Today, we announced a round of funding to further our advancement into music and to launch our second vertical – tutoring – starting with San Diego tutors and Austin tutors.
I’ve been asked why we chose tutoring. We see it as a complimentary market to music.
- Fragmented, yet large market
- Tutors would rather do what they love vs. do administration and paperwork
- Market is underserved by technology
- We can now offer a new service to an existing student customer
- Fits within our expertise of what we do
- Allows us to leverage our online platform, so we can deliver a great experience either in person or online
- Recurring revenue
So, I’m happy to announce a new chapter in the TakeLessons’ history book. We look forward to helping more and more instructors make a living doing what they love.
Press release below:
TakeLessons Closes $4 Million Venture Capital Financing. Announces Launch of New Tutoring Vertical.
SAN DIEGO, CALIF, January 29, 2013 – TakeLessons (http://www.takelessons.com), the largest online service marketplace for music lessons in the U.S., today announced that it has completed a $4 million round of venture capital financing, bringing the total investment into the company to over $12 million. Triangle Peak Partners of Palo Alto led the round with participation from Siemer Ventures and existing investors Crosslink Capital and SoftTech VC.
Steven Cox, TakeLessons’ Founder and CEO said, “this new investment will aid our continued growth and leadership in the music space and will fuel our platform expansion into new marketplaces, including tutoring and the other performing arts.”
TakeLessons has paid out over $10,000,000 to music teachers who are serving students in over 3,000 cities. The rapid growth has recently been driven by TakeLessons’ Online Lesson platform, which enables more flexible scheduling and eliminates geographic constraints.
In addition to music education expansion, TakeLessons announced the launch of its new tutoring marketplace in San Diego this month and will serve Austin, Las Vegas, Sacramento and Denver by the end of Q1.
The funds from this round will be invested in product development to deliver an improved lesson experience for teachers and students and to pave the way for horizontal expansion into new markets. Karen Baumbach, VP of Finance and Alan Cole, Chief Revenue Officer, recently joined TakeLessons to support the company’s aggressive growth targets.
“We’re committed to helping teachers make a living doing what they love to do,” remarked Cole. “This funding will support investment in our tools that allow private instructors to acquire and retain the best students.”
About TakeLessons
TakeLessons, the largest online service marketplace for music lessons in the U.S., has been connecting music students with the best local music teachers since 2006. The company provides convenient, safe, affordable and fun music lessons to students of all ages. A pioneer in the online services space, TakeLessons also equips teachers with web-based scheduling, billing and communication tools. For more information and to find the best local teachers, interested parties should visit www.takelessons.com
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