
With our unique assets and scalable platform model, we're well-positioned to capture this growth while addressing
the global need for high-quality education and collaboration with our partners.
And with that, I'll turn it back to Jeff. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc.
Thanks, Ken. As a public benefit corporation, we have a legal duty to balance shareholder needs with the needs
of society more broadly. And at Coursera, we embrace this responsibility wholeheartedly. So, before we open the
call for questions, I want to share one most encouraging insights coming out of our Coursera Global Skills Report.
The dual impact of the pandemic and automation have disproportionately impacted women. Globally, women are
more affected by job losses than men and the total employment loss for women stands at 5% in 2020 versus
3.9% for men.
And in the US, despite an exodus of women from the labor market amidst the pandemic, there was also a sign of
hope. Our data show that women are now pursuing online education on Coursera at a higher rate than pre
pandemic. The share of overall Coursera course enrollments in the US from women increased from 42% in 2018
and 2019 to 55% in 2020. And the share of STEM course enrollments for women often the foundation for digital
jobs grew from 35% to 47% within the same timeframe.
I believe we're seeing the benefits of a foundational shift in adult education with learners using the flexibility
provided by the pandemic and the self-guided pace of online learning to reskill and upskill individual jobs that
provides greater career opportunities, resilience, and future advancement.
Coursera was founded with the goal of helping to serve humanity and to move humanity forward, and it is stories
like these that inspire our team members to work so hard every day and attract leading universities and
companies to join us in this mission.
And with that, let's get to Q&A. Could you please introduce the first question? Thanks.
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QUESTION AND ANSWER SECTION
Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question coming from the line of Stephen Sheldon with
William Blair. Your line is open. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Stephen Sheldon Analyst, William Blair & Co. LLC Q Hey, thanks for taking my questions and really impressive results here. One of the financial metrics that really
stands out this quarter is the gross margin in the Consumer segment. I believe this was the first time it surpassed
60%, and it blew past that level. So, you talked about [ph] some of it, (00:36:33) but how should we think about
the factors driving that between the source of content being consumed with I'd assume a benefit from more
corporate versus university content being utilized and the impact of the subscription plan? Just any detail there
and the potential sustainability of Consumer gross margins at this level as you think about the next few years? .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A Great. Thanks, Stephen. Yeah, this is Jeff. So, yeah, we definitely saw some strong performance in Consumer,
especially with the segment margin there. And as Ken said, it's basically a lower content cost on some of the
content and that content mostly is the professional certificates from industry partners has had a disproportional
uptake as people – some people are calling it the great resignation.
A lot of people thinking about switching careers and thinking about how do I get myself into a new digital career?
It turns out that a lot of the content that our industry partners have been putting on is really relevant to those job –
the career switchers who maybe don't have a college degree. And often, the industry partners for various reasons
have decided that the content costs would be a little bit lower. So it's mostly a mix shift associated with the
educator partners.
In terms of the persistence, it's really kind of hard to say. It depends on how many people are coming, consuming
the content and from which educator partner the content is created. We're at this point when we think about our
planning internally, we are not going to build in the persistent effect of this margin expansion that we see in
Consumer. But at the same time, if the factors that have driven Q2 continue to persist in terms of people looking
for this kind of content and consuming this content the way they have been, there's no reason that it should not
persist. But we're not kind of counting this. It's pretty early days. And frankly, this was not something that we were
anticipating in Q1. So we'll just sort of see how this plays out. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Stephen Sheldon Analyst, William Blair & Co. LLC Q Got it. Makes sense. As a follow-up, it seems like you have more flexibility to strategically reinvest than you had
originally planned, the strong traction you've seen across businesses. So can you just give any more detail about
where you might be ramping investments more than you had assumed when you last provided guidance? .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A Yeah. I mean, my honest story as the CEO is just you really want to be thinking about first where the growth
opportunity is. Second, what is the confidence, magnitude, and immediacy are there any potential growth that you
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get from an expenditure, and then whether it's recurring or not, because obviously, recurring is a cost that's a little
bit hard to adjust.
