Was there a real market for a European MOOC platform?

Yes, but the addressable market was smaller than hoped. European learners enrolled in MOOCs largely wanted access to top American universities, not regional alternatives. The multilingual angle had appeal but language localisation proved expensive and the audience fragmented across multiple language communities rather than coalescing into a large platform.

How did MOOCs generally perform as a business model?

Even Coursera and edX struggled for years to monetise. The free course model that drove initial adoption was incompatible with sustainable business economics. Most MOOC platforms eventually converged on professional certificates, corporate training, or degree programmes — markets where Iversity's smaller scale was a significant disadvantage.

What happened to Iversity's course content after shutdown?

Holtzbrinck transferred Iversity's course catalogue to partner universities and some content was made available through other open educational resource repositories. The platform infrastructure was shut down completely in 2019.

← All autopsies

// HALL OF FLAME · STARTUP AUTOPSY

Founded	2011
Closed	2019
Country	Germany
Sector	Edtech
Total raised	7
Collapse type	Silent Shutdown
Founder	Jonas Liepmann, Simon Roderus

Iversity

"Europe's leading MOOC platform that could never escape the shadow of Coursera and edX"

$7M

RAISED

—

EMPLOYEES

MONTHS

competitionSilent Shutdown

Quiet closure with no public announcement

// Fatal mistake: Iversity competed on prestige against Coursera and edX without a defensible differentiation that justified why European learners would choose a regional platform over access to globally recognised universities.

Key Events Timeline

2011-01

FOUNDING

Iversity founded

2015-06

PIVOT

Strategic pivot under pressure

2019-06

SHUTDOWN

Silent Shutdown: Iversity ceases operations

🔥 Hall of Flame 25%🏆 Hall of Fame 28%

Iversity launched in Germany in 2011 as Europe's answer to the MOOC revolution triggered by Stanford's open courses and the subsequent launches of Coursera and edX.

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More Edtech →More from Germany →More competition failures →Raised: 7

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