Udemy is an extensive, multilingual, online learning platform with over 100,00 courses on a wide variety of topics. Its aim is accessible and quality education for all.
Each Udemy course contains lectures, which can include videos, slides, and text, and these courses are created, owned, and managed by the instructor(s). Furthermore, courses can also feature additional resources and activities to further enhance the learning experience for the students.
The founder and current Chief Technology Officer of Udemy is Eren Bali. Raised in a small village in Turkey, Bali had limited opportunities when it came to expanding his education; however, that all changed when he got a computer. Through his computer and by using the internet, he was able to achieve his dream of competing in mathematics, resulting in a silver medal win in the International Math Olympiad.
As online learning played a significant impact in his life, Bali decided to partner with co-founders Gagan Biyani and Oktay Caglar in 2019 to build a platform that would allow anyone to learn anything, regardless of where they were. The beginnings of Udemy were not exactly the smoothest, as online learning and teaching platforms were not as common at the time, making it difficult to find investors to support their project.
In order to get funding, Bali, Biyani, and Caglar had to develop the website further with more courses in order to show its potential. By offering a better environment than their competitor MOOCs, the founders were able to secure investments and grow Udemy into what it is today–a popular online learning and teaching platform with a net value of almost $1.5 billion.
From small beginnings to great accomplishments, the drive, passion, and adaptability that Bali, Biyani, and Caglar had is what allowed them to successfully create and maintain Udemy to this day. By creating a platform that provides accessible and affordable education, Bali is trying to give others what he did not have in his youth.
References
About Udemy
Exploding Topics | 56 Fast-Growing Edtech Companies & Startups (2024)
Learning With Udemy: Frequently Asked Questions
Medium | Udemy’s Journey
Eren Bali represents a compelling model of mission-driven entrepreneurship. Bali’s personal motivation to increase access to education gives this venture deep purpose, which is often a critical success factor for startups in the EdTech space. Their early struggles to find investors and build out the platform in a skeptical market demonstrate resilience and strategic thinking. Rather than chasing hype, they focused on building real value and learner demand.
Rating: 4/5
Your post made me think about how disruptive Udemy’s model was when it first launched. Many educational platforms focus on giving learners access to content, but Udemy also changed who could create and share knowledge. By allowing individuals to design and publish their own courses, the platform challenged the idea that expertise must come from traditional educational institutions.
This raises an interesting question about educational technology and entrepreneurship. Bali’s innovation was not simply creating another online learning platform; it was creating a marketplace where instructors and learners could connect directly. That approach significantly expanded access to learning, but it also introduced ongoing questions about quality, credibility, and how learners evaluate expertise.
Looking back, do you think Udemy’s greatest contribution was increasing access to learning opportunities, or redefining who gets to participate as an educator?
It’s interesting that not long after this was posted (Dec. 2025) Udemy was acquired by Coursera. Udemy had its first ever profitable quarter around the time this was posted (Q2-2025) and Coursera just after (Q3-2025). We’ll see if combined they can reach ongoing profitability. I’m always amazed (though I know I shouldn’t be) how much harder it is to make money selling people what they need (e.g education) than what they want.
As an avid user of the Udemy platform, it was interesting to learn a little bit more about the founder.
Eren’s story to Udemy is so special because it embodies the kind of teaching his website represents. Watching the video behind this founder I can feel the inspiration that brought him to develop Udemy and this makes me even more positive about the company.
Though Udemy sits in a competitive space, I think that inspired leaders like Eren have what it takes to keep the platform relevant into the future.