type public traded as nasdaq twou founded 2008 headquarters landover maryland usa number of locations landover new york los angeles chapel hill hong kong area served global key people chip paucek ceo susan cates coo catherine graham cfo james kenigsberg cto harsha mokkarala cmo services education technology focusing on postgraduate education including course development admissions services student and faculty support prospective student marketing number of employees 900 july 2015 website www.2u.com 2u formerly 2tor inc. is an educational technology company that partners with leading nonprofit colleges and universities to offer online degree programs . 1 2 3 4 the company supplies its partner universities with a cloud based software as a service platform coupled with a suite of technology enabled services including coursework design infrastructural support and capital to deliver instruction to students . 2u was founded in 2008 by john katzman founder of the princeton review . co founders include chip paucek former ceo of hooked on phonics and jeremy johnson ; paucek remains with the company as ceo . in may 2012 forbes named 2u as one of the 10 start ups changing the world . 5 in 2014 inc. magazine named 2u one of 10 tech companies helping humanity . 6 the company went public on march 28 2014 and raised 119 million by offering 9.2 million shares at 13 per share . 7 2u is traded on nasdaq under the ticker symbol twou . prior to its ipo the company was venture backed and raised 96 million . investors included bessemer venture partners highland capital partners redpoint ventures novak biddle venture partners city light capital svb capital and westriver capital . 8 business model 2u is not a traditional for profit education company because it does not confer or offer any degrees . 9 2u provides its university partners with cloud based software as a service solutions to create online degree programs that feature live video classes as well as a socially inclined online learning platform that allows for close interaction between students and professors . the approach which the company refers to as no back row also includes a focus on student outcomes with small class sizes career services and field placements . this approach has led to a student retention rate of 84 percent . 10 students pay standard tuition but instead of going to class once a week they meet in a live video chat room with the professor and the other students . 11 2u signs long term contracts averaging between 10 15 years in length with each of its partner universities . contracts include a revenue sharing agreement between 2u and the school . 12 course content is also enhanced for mobile devices . 13 2u s semester online consortium of undergraduate universities included boston college brandeis university emory university northwestern the university of melbourne trinity college of dublin university of north carolina at chapel hill university of notre dame wake forest university and washington university in st. louis . 14 the consortium was initially marketed as a platform for top tier universities to offer online courses to paying students at participating universities . the company announced in april 2014 that semester online would end in the summer of 2014 . 15 references edit 2tor gets 10m credit line washington business journal . bizjournals.com . 2012 04 18 . retrieved 2012 05 03 . alyson shontell provided by 2012 04 18 . there are a million education startups and no one to acquire them . sfgate.com . retrieved 2012 05 03 . heather r. huhman 2012 04 11 . the future of education how 2tor is helping america s great universities go online business insider . articles.businessinsider.com . retrieved 2012 05 03 . bolshaw liz 2012 04 16 . out of sight but not out of mind in the virtual world . ft.com . retrieved 2012 05 03 . pozin ilya . 10 startups changing the world and what we can learn from them . forbes.com . kerpen dave . 10 tech companies helping humanity . inc.com . flook bill . 2u goes public rings opening bell on nasdaq . baltimore business journal . online higher education gets a raise as 2tor secures 26 m. in series d funding round . betabeat . 2012 . what s ahead for 2u . fool.com . motley fool . retrieved 2014 11 19 . lapowsky issie . the future of online education is on campus . inc.com . retrieved 19 november 2014 . burke adrienne . 97 500 for an online degree 2u is worth it say students . forbes.com . retrieved 19 november 2014 . ipo preview 2u . seeking alpha . retrieved 19 november 2014 . greenberg molly . 2u releases mobile apps making it easier for students to access online course content . inthecapital.com . retrieved 19 november 2014 . universities . 2u inc. retrieved 24 september 2013 . straumsheim carl 3 april 2014 . 2u ends semester online . inside higher ed . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title 2u company & oldid 736049581 categories online educationeducational softwareeducation companies of the united stateslearning management systemscompanies listed on nasdaq navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 24 august 2016 at 20 33 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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