Education tech startup Instructure has raised $40 million

Instructure, the Salt Lake company providing cloud services to educators, has raised a $40 million round from a group of investors led by Insight Venture Partners, Business Insider has learned.

Other investors in the round include OpenView Venture Partners, based in Massachusetts, and EPIC Ventures, a Utah investor. The $40 million round brings the total capital behind Instructure to about $90 million, and, according to a source, Instructure will use its new round to push the company toward an IPO.

Earlier, TechCrunch reported the news, without specifying the size of the round or the investors.

With the new round, Instructure will launch Bridge, a source said, a cloud-based corporate learning platform. Moving into the enterprise market signifies the pursuit of a new vertical for the company.

Instructure has built its Canvas learning management system since 2011, attracting 18 million students and teachers across more than 1,200 institutions.

Instructure's primary competition is Blackboard, which was acquired by private equity Providence Equity Partners in a $1.64 billion deal in 2011.

The company did not respond to a request for comment.