So, I do think we have a wider growth opportunities, generally speaking. And we typically look at things at a three-
year kind of perspective. And on a three-year perspective, things aren't changing that much, so we're mostly
going to be investing right along the lines and what we've talked about. We're really investing in our enterprise
sales force, investing in product improvements, investing in helping degree partners come on board and all that
kind of stuff.
So, I don't think that you should expect any major difference in where we allocate the money, we might do it at a
slightly quicker pace. But again, we want to make sure that we don't outpace the growth that we're seeing on the
top line. And so we're going to kind of take it quarter-by-quarter. But as Ken said, try to hit some targets on an
annual basis from both revenue growth and expanded adjusted EBITDA margin. But no substantial differences in
the way that we're planning to allocate our growth investments. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Stephen Sheldon Analyst, William Blair & Co. LLC Q Great. Thank you. And congrats on the results. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A Yeah. Thanks, Stephen. Appreciate it. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Kenneth R. Hahn Chief Financial Officer, Coursera, Inc. A Thank you, Stephen. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Operator: Our next question is coming from the line of Tom Singlehurst with Citi. Your line is open. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Thomas A. Singlehurst Analyst, Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. Q Good evening. Yes, Tom here from Citi. Thanks very much for taking my questions. Maybe just some on the
Consumer growth. I mean obviously a fabulous number both year-on-year and sequential. I'm just wondering
whether alongside the professional significant impact that you highlighted, whether there was any sort of notable
impact in international from ongoing lockdowns that might have sort of given us this temporary benefit as
consumers or learners has stuck at home with less [ph] to do out (00:41:01)? That was the first question. I've got
a follow up if that's okay. Thank you. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A Yeah. So, on that one, Tom, if you look at where the traffic is coming from and you look at the conversion rates
and you therefore look at some of the revenue coming in, it does not seem to be disproportionally associated with
other countries are going through successive waves of lockdown. And even as the US is now looking at a
successive wave, I mean, the Delta variant is obviously a bit different than the variants – the strains that were out
earlier. We think that it is less of an international thing than it is kind of a digital job reskilling thing.
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And plus, part of it too is a growing portfolio. I mean the size of these professional certificate portfolios a year ago
was, I don't know, maybe two or three. It's now, I think, at 14. And we continue to get lots of interest from other
industry partners wanting to build these entry-level on-ramps to new digital careers. But I would say, it's not really
attributed to international. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Thomas A. Singlehurst Analyst, Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. Q That's very clear. And the second question actually linked to that is, I mean, historically, you've talked about
roughly 1% maybe slightly over of course learners sort of becoming paying users in any particular period. I'm just
interested whether this is the supernormal growth is a function of the number of paying users going up or just the
amount paid by users going up. Does that make any sense? So, is the delta a bigger number of learners paying
or just – [ph] is it that your (00:42:44) learners paying a lot more? .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A It's a combination. I mean, as we grow this portfolio, I think, there's something to meet more people's needs. IBM
has a cybersecurity analyst professional certificate. Intuit just put out a bookkeeping professional certificate.
Salesforce just put out a sales operations specialist certificate. So there's a growing – if you will, a growing
number of career opportunities that you can skill for on the Coursera platform. I think that's appealing to a wider
audience.
