Herbst Kinsky has advised GoStudent on its Series C financing round of EUR 205 million. The valuation of the company underlying the round exceeds EUR 1.4 billion. With the internationally renowned investors DST Global (lead investor), Softbank, Dragoneer and Tencent a handful of the world’s largest and most renowned venture capitalists are joining GoStudent. In addition, existing investors Left Lane Capital, DN Capital and Coatue have also participated in the financing round. 

GoStudent has thus successfully completed Series A, B and C rounds in just over a year. The speed of the financing rounds and the rapid development of the valuation towards a Unicorn (i.e. a company with a valuation of over EUR 1 billion) is so far unique in Austrian start-up history. 

Founded in 2016, GoStudent is a start-up that has developed a learning platform for the delivery of online tutoring. The tutoring is held live in a virtual classroom and booked in a subscription package. In recent months GoStudent has expanded its team to more than 500 employees and twelve offices and launched new locations amongst others in Madrid, Athens, Istanbul and Amsterdam. By the end of 2021 the company plans to be active in more than 20 countries worldwide and expand its team to more than 1,000 employees and over 10,000 tutors. 

Lead investor DST Global is especially known for its investments in Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Snapchat, Airbnb and Spotify.

Florian Steinhart, Partner at Herbst Kinsky: “Hyper-growth at its best. We are of course happy to be on board with GoStudent since the very beginning and to be able to witness this outstanding development in every respect. The investor setup is also unique by Austrian standards and confirms the global interest in this exceptionally successful start-up.“

The Herbst Kinsky team was led on this transaction by partner Florian Steinhart (M&A/Venture Capital). Further team members were attorney Felix Kernbichler (M&A/Venture Capital) as well as associates Magdalena Wagner (M&A/Venture Capital), Beatrice Blümel (IP/IT) and Christoph Ludvik (Labor Law).