Skillshare
Headquarters
New York City, NYFounded
2010CEO / Founder
Paul SlavinEmployees
201-500Funding
Series D+ — $108MProducts
1 product listedAvg. AI Score
7.4/10Website
www.skillshare.com/
Profile updated
About Skillshare
Skillshare is an online learning platform founded in November 2010 by Michael Karnjanaprakorn and Malcolm Ong and headquartered in New York City. The company provides subscription-based access to thousands of short, project-based video classes across creative disciplines including illustration, graphic design, photography, video production, and freelancing. As of 2021, the platform hosted more than 35,000 courses taught by practitioners and industry professionals.
Skillshare operates on a subscription model that gives members unlimited access to its full course library, a structure it adopted in March 2014. The platform targets both hobbyists and working professionals seeking to develop creative skills, with each class structured around hands-on assignments. By May 2016, the platform had grown to 5 million users.
The company has raised approximately $108 million in total funding across more than 11 rounds, including a $66 million investment in August 2020. Paul Slavin was appointed CEO in August 2025. Skillshare competes in the broader e-learning market alongside Udemy, Coursera, and LinkedIn Learning.
Specialties
Financials
Dated, source-cited figures. Estimates are marked.
Products by Skillshare
All products by Skillshare reviewed by our AI panel of experts.
How Our Review Panel Scores Skillshare
Six independent reviewer personalities assessed Skillshare's product on their own terms. They disagreed by 1.0 points — The Skeptic was the hardest to convince, The Domain Strategist the most positive.
Averaged across 1 reviewed product in our catalog. Scores are out of 10.
Competitive Landscape
Who Skillshare competes with, and how they differ.
MasterClass targets mass-market lifelong learners with cinematic, celebrity-taught single classes on broad topics, sold as an all-access annual subscription, versus Skillshare's larger catalog of shorter, project-based classes taught by working professionals rather than celebrities.
1 product reviewed on TopReviewedDomestika is a Spain-based creative-education marketplace focused exclusively on illustration, design, photography and craft, sold mainly as individual paid courses (plus an optional Domestika Plus subscription) rather than Skillshare's all-you-can-watch subscription, and skews toward a global Spanish/Portuguese-speaking creative audience.
Udemy is a much larger open marketplace spanning every subject, not just creative skills, that sells courses individually rather than via subscription, competing on breadth and one-time price rather than Skillshare's curated, all-access community model.
1 product reviewed on TopReviewed
Coursera centers on university- and industry-partnered courses, professional certificates and degrees aimed at career credentialing, a more academic, credential-driven proposition than Skillshare's practical, non-accredited creative and freelance-skills classes.
1 product reviewed on TopReviewed
Treehouse is a subscription video-course library focused on software development and tech careers rather than Skillshare's creative-arts focus, competing on the same monthly-subscription model but for a different skill category.
1 product reviewed on TopReviewedCompany Timeline
Key milestones in Skillshare's history, with sources.
- Milestone
Paul Slavin named Chief Executive Officer
Skillshare appointed Paul Slavin, a former senior ABC News executive, as CEO effective immediately, succeeding Matt Cooper who had served as CEO for more than eight years.
businesswire.com - Acquisition
Acquires Superpeer creator-tooling assets
Skillshare completed the acquisition of Superpeer's technology and key assets, adding creator monetization tools (1-on-1s, live streaming, digital products) to its marketplace.
prnewswire.com - Funding
Series D — $66M led by OMERS Growth Equity
Skillshare raised $66 million in Series D funding led by OMERS Growth Equity, with prior investors Union Square Ventures, Amasia, Burda Principal Investments and Spero Ventures participating; the company had raised $42M in equity prior to this round.
prnewswire.com - Funding
Series C — $28M ($20M equity + $8M venture debt)
Skillshare closed $28 million in new financing ($20M equity, $8M venture debt), led by Union Square Ventures with Burda Principal Investments joining existing investors Amasia and Spero Ventures.
prnewswire.com - Milestone
Matt Cooper becomes CEO
Matt Cooper became CEO of Skillshare in 2017, later leading the company's 2020 brand relaunch and Series D raise before departing in August 2025.
techcrunch.com - Funding
Series B — $12M co-led by Amasia and Omidyar Network
Skillshare raised a $12 million Series B co-led by Amasia and Omidyar Network, joined by existing investors Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital, bringing total capital raised to $22 million.
techcrunch.com - Funding
Series A — $3.1M led by Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital
Skillshare raised $3.1 million in a Series A round led by Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital, following an earlier $550,000 seed round from Founder Collective and SV Angel.
businessinsider.com - Founded
Skillshare founded in New York City
Michael Karnjanaprakorn and Malcolm Ong founded Skillshare in New York City in November 2010; the site went live in April 2011.
en.wikipedia.org
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