We have been seeing a bit more sort of higher conversion rates than historically into these, so there's a little bit of
a conversion, a bump that we're seeing. And as Ken mentioned on the Coursera Plus, similar retention numbers
are looking pretty good too. So, it's a combination of factor. And Ken, would you add anything to that answer? .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Kenneth R. Hahn Chief Financial Officer, Coursera, Inc. A No. Nothing to add. That was quite thorough. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A Yeah. It's not a price increase. I'll tell you that. It's not that people are paying a higher price for what they're
consuming. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Kenneth R. Hahn Chief Financial Officer, Coursera, Inc. A Yes. It's not a price increase and it's not a surge in international. It's better conversion, as you stated. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Thomas A. Singlehurst Analyst, Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. Q That's it. Well, listen, thank you very much and congratulations on the results. Really appreciate it. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A Thank you, Tom. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
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Kenneth R. Hahn Chief Financial Officer, Coursera, Inc. A Thanks, Tom. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Operator: We have our next question comes from the line of Rishi Jaluria with RBC. Your line is open. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Rishi Jaluria Analyst, RBC Capital Markets LLC Q Thanks. So this is Rishi Jaluria from RBC. Let me only add [indiscernible] (00:44:13) impressive results that you
put up. One of the first maybe ask going back to the government opportunity that you highlighted some of the
deals that you had both domestically and internationally. But longer term, how should we be thinking about the
opportunity with governments, especially federal and state and local here given kind of the accelerated migration
and adoption of digital transformation efforts with those? And then, I've got a follow-up. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A Yeah. I think, that Rishi, it's kind of interesting. I think that our content catalog two years ago, three years ago,
when we sold into Coursera for Government, it didn't have a lot of these entry-level professional certificates don't
require a college degree. And it was mostly like advanced machine learning and much more advanced topics in
data science, computer science, etcetera.
So, I do think in the last 24 months, the relevance and attractiveness of the content to governments looking to get
people employed in new careers has gone up and that's one of the factors. I think another thing that in the US, but
this also true internationally, government training programs have historically not been online. And it was – I think it
was largely the pandemic a lot like universities who had to close their campus and were forced to go online, I
think governments obviously could not do face-to-face training, they were forced to go online. And so, I think,
there's a little bit of a confluence saying – of government saying, hey, you know what, we can get more scale at
lower cost if we do this online which [ph] we've not (00:45:51) tried because we were forced to.
The relevance of the content is pretty high, because these are digital jobs and we're learning digital skills and you
could do that on a digital platform, but I say that we're still in the early stages of adoption. So a lot of governments
tried this during 2020, when we did our Workforce Recovery Initiative, it was a free version of Coursera for
Government, we are getting wins. I think there's a little bit of a difference.
I mentioned the Coursera deal with Morocco, where the Ministry of Education did a deal for the universities in
Morocco. So it's kind of a government-university-institutional collaboration. And what they're trying to do is up
level their entire higher ed system. That will be pretty interesting, because it plays to two of our big strength in
government and in campus.
I think for governments upskilling their own civil service workers, that'll come along and then for basically trying to
get people reemployed again, I think this entry-level certificate portfolio that we're developing with these industry
partners is looking attractive. So I think it's kind of lumpy, it's early days and we think we're pretty well-positioned
and we think that the future will look a lot different than the past in terms of how governments go about this. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Rishi Jaluria Analyst, RBC Capital Markets LLC Q
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Great. That's helpful. Thanks. And then just any comments on changes in the competitive environment, especially
with 2U's acquisition of edX. Just how should we be thinking about that especially given there are also a number
of segments that you're also playing? Thanks. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A Yeah. You know, the competitive environment, I guess there's a few things that sort of well in which region, for
which products and where do we have the advantages. I also think that in the case of 2U and edX, both of those
players were in the market, so now they're one entity before they were two different entities. But it's not really the
introduction of a new entrant.
We are seeing a lot of new entrants. I think everybody kind of knows this, but [ph] DCs (00:47:51) are definitely
funding a lot of ed tech around the world, in China, in India, in Latin America, in the US, etcetera. So, I'd say that
the competitive environment is definitely reflecting the size of the opportunity.
And I think I feel better about our competitive position now than I probably had in the last four years since I've
been here. And we're feeling pretty good. And we do think I kind of keep on saying the same things in the script
about our competitive advantage. But we're a little single minded about this. We have built this three-sided model
over the last four years, it's all organic. We've been really integrating all these pieces so that a benefit in one
segment of our business will basically turn into an advantage in another segment. And those are starting to click
pretty decently.
