Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised May 28, 2026

Instructure

Instructure Holdings, 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.

Last revised
May 28, 2026
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≈ 6 min
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Wikipedia ↗
Instructure Holdings, Inc.
Company type
Private
IndustryEducational Technology
Learning Management Systems
Assessment Management Systems
Assessment
Founded2008 (2008)
FounderBrian Whitmer and Devlin Daley
Headquarters
Salt Lake City, Utah
,
United States
Number of locations
7
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • Steve Daly
  • (CEO)
Products
  • Canvas
  • Catalog
  • Studio
  • Portfolium
  • MasteryConnect
  • Videri
  • CASE Benchmarks and Item Bank
  • Navigate Item Bank
  • Academic Benchmarks
  • Certify
  • DataConnect
  • Program Assessment
  • Pathways
  • Canvas for Corporate Education
Revenue$530.2 million (2023)1
Owner
2
Number of employees
1,466 (2022)3
Websiteinstructure.com
Canvas
DeveloperInstructure
Written inRuby on Rails
License
4
Websiteinstructure.com/canvas
Repositorygithub.com/instructure/canvas-lms

Instructure Holdings, 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.

History

The company was founded in 2008 by two BYU graduate students, Brian Whitmer and Devlin Daley.5 Its initial funding came from Mozy founder Josh Coates, who served as Instructure's CEO from 2010 to 2018 and chairman of the board through 2020.6

In December 2010, the Utah Education Network (UEN), a representative of some Utah colleges and universities, announced that Instructure would be replacing Blackboard.7 By 2013, the company's customer base had increased to at least 9 million users.8

In 2011, Instructure launched Canvas, a learning management system.9 The company announced that Canvas would be made freely available under an Affero General Public License (AGPL) license as open-source software. However, the company continued to sell Canvas management as a service.101112 Canvas became available on iOS in 2011, and on Android in 2013.13

In 2015, Instructure launched Bridge, a cloud-based corporate learning management system.14 It was acquired by Learning Technologies Group (LTG) in 2021.15

As of 2015, the company had raised $90 million in funding from investors.16 On November 13, 2015, the firm began trading as a publicly held company on the New York Stock Exchange.17

In 2017, the company acquired Philadelphia-based video learning startup Practice XYZ, formerly known as ApprenNet, and merged the offerings into its own products.1819

In 2020, Thoma Bravo acquired the company for $2 billion.20 As of 2020, Canvas was used in approximately 4,000 institutions worldwide.21 In June 2021, Instructure again filed for an IPO,22 and began trading under the symbol INST.23

In 2024, it was announced that KKR and Dragoneer had completed their $4.8 billion purchase of the company.2

Later in 2024, Instructure announced the acquisition of Parchment, a credential management platform.24

2026 Canvas security breach

In late April 2026, Canvas LMS experienced a security breach, with an outage following in early May.2526The hack is considered the largest educational security breach on record due to its unprecedented global scale, affecting 8,809 universities, educational ministries, and other institutions worldwide.27 Instructure disclosed that it was investigating a cybersecurity attack involving certain user data, including names, email addresses, student ID numbers, and messages amongst users.26 The company claimed it had found no evidence that passwords, birth dates, government IDs, or financial information were involved in the hacking.28 However, other sources indicate that this cybersecurity attack has put 275 million29 students and teachers data at risk.303132

Despite Instructure's claim that the situation had been resolved, on May 7th, Canvas was hacked again; its login page was replaced with a ransomware message by ShinyHunters, the criminal hacking group that claimed responsibility. ShinyHunters threatened to release Canvas's sensitive data unless its ransom was paid by the end of May 12.3334

404 Media stated this was the largest educational security breach ever on record.35 ShinyHunters claimed to have stolen 3.65 terabytes of data (approximately 275 million records).36

By May 8, seven lawsuits in federal courts had been filed against Instructure, including one that also named KKR as a defendant.37 On May 13, a California-specific proposed class action lawsuit was filed by a San Diego resident against Instructure in the Southern District of California, alleging the breach of personally identifiable information.383940

