Instructure
Instructure Holdings, Inc. is an educational technology company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It is the developer and publisher of Canvas, a web-based learning management system (LMS).
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| NYSE: INST | |
| Industry | Educational Technology Learning Management Systems Assessment Management Systems Assessment |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Founder | Brian Whitmer and Devlin Daley |
| Headquarters | Salt Lake City, Utah , United States |
Number of locations | 7 |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
|
| Products | Canvas, Catalog, Studio, Portfolium, MasteryConnect, Videri, CASE Benchmarks and Item Bank, Navigate Item Bank, Academic Benchmarks, Certify, DataConnect, Program Assessment, Pathways, Canvas for Corporate Education |
| Revenue | $475.2 million (2022)[1] |
Number of employees | 1,466 (2022)[2] |
| Website | instructure.com |
| Canvas | |
|---|---|
| Developer | Instructure |
| Written in | Ruby on Rails |
| License | Core AGPLv3, Some official plugins proprietary[3] |
| Website | https://www.instructure.com/canvas |
Instructure Holdings, Inc. is an educational technology company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It is the developer and publisher of Canvas, a web-based learning management system (LMS).
History
[edit]The company was founded in 2008 by two BYU graduate students, Brian Whitmer and Devlin Daley.[4] Its initial funding came from Mozy founder Josh Coates, who served as Instructure's CEO from 2010 to 2018 and chairman of the board through 2020.[5]
In December 2010, the Utah Education Network (UEN), a representative of a number of Utah colleges and universities, announced that Instructure would be replacing Blackboard.[6] By 2013, the company's customer base had increased to 9 million users.[7]
In 2011, Instructure launched Canvas, a learning management system.[8] The company announced that Canvas would be made freely available under an Affero General Public License (AGPL) license as open-source software.[9][10][11] As of 2025, the core of Canvas was AGPL-licensed and installable, but several commonly-used Infrastructure-plugins were proprietary, making Canvas open-core.[3] Canvas became available on iOS in 2011, and on Android in 2013.[12] As of 2020, Canvas was used in approximately 4,000 institutions worldwide.[13]
In 2015, Instructure launched Bridge, a cloud-based corporate learning management system.[14] It was acquired by Learning Technologies Group (LTG) in 2021.[15]
As of 2015, the company had raised $90 million in funding from investors.[16] On November 13, 2015, the firm began trading as a publicly held company on the New York Stock Exchange.[17]
In 2017, the company acquired Philadelphia based video learning startup Practice XYZ, formerly known as ApprenNet and merged the offerings into its own products.[18][19]
In 2020, Thoma Bravo acquired the company for $2 billion.[20] In June 2021, Instructure again filed for an IPO,[21] and began trading under the symbol INST.[22]
In 2024, it was announced that KKR and Dragoneer had completed their purchase of the company for $4.8 billion.[23]
In 2024, Instructure announced the acquisition of Parchment, a credential management platform.[24]
On July 23, 2025, OpenAI and Instructure announced a global partnership to bring AI tools inside the Canvas LMS.[25]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Instructure Company Profile". Craft. Retrieved September 8, 2023.
- ^ "Instructure 2022 Annual Report" (PDF). Retrieved March 6, 2024.
- ^ a b "FAQ". Instructure. May 19, 2020 – via GitHub.
- ^ Kim, Joshua. "An Instructure Canvas LMS Timeline". www.insidehighered.com. Retrieved 2025-03-17.
- ^ Neely, Karissa. "Instructure CEO change, Survey shows affordable housing concern, Powerful U Experience event". The Daily Herald. Archived from the original on 31 October 2018. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
- ^ "New Statewide Learning Management System Selected". UEN News. Utah Education Network. December 14, 2010. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
- ^ Empson, Rip (November 2012). "With 4.5M Users, Instructure Takes On The Courseras & Udacities Of The World With Its Own Open Course Network". TechCrunch.
- ^ Tate, Emily (2018-07-16). "How Canvas came to unseat Blackboard as the leading LMS". EdScoop. Retrieved 2025-03-17.
- ^ Michael Arrington (January 31, 2011). "Instructure Launches To Root Blackboard Out Of Universities". TechCrunch.com. Interserve dba TechCrunch. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
- ^ Josh Keller (January 31, 2011). "Upstart Course-Management Provider Goes Open Source". Wired Campus. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
- ^ Christopher Dawson (February 1, 2011). "There are alternatives to Blackboard and Moodle: Instructure Canvas goes open source". ZDNet Education. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on February 4, 2011. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
- ^ "Instructure Releases Canvas for Android". canvaslms. Archived from the original on 8 February 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
- ^ "Why Colleges and Universities Are Adopting Canvas". eLearningInside News. 2018-10-24. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
- ^ Buhr, Sarah (2015-02-18). "On The Way To An IPO, Education Technology Startup Instructure Is Close To Raising A Big New Round". TechCrunch.
- ^ "Behind the Deal: Why LTG acquired Bridge". Learning Technologies Group plc. 2021-06-28. Retrieved 2022-08-20.
- ^ Locke, Charley (2015-02-24). "Instructure Plots Path to IPO, Corporate Customers After $40M Series E". Edsurge.
- ^ Schaffler, Rhonda (2015-11-13). "Instructure IPO Debuts on NYSE With Double-Digit Gain". TheStreet.
- ^ "Practice got acquired by Instructure. Here are the details". Technical.ly. November 29, 2017.
- ^ "We're Talkin' About Practice: Instructure Acquires Video-Based Learning Platform". Ed Surge. December 2, 2017.
- ^ "Instructure files for U.S. IPO after 2020 take-private deal with Thoma Bravo". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2023-04-24. Retrieved 2025-03-17.
- ^ Bamforth, Emily (28 June 2021). "Instructure, creator of Canvas, files for initial public offering". edscoop.com. Scoop News Group. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
- ^ Saleh Rauf, David (4 July 2021). "Another Education Company Goes Public: Instructure IPO Gives Ed-Tech Firm $2.9 Billion Valuation". marketbrief.edweek.org. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
- ^ "KKR and Dragoneer complete $4.8bn take-private acquisition of edtech firm Instructure". PE Hub. 14 November 2024. Retrieved 2024-11-21.
- ^ "KKR to take edu-tech firm Instructure private for $4.8 billion". Reuters. July 25, 2024.
- ^ Ravaglia, Ray. "Instructure And OpenAI Harness The Power Of AI To Transform Learning". Forbes. Retrieved 2025-07-25.