So I love the model. I think more people will be adopting our kind of a model. And we're pretty well ahead. And I
think that we're – we've designed it in a way that the pieces really reinforce each other. So I'm liking where we are
right now. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Rishi Jaluria Analyst, RBC Capital Markets LLC Q All right. Wonderful. Thank you so much. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A Sure. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Operator: We have our next question coming from the line of Josh Baer with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Josh Baer Analyst, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC Q Awesome. Thanks for the question. A lot of focus on consumer which is definitely was a highlight in the quarter,
but I want to ask one on Degrees. I was hoping you could unpack what's going on in that segment a little bit of the
31 Degrees, any context for how many are fully ramped? And if we look at student growth, is there a way to break
down that enrollment growth coming from new degrees, ramping degrees, or like same-store sales like
enrollment, looking at programs that were in place? .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A
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Yeah. Great. So, thanks for the question, Josh. I'll take a first crack and then turn it over to Ken. So, today, we
have about 31 degrees that have been announced. 16 are live. Last quarter, 16 were live. A year ago, Q2, 12
were live – 20 were announced, 12 were live. So, we've really been building up the pipeline and the
announcements and these degrees are not kind of in production, but many of them are not yet live.
So, to answer your question, a lot of this learner growth is coming from expansion of cohorts in existing programs,
more so than new programs. And even in an existing program, some of it is an expansion of a given cohort, but
over, say, two-year program, you'll actually have new cohort starting for two years until it hits sort of a steady
state. It is more that filling up cohorts and for a given degree program that's already launched, it's getting to sort of
a steady state maturity than it is new students coming in the new programs.
I mean, obviously, the difference between 31 announced and 16 live means that a lot of them are going to be
going live, and then, I think we'll see more of a contribution from new degree programs. But that's not really what's
being reflected in the degree revenue numbers right now.
Ken, your thoughts on that? .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Kenneth R. Hahn Chief Financial Officer, Coursera, Inc. A Yeah. So, I agree generally. We haven't, Josh, released that kind of data on what's fully ramped and what's
contributing. It's a small minority that's fully ramped. So in addition, to take one step further, what Jeff was saying,
there's new ones that are signed have yet to be implemented, and then, as you understand, based on your
question, then you have to ramp all the cohorts until you get to a full two-year degree, a full set of two years of
cohorts. We have not disclosed that. The business is just too early. I do believe we're going to add additional color
going forward, but we're going to wait until the business is a little bit bigger to start creating a lot of that detail. But,
it's a bit more than a handful that are fully ramped. It's very early for our Degrees business. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Josh Baer Analyst, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC Q That's very helpful, even just seeing all the different kind of vectors of growth within the existing programs. And
just as a follow up, just wondering if you're seeing any changes as far as your ability to source students from your
registered learner base, maybe with some of the different geographies becoming more back to normal related to
COVID, and wondering how that ability to find those students might change as you scale? .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A Yeah. I think it's going to be a combination. I think on the one hand, as we develop the registered learner base
[ph] while they're bigger pool deficient (00:52:32). At the same time, as we have a broader set of degrees,
including from different regions, finding a good match between a given learner and a given degree will go up. So, I
think the selection will facilitate acquisition of degree students. And at the same time, I think there will be
continuing competition. I mean, there are definitely more universities putting degrees online, there are other
players.
We really like our model a lot. If you look at the expected – or the percentage of sales and marketing going
towards revenue, it's down a bit on some – kind of some top line growth in Q2, but we're not seeing anything that
suggests at this stage of the game that this model is going to lose the leverage that we've been seeing so far. So,
we think about how many registered learners come from unpaid sources. We think about customer acquisition
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cost per degree students. We look at sales and marketing as a percentage of revenue. All indicators are feeling
good, and we're feeling good about how the model's going so far. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Josh Baer Analyst, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC Q Thank you. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Operator: We have our next question comes from the line of Terry Tillman with Truist. Your line is open. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Joseph Meares Analyst, Truist Securities, Inc. Q Hey, guys. This is Joe Meares on for Terry. Thanks for taking the question. Could you please expand a little bit on
that recent blog post you guys [ph] have on a (00:54:00) North American transaction? .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A Ken or Cam? You said North American transaction? .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Kenneth R. Hahn Chief Financial Officer, Coursera, Inc. A Yeah. Is this a number of customers and the customers we announced in June? .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Joseph Meares Analyst, Truist Securities, Inc. Q I believe so, yeah. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Kenneth R. Hahn Chief Financial Officer, Coursera, Inc. A We should pull it up. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Joseph Meares Analyst, Truist Securities, Inc. Q If that's the [indiscernible] (00:54:25) right now on the call, I could ask another one. It's fine. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A Sure. Go ahead. Cam or Ken, why don't you try to get that back, and then I'll take another question. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Kenneth R. Hahn Chief Financial Officer, Coursera, Inc. A Yeah.
