CourseHorse

CourseHorse is an online listing and booking platform containing a searchable database of classes within New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Forbes included the company on their list of Most Promising Companies in 2014.

History

CourseHorse was founded in April 2011 by New York University graduates Katie Kapler and Nihal Parthasarathi. The idea to create a digital class listing in New York City won the co-founders $75,000 in the 8-month long New Venture Competition at NYU’s Stern School. The company operated out of the NYU Berkley Center for the first year. By August 2011, the platform contained 500 courses from almost 150 schools.

By October 2012, the company had raised $500,000 in seed funding round by group of investors including New York Angels, NYC Seed, and Brian Cohen. They expanded to Los Angeles through a partnership with Time Out Magazine, who ran their platform on their website. They offered more than 20,000 recreational classes, workshops, and semester-long courses from 500 providers.

In 2013, revenue grew 700% to $2 million and Forbes Magazine ranked them as #73 on their 2014 list of Most Promising Companies.

In February 2014, the company announced a $1.3 million Series A funding that included Learn Capital and individual investors such as Scott Banister and Charlie Cheever. Al Jazeera America reported that the company is valued at $12 million.