Skills startup A Cloud Guru sells to Pluralsight on $2 billion valuation after just five years

US tech workforce development venture Pluralsight will acquire online learning startup A Cloud Guru in a deal believed to be worth $2 billion.

The sale is likely to be one of the biggest in local tech for the 5-year-old London-based startup. A Cloud Guru was originally built in a month in a Melbourne bedroom before a shift to a London base as the business went global. The acquisition is expected to close later this year, following regulatory approval.

A Cloud Guru is used by more than 2.5 million people across 4,500 organisations globally to learn how to use cloud platforms and generates more than A$116 million in revenue.

In 2019 A Cloud Guru raised US$33 million (A$47m) from US and local investors, including Summit Partners and Airtree Ventures. That deal came two years after the startup raised a US$7 million (A$9m) in a series A led by Boston-based VC fund Elephant Venture Capital.

Utah-based Pluralsight was recently acquired by US private equity company Vista Equity Partners.

Pluralsight co-founder and CEO Aaron Skonnard said the technology skills in a business determines its success or failure.

“To meet the needs of our customers and best support their cloud transformations, we are determined to deliver the most comprehensive solution for driving cloud maturity at scale,” he said.

“With the acquisition of A Cloud Guru, we can now provide an all-in-one solution to accelerate the cloud skill development journey for large enterprise customers and individual learners.”

A Cloud Guru co-founder and CEO Sam Kroonenburg said the two companies solve the same problem: “closing the technology skills gap by democratising access to technical education” yet taken different but complementary approaches.

“Both approaches have proven to resonate strongly with customers who want depth and breadth in tech education,” he said.

“I am excited by the next phase of our mission in which, together, we will build the next-generation platform for hands-on learning across all of technology.