Instructure went public twice in six years. It first listed in 2015. Thoma Bravo bought it for $2 billion in 2020, then sold shares to the public again in July 2021. In between, the pandemic sent every school online at once. Canvas, Instructure's learning system, was where many of them landed. Students turned in work there and teachers posted grades. By the end of 2020, Canvas had 30 million contracted users and more than 6,000 school and college customers.

Two Grad Students in Utah

Brian Whitmer and Devlin Daley were graduate students at Brigham Young University when they founded Instructure in 2008. Their product, Canvas, ran in the cloud and let schools plug in other education apps. The bet was that colleges would switch learning systems if teachers and students liked the tool. Instructure grew from Salt Lake City. By its second IPO, it served colleges and K-12 districts in more than 90 countries.

Thoma Bravo, Then KKR

Instructure first listed on the NYSE in November 2015. Thoma Bravo took it private in March 2020. The second IPO priced at $20 a share in July 2021 under the ticker INST, and the stock rose about 5 percent on its first day. In November 2024 KKR and Dragoneer bought the company for $23.60 a share, about $4.8 billion. In 2026 hackers breached Canvas, and Instructure faced lawsuits.

Cover: The Music Lesson, Gerard ter Borch the Younger. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a lesson between teacher and student.