Nuseir Yassin, the Facebook megastar who rose to fame for creating 1,000, minute-long videos under the moniker Nas Daily, has raised $11 million in funding for Nas Academy — a one-year-old, Masterclass-like venture featuring various courses taught by digital creators.
The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and marks the first time that Yassin, who serves as CEO of Nas Academy, has opted to take venture money in five years, he shared in a Twitter thread.
The round also featured participation from TechAviv, entrepreneurs and angel investors Ritesh Agarwal and Balaji Srinivasan, 500 Startups, FreshFund, Metapurse, Ellie Wurtman from Pico, Graphy Ventures, Ride Ventures, influencer Markian Benhamou, Coinbase president Emilie Choi, Jellysmack co-founders Michael Philippe, Robin Sabban, and Swann Maizil, and Instagram marketing exec Jon Youshaei. (Agarwal and Markain teach courses on Nas Academy in entrepreneurship and comedy, respectively).
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In a blog post, Yassin — a former software engineer who now counts 43 million followers across all platforms and distributes content in 14 languages — writes that Nas Academy has been profitable since day one, and generated over $2 million for its first five creator-teachers.
He adds that Nas Academy’s overarching mission is to develop CreatorTech, or technology that empowers digital creators, though the company is launching in the online education space. Nas Academy harnesses cohort-based learning to place 100 students in groups for live sessions, WhatsApp chats, and alumni circles. Courses range in price from $29 for How To Crush It On Facebook, taught by Yassin himself, to $499 for a Creator Mastercourse.
“We believe creators can decentralize education like no other and replace traditional education,” Yassin explains. “We believe people are a lot more inspired to learn from people who actually do than from people who never tried.”
Yassin isn’t the only digital creator to close an eight-figure funding round in recent weeks. YouTube travel vloggers the Bucket List Family just raised $10 million to establish a next-generation animation studio.
