Online open course provider Udacity has raised $105 million in Series D round of funding led by German media group Bertelsmann along with Baillie Gifford, Emerson Collective and Google Ventures joining as new investors, reports Vccircle. Udacity's existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Charles River Ventures and Drive Capital also participated in the funding as a part of which Kay Krafft, Bertelsmann CEO will join Udacity’s board. Founded in 2012 by Sebastian ThrunDavid Stavens and Michael Sokolsky, Udacity provides specialised online courses in software and other vocations through its nanodegree programs (which it introduced last year). The company claims to have trained about 11,000 students from 168 countries last year. Forbes reports that Udacity partnered with Facebook, Cisco and Google to provide individual courses. It adds that Udacity is growing at 30% month on month and is profitable. Google's nanodegrees: In September, Google announced IT degrees called Android Nanodegrees and scholarships in partnership with Udacity and Tata Trusts. As part of the move, Udacity planned to open new offices across India, expand its team and increase partnerships with Indian companies. So far, its seven nanondegrees for front-end Web developer, Android developer, data analyst, iOS developer, intro to programming, full stack developer and tech entrepreneur were free of cost, available worldwide and accepted by IT companies such as Google and Salesforce. Other developments in online education and MOOCs - In August, Times Internet entered into a strategic partnership with Coursera, a massive open online courses (MOOCs) company, to ‘assist Coursera’s growth in India’. Times Internet…
