2U IPO Imminent: Cloud Video Platform Empowers Online Education

Online education is a red-hot field, with startups offering online courses announcing million-dollar investments almost every few weeks. Finally, the capital market is about to welcome the initial public offering of 2U Ltd. (Ticker: NASDAQ: TWOU).

According to the filing documents, 2U will offer 8 million new shares and 1.175 million existing shares, with a total post-offering share count of 39.13 million. At $12 per share, the net proceeds after deducting underwriting fees are $85.8 million. The raised funds will be used for R&D, platform promotion, and sales expenses to attract more students to join clients' online education programs.

Founded in 2008, 2U has developed an online learning platform that enables schools to complete the entire process of delivering course education to students based on cloud computing and SaaS (Software as a Service). Using the 2U platform, schools can provide real-time, high-quality courses to more students without lowering admission standards, with an average of 10 students per class. Students who complete online courses receive credits or degrees equivalent to on-campus students and bear the same costs. The advantage is that online students do not need to leave their local area, quit their jobs, abandon their families, or sever their existing community ties to complete their studies.

The company's direct clients are non-profit educational institutions such as universities and colleges, with whom they operate online degree programs. 2U does not engage in actual university education content or authorize degrees, but it provides tools for universities to develop courses, focusing solely on the technology platform segment of the online education industry chain. This includes initial student screening, helping partner universities design and deliver interactive content, and providing a Learning Management System (LMS) and technical support. The company also assists in arranging offline practical activities, organizing seminars and career management programs for students, helping with resumes and mock interviews, and providing partner universities with real data and in-depth analysis on student classroom performance, engagement, professor satisfaction, and enrollment numbers.

The boom in online education has led to increasing demand from online educators for network video platforms. Issues such as the security of instructional videos, the development of video platform features, and the interactivity between the video platform and online learners are gaining more and more attention.

POLYV is a cloud video platform based on cloud computing and SaaS. It not only employs the most secure video encryption technology in China but also provides powerful instructional video features for education clients. Additionally, it has uniquely developed functions such as a courseware player, a classroom Q&A player, and a student information collector.

POLYV has been dedicated to building the top-tier cloud video platform in China, providing the highest quality video service platform for domestic online education.