[indiscernible] (00:54:36). .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
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Joseph Meares Analyst, Truist Securities, Inc. Q Yeah. Just had a little bit of follow-up on the Degrees business. Is there anything going on around like seasonality
in the second and the June quarter? I think it was down slightly quarter-to-quarter. So anything specific going on
there or is that just kind of is it more of a lumpy business right now because it's new? .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A Yeah. We definitely see a seasonality in terms of when students are enrolled in the programs and when they're
paying tuition. So in the summer months, sometimes, it lightens up a little bit, and so, this is probably what we're
seeing. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Joseph Meares Analyst, Truist Securities, Inc. Q Great. And then if I could just follow-up with a question about investing in the business. How should we think
about investing for growth going forward versus operating leverage into second half of 2021 and beyond? .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A Yeah. So, Ken, you touched on this a little bit, but you want to take a crack at that? .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Kenneth R. Hahn Chief Financial Officer, Coursera, Inc. A Yeah. Sure. So, I guess, I'd break down the numbers a little bit. If you look at the guidance we gave for the year in
last earnings call, the midpoint of range had a negative 13.1% EBITDA margin, and the new guidance, it's a
negative 10.1%. So, we're definitely dropping some of it to the bottom line. We're not in a hurry to get to
profitability. We're not burning much cash. We think the opportunity is amazing and we have a bunch of
opportunity to invest into these moats into this competitive advantage that we think, again, the more we do that,
the better it's going to be for all of our constituents, certainly, shareholders included, but learners as well with our
success.
So – but, with the outperformance, we can't invest quickly enough quarter to quarter. So, we're seeing some
additional leverage, it's going to drop down. We've committed to increasing profitability on an annual basis from
here on out. And so, it's going to come a little bit sooner, because we've taken another 300 basis points of
EBITDA margin this year for the full year. With everything else, we're trying to invest as quickly as we can for
growth for the future. Does that help? .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Joseph Meares Analyst, Truist Securities, Inc. Q Super helpful. Thanks so much, guys. Appreciate it. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A Sure. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
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Operator: We have our next question coming from the line of Jason Celino with KeyBanc Capital. Your line is
open. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jason Celino Analyst, KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc. Q Great. Thanks, guys for taking my questions. First one, 105 net new enterprise customers quarter-over-quarter,
new high watermark in the net adds perspective. It's the second quarter in a row of acceleration for the Enterprise
segment. How much of the strength is from, maybe some of the sales investments that you made at the end of
2020 versus just the overall uptick in skilling trends? .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A Yeah. Jason, thanks for the question. I would – I think the number of paid customers is indicative, but certainly not
perfectly reflective of what's really going on. I wouldn't put a ton of emphasis on that, because some of those
might be bigger deals, some of them might be lower deals, smaller dealers, et cetera. But, clearly, the revenue
growth has been pretty decent year-on-year. Enterprise is up 69% Q2 2021 versus last year. Now – so where's
that that revenue growth coming from? It's a combination. Clearly, we are ramping up our sales team around the
world, and as they ramp up, they can go out to market and hit their quotas and all that stuff.
We're also really trying to advance the platform and have products and services for businesses that are really
skills-oriented and for governments that have the right kind of portfolio, and for campuses that include like
academic integrity and plagiarism detection, and sort of functionally that they need. I think it's really the
combination of a greater global appetite for online learning across all three types of institutions, a larger sales
force selling it, and we continue to, I think, improve, not only the product, but our ability to position the product.
