Instructure Pitch Deck (2017): 28-Slide Breakdown

Instructure’s 2017 deck is a high-transparency document likely used for post-IPO investor relations or late-stage growth rounds, given the depth of the financial disclosures. The narrative centers on the successful scaling of their core product, Canvas, across three distinct verticals—Higher Ed, K-12, and International—while introducing 'Bridge' to capture the corporate performance management market. The deck excels at proving 'visibility' through deferred revenue and backlog metrics, which grew to $76M and $213M respectively by late 2016. While the company remained net-loss-making during thi…

Key takeaways

• The company identifies a total market opportunity of $14.2 billion by 2018, split between Learning Management ($7.8B) and Performance Management ($6.4B) on slide 7.
• Growth is visualized as a step-function, moving from Higher Ed in 2011 to K-12 in 2012, International in 2014, and the Bridge product in 2015 as shown on slide 10.
• Financial visibility is a core theme, with deferred revenue growing from $32M in 2014 to $76M in 2016 on slide 16.
• The deck reports a massive backlog of $213M in future non-cancellable amounts to be invoiced as of December 31, 2016, on slide 16.
• Management uses a 'whimsical' photo style for the team slide, featuring costumes and props, while highlighting serious pedigrees from EMC, Microsoft, and GE on slide 13.
• Net Revenue Retention is explicitly stated as being greater than 100% on slide 22, indicating strong expansion within the existing customer base.
• Quarterly revenue grew from $13.7M in Q4 2014 to $31.5M in Q4 2016, representing a consistent upward trajectory on slide 25.
• Despite revenue growth, the company operated at a net loss of $10.0M in Q4 2016, with Sales and Marketing expenses accounting for 54% of revenue on slide 25.

Frequently asked questions

What is the primary product mentioned in the Instructure deck?

The primary product suite is Canvas, which is segmented into Canvas Higher Ed, Canvas K-12, and Canvas International. The deck also introduces Bridge, a product aimed at the corporate market for performance management, workforce management, and recruiting. This multi-product strategy is central to their argument for an expanded Total Addressable Market (TAM) reaching over $14 billion.

How does Instructure demonstrate its financial health despite being unprofitable?

Instructure focuses on 'visibility' and 'unit economics.' On slide 16, they show a rapidly growing backlog of $213M and deferred revenue of $76M. On slide 19, they use a conceptual LTV graph to show that while customer acquisition costs (CAC) create an initial dip, the long-term 'Cumulative Contribution' is significantly positive due to high retention and multi-year contracts.

What markets is Instructure targeting beyond traditional schools?

According to slide 7, Instructure is moving into the $6.4 billion 'Performance Management' market. This includes workforce management, recruiting, and compensation management. This shift is represented by their 'Bridge' product, which is the newest layer in their growth strategy timeline shown on slide 10.

What are the key investment highlights the company emphasizes?

On slide 22, the company lists six pillars: rapid customer adoption, substantial market opportunity, a native cloud-based platform, focus on user experience, solid revenue growth, and enhanced visibility through multi-year contracts. Notably, they highlight a Net Revenue Retention rate of over 100%, which is a gold-standard metric for SaaS companies.

How does the management team present themselves in this deck?

The management team uses a highly unconventional 'fun' photo style on slide 13. For example, the CEO is shown with a blowtorch and goggles, and the SVP of General Counsel wears Mickey Mouse ears. This is likely intended to signal a unique corporate culture, though it is balanced by a list of high-tier former employers like Mozy, Ernst & Young, and Microsoft.

Instructure pitch deck: the facts

Company

Instructure

Year

2017

Stage

Late Stage / Public

Slides

28

Sector

EdTech / SaaS

Deck type

Investor Relations / Growth

Outcome

Public Company (NYSE: INST at the time)

Headquarters

Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Instructure pitch deck PDF

The full Instructure deck is embedded on this page and can be read slide by slide in the browser — no download or account required. Each slide is covered in the breakdown above.

What the Instructure pitch deck was used for

This deck is Instructure’s February 13, 2017 investor presentation, used as a late-stage/public-company investor deck roughly 15 months after its November 2015 IPO on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker INST. It presents Instructure’s strategy as a cloud-based learning management platform expanding from higher education into K-12 and corporate training via its Canvas and Bridge products, highlighting market expansion and financial performance to public-market and institutional investors. The deck emphasizes the company’s view of a large total addressable market in education and enterprise learning, along with forward-looking statements about growth and competitive positioning, consistent with standard public-company investor communications in 2017.

Business model: Instructure provides a cloud-based learning management platform, including Canvas for the education market and Bridge for the corporate market, enabling customers to develop, deliver, and manage online and face-to-face learning experiences.

Lead investor

Insight Venture Partners led the $40 million Series E pre-IPO round in February 2015.

Investors

Insight Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, EPIC Ventures, OpenView Venture Partners

Founded

2008

Founders

Brian Whitmer, Devlin Daley

Headquarters

Salt Lake City, Utah, United States

Industry

Educational technology (EdTech) / SaaS learning management systems

Round: Late stage / public company investor presentation following Instructure’s 2015 IPO.

Year: 2015 for the referenced Series E pre-IPO round; the deck itself dates from 2017 as a public-company investor presentation.

Raising: The 2017 investor deck was used as a public-company investor presentation rather than a private fundraise, following Instructure’s November 2015 IPO.