See also

See also

References

References

  1. "Instructure Company Profile". Craft. Archived from the original on September 27, 2019. Retrieved May 7, 2026.
  2. "KKR and Dragoneer complete $4.8bn take-private acquisition of edtech firm Instructure". PE Hub. 14 November 2024. Retrieved 2024-11-21.
  3. "Instructure 2022 Annual Report" (PDF). Retrieved March 6, 2024.
  4. "FAQ". Instructure. May 19, 2020. Archived from the original on December 16, 2017. Retrieved September 14, 2025 – via GitHub.
  5. Kim, Joshua. "An Instructure Canvas LMS Timeline". www.insidehighered.com. Retrieved 2025-03-17.
  6. Neely, Karissa. "Instructure CEO change, Survey shows affordable housing concern, Powerful U Experience event". The Daily Herald. Archived from the original on 31 October 2018. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  7. "New Statewide Learning Management System Selected". UEN News. Utah Education Network. December 14, 2010. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  8. Empson, Rip (November 2012). "With 4.5M Users, Instructure Takes On The Courseras & Udacities Of The World With Its Own Open Course Network". TechCrunch.
  9. Tate, Emily (2018-07-16). "How Canvas came to unseat Blackboard as the leading LMS". EdScoop. Retrieved 2025-03-17.
  10. Michael Arrington (January 31, 2011). "Instructure Launches To Root Blackboard Out Of Universities". TechCrunch.com. Interserve dba TechCrunch. Archived from the original on February 27, 2011. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
  11. Josh Keller (January 31, 2011). "Upstart Course-Management Provider Goes Open Source". Wired Campus. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Archived from the original on February 19, 2011. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
  12. Christopher Dawson (February 1, 2011). "There are alternatives to Blackboard and Moodle: Instructure Canvas goes open source". ZDNet Education. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on February 4, 2011. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
  13. "Instructure Releases Canvas for Android". canvaslms. Archived from the original on 8 February 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  14. Buhr, Sarah (2015-02-18). "On The Way To An IPO, Education Technology Startup Instructure Is Close To Raising A Big New Round". TechCrunch.
  15. "Behind the Deal: Why LTG acquired Bridge". Learning Technologies Group plc. 2021-06-28. Retrieved 2022-08-20.
  16. Locke, Charley (2015-02-24). "Instructure Plots Path to IPO, Corporate Customers After $40M Series E". Edsurge.
  17. Schaffler, Rhonda (2015-11-13). "Instructure IPO Debuts on NYSE With Double-Digit Gain". TheStreet.
  18. "Practice got acquired by Instructure. Here are the details". Technical.ly. November 29, 2017.
  19. "We're Talkin' About Practice: Instructure Acquires Video-Based Learning Platform". Ed Surge. December 2, 2017.
  20. "Instructure files for U.S. IPO after 2020 take-private deal with Thoma Bravo". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2023-04-24. Retrieved 2025-03-17.
  21. "Why Colleges and Universities Are Adopting Canvas". eLearningInside News. 2018-10-24. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  22. Bamforth, Emily (28 June 2021). "Instructure, creator of Canvas, files for initial public offering". edscoop.com. Scoop News Group. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  23. Saleh Rauf, David (4 July 2021). "Another Education Company Goes Public: Instructure IPO Gives Ed-Tech Firm $2.9 Billion Valuation". marketbrief.edweek.org. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  24. "KKR to take edu-tech firm Instructure private for $4.8 billion". Reuters. July 25, 2024.
  25. Kaleem, Jaweed (2026-05-08). "Massive Canvas data breach hits colleges across California and nation, crippling student work". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2026-05-08.
  26. "Security incident update & FAQs". Instructure. Archived from the original on 2026-05-08. Retrieved 2026-05-09.
  27. Kurt Knutsson, CyberGuy Report (2026-05-10). "School app Canvas breach hits during finals". Fox News. Retrieved 2026-05-18.
  28. "Canvas data breach leaves education providers scrambling as student data compromised". ABC News. May 7, 2026. Retrieved May 7, 2026.
  29. "Instructure Canvas Breach: ShinyHunters Stole 275 Million Student Records — Twice". compliancehub.wiki. 2026-05-07. Retrieved 2026-05-18.
  30. Langreo, Lauraine; Prothero, Arianna (2026-05-08). "A Cyberattack on Canvas Could Cause Lasting Aftershocks for Schools". Education Week. ISSN 0277-4232. Retrieved 2026-05-18.
  31. Kurt Knutsson, CyberGuy Report (2026-05-10). "School app Canvas breach hits during finals". Fox News. Retrieved 2026-05-18.
  32. Treisman, Rachel (2026-05-08). "Canvas is back online, but questions — and final exam disruptions — linger". NPR. Retrieved 2026-05-18.
  33. Hollingsworth, Heather (May 7, 2026). "Cyberattack hits Canvas system used by thousands of schools as finals loom". Associated Press. Retrieved May 7, 2026.
  34. Halbleib, Brady (May 7, 2026). "Sacramento State caught in nationwide cyberattack targeting online learning platform". CBS Sacramento. Retrieved May 7, 2026.
  35. Koebler, Jason (8 May 2026). "'The Biggest Student Data Privacy Disaster in History': Canvas Hack Shows the Danger of Centralized EdTech". 404 Media.
  36. Mousqueton, Julien. "Victim: Instructure Holdings, Inc. (Canvas LMS, instructure.com) – shinyhunters". Ransomware.live. Retrieved 2026-05-09.
  37. Umanah, Ufonobong (2026-05-08). "KKR, Instructure Sued After Canvas EdTech Tool Data Breach (1)". Bloomberg Law. Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 2026-05-16.
  38. Potterhandy. "Instructure Data Breach Lawsuit". Potter Handy, LLP. Retrieved 2026-05-15.
  39. Service • •, City News (2026-05-13). "Lawsuit filed in San Diego vs. Canvas developer following cyberattack". NBC 7 San Diego. Retrieved 2026-05-15.
  40. "Instructure Data Breach Confirmed, Attorneys Investigating". www.classaction.org. 2026-05-05. Retrieved 2026-05-15.
External links