Udemy is one of the world’s largest online learning platforms, hosting over 200,000 courses in 75+ languages. But like most tech giants, its path to a $4 billion public valuation was paved by venture capital (VC). This article explores how Udemy leveraged VC funding, who its key investors were, and where the company stands today. The Founding: No Initial VC Needed Udemy was founded in 2010 by Eren Bali (a Turkish software engineer), Gagan Biyani , and Oktay Caglar . Bali originally built the platform as a side project to democratize education—allowing anyone to teach or take a course.