Canvas Network
Instructure, 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), and MasteryConnect, an assessment management system. The company is owned by private-equity firm Thoma Bravo. Founded in 2008 by two BYU graduate students, Brian Whitmer and Devlin Daley, Instructure's 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, as well as from Epic Ventures. In December 2010, the Utah Education Network (UEN), which represents a number of Utah colleges and universities, announced that Instructure would be replacing Blackboard. By January 2013, Instructure's platform was in-use by more than 300 colleges, universities, and K-12 districts; the company's customer base had increased to 9 million users by the end of 2013. In February 2011, Instructure announced they were making their flagship product, Canvas, freely available under an Affero General Public License (AGPL) license as open-source software, a move which garnered press coverage due to its threat to then market leader Blackboard. As of 2020, while the core Canvas remains open-source, according to its GitHub frequently asked questions (FAQ), some Canvas functions and add-ons are proprietary. In June 2013, Instructure secured 50 million. In February 2015, Instructure raised another 90 million. CEO Josh Coates described Series E as "a pre-IPO round." On November 13, 2015, the firm began trading as a publicly held company on the New York Stock Exchange. In 2016, Glassdoor placed the firm at 4th place on its 'Best Places to Work' list. In 2018, the Salt Lake Tribune named Instructure its No. 6 'Top Work Places' for large businesses. In December 2019, Instructure announced that Thoma Bravo would acquire the company for $2 billion.