So, I feel like we're seeing pretty strong growth on a number of different dimensions, none of which really fully
explains the story. But, I feel like it's pretty balanced and I'm kind of happy with that level of balance. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jason Celino Analyst, KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc. Q Great, great. And then, you mentioned a few country examples, but where are we in terms of international
localization efforts? .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A Still fairly early days. The way that we're really approaching this is, we have a global team because we want to
have one platform and when – obviously, when you want to do things that are localized, you want that to be a set
of configuration, so that the code could support all the different localizations. So, we've created a global team, a
dedicated centralized team that's building localization capabilities and we're working on those capabilities – sorry,
turning those things on in certain regions first. The first region that we're focused on is India.
I mentioned in the script, we're doing a lot on payments, currency wallets, even what form of payment; is it
subscription, is it lump sum, is it installment pay, et cetera. And I think we're at pretty early stages, but it was a
good investment for us to make. I think we're – we think that we're just scratching the surface on some pretty
simple things that when you put different images and different copy, you show different content, show different
credentials, offer different prices in different currencies, you can do a nice job bumping up conversion rates in
different regions. So early days and looking pretty good. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
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Jason Celino Analyst, KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc. Q Excellent. Thank you. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A Sure. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Operator: We have our last question coming from the line of Ryan MacDonald with Needham. Your line is open. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Ryan MacDonald Analyst, Needham & Co. LLC Q Hi. Thanks for taking my question and congrats on amazing quarter. Jeff, you talked a bit earlier on the Degrees
business about sort of the number of announced degrees versus the 16 live today. As we think about the
additional 15 there, can you talk to the cadence and the expected cadence of those going live, are the majority of
these expected to hit sort of in the fall semester here versus 2022? And then as a follow-up to that, how is the
pipeline of online degree programs looking right now as you think about out to 2022? What are you seeing in
terms of mix versus grad versus undergrad or domestic versus international? Thanks. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A Good. All right. Let me see if I can give you a high level helpful answer to that. So in terms of the kind of overall
pipeline of when does an interesting opportunity turn into cohorts of student paying revenues, I would say that
overall, at the top of the funnel, we see continued international interest in universities wanting to move things
online. And not that people are focused on shutting their campuses, but I think they're just realizing, not only is
there a risk to not having online because of the pandemic, the capacity is much greater, the cost can be much
lower, and you can appeal to working professionals.
And so, there's a whole audience that aren't the younger people that can come to campus that you can tap into. I
think a lot of the pandemic has forced universities to go online and others kind of realizing, wow, there's kind of lot
of benefits if we do this. So, we do continue to see really nice broad interest in online, it's kind of a permanent
feature of higher education. And then in terms of how quickly and where might they sign, we continue to build up
our team to do that. We feel good about that. So, we think that's going to bode well for the out years. And then
among those that are announced, which you can see because we announced, and so, that's public information.
And then the ones that are live, you can see those because they're on our website, which is why I'm okay saying
we have 31 announced in 16 months.
Many of those, we did announce quite some time ago. We had 20 announced in Q2. So that's about a year. And
that's a time – although there was a pandemic in there, time to build up those degrees. So, we do expect,
generally speaking, a number of degrees to be going live, and then that will produce, not a lot of revenue this
year, but in 2022 and 2023, as those cohorts start filling up, we think that that will serve us well. So, we definitely
expect a reasonable amount of growth to be existing in our current announced, but not live degrees. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Ryan MacDonald Analyst, Needham & Co. LLC Q Excellent. I'll stop with the four-part one question. Congrats again.
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Jeffrey Nacey Maggioncalda President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Coursera, Inc. A And I have got three of them, at least, Ryan. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Cam Carey Director-Investor Relations, Coursera, Inc.
That wraps the Q&A today. A replay of this webcast will be available on our Investor Relations website along with
the transcript in the next 24 hours. We appreciate you joining us. Thanks. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
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