Raised: Instructure raised approximately $90 million in total venture funding prior to its IPO, including a $30 million Series D round in June 2013 and a $40 million Series E pre-IPO round in February 2015.

Total funding: Instructure raised approximately $90 million in venture funding prior to its IPO, including a $30 million Series D in June 2013 and a $40 million pre-IPO Series E round in February 2015.

Use of funds as presented: The February 2015 $40 million Series E round was described as financing the launch of Bridge, Instructure’s corporate learning and engagement platform, while continuing investment in Canvas for higher education and K-12 markets.

What happened after the Instructure deck

By the time of the 2017 investor deck, Instructure was operating as a public EdTech SaaS company with a cloud-based learning platform, having raised approximately $90 million in venture capital, completed an $81 million IPO in 2015, and reached a reported $1 billion market capitalization in 2017 while continuing to grow revenue and operate at a net loss.

• Instructure completed its initial public offering on November 13, 2015, listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the
• By 2015, the company’s revenues had grown from $8.8 million in 2012 to $44.4 million in 2014, according to its IPO-relat
• In February 2015, prior to the IPO, Instructure raised a $40 million Series E pre-IPO round led by Insight Venture Partn
• Instructure reported net losses of $49.8 million, $53.6 million, and $53.0 million for 2017, 2016, and 2015 respectively
• Instructure’s corporate history notes that it reached a $1 billion market capitalization in 2017.

What the Instructure deck got right

• Compelling market expansion story across education and enterprise. The deck showcases a clear expansion narrative from higher education into K-12 and corporate learning, leveraging Canvas and Bridge to address a broad learning ecosystem and support a large total addressable market story.
• Credible growth trajectory supported by historical financials. As a public-company investor deck, it is grounded in a business already operating at scale, with documented revenue growth from $8.8 million in 2012 to $44.4 million in 2014 and continued growth into the public-company period, lending credibility to its growth claims.
• Strong product-market fit and brand recognition in LMS. The deck benefits from Instructure’s established brand and product traction, particularly Canvas’s adoption by higher education and K-12 institutions and Bridge’s positioning in corporate learning, which are supported by prior funding rounds and customer reach disclosures.
• Regulatory-compliant framing with clear forward-looking disclosure. Explicit disclosure of forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures aligns the deck with regulatory expectations for public companies and signals disciplined investor communication.
• Market validation through $1B+ market capitalization milestone. By 2017, Instructure highlighted that it had reached a $1 billion market capitalization, reinforcing the deck’s message of market validation and investor confidence in its long-term opportunity.
• Coherent narrative from startup to public SaaS platform. The deck leverages Instructure’s history—founding in 2008, Canvas’s 2011 launch, Bridge’s 2015 introduction, and the 2015 IPO—to build a coherent narrative from startup to established public SaaS platform.

What could have been stronger

• Limited visibility into profitability and unit economics. The deck (as described) focuses heavily on market expansion and a large total addressable market but available context does not indicate that it provides detailed breakdowns of customer acquisition costs, unit economics, or path to profitability, which are important for evaluating a public SaaS company that reported ongoing net losses around this time.
• Insufficient competitive and retention detail. While the deck highlights expansion from higher education into K-12 and corporate training, the available information does not show granular disclosure of churn, contract lengths, or competitive win rates against other LMS providers, making it harder for investors to rigorously assess sustainability of growth across segments.
• Heavy reliance on non-GAAP framing without visible reconciliation. The inclusion of a standard forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures slide signals that the deck relies on non-GAAP metrics, but the partial OCR provided does not show reconciliations or definitions, which can limit transparency for investors trying to reconcile non-GAAP presentations with reported GAAP financials.

How an investor would read this deck

What draws attention

• How Canvas and Bridge together create a defensible platform spanning higher education, K-12, and corporate learning, and whether that breadth supports durable competitive advantage in the LMS market.
• The pace of revenue growth versus persistent net losses reported around 2015–2017 and how management framed the trajectory toward improved operating leverage.
• The credibility of the claimed large total addressable market in education and corporate learning, and how much of that TAM is realistically serviceable for a company at Instructure’s then scale.
• The impact of prior venture funding and the 2015 IPO on capital needs, and whether the 2017 outlook implied further capital raises or self-funded growth.

Risks that stand out

• Continued net losses and significant sales-and-marketing investments around the 2015–2017 period indicate execution risk in achieving profitable scale despite strong revenue growth.
• Competition from other established LMS vendors in higher education, K-12, and corporate training could pressure pricing and limit market-share gains, especially as Instructure expanded beyond its original higher-education stronghold.
• Reliance on subscription revenue from institutional and enterprise customers exposes Instructure to budget cycles in education and macroeconomic conditions affecting corporate training spend.

Questions this deck invites

• How did Instructure’s 2017 investor deck quantify and segment its total addressable market across higher education, K-12, and corporate learning, and what third-party data or internal assumptions underpinned those TAM estimates?
• What non-GAAP financial metrics (such as adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP operating margin, or billings) did Instructure emphasize in the deck, and how did those metrics reconcile to GAAP results reported in its 2017 filings?
• How did management describe churn, renewal rates, and upsell performance for Canvas and Bridge across higher education, K-12, and enterprise customers, and how did those figures compare to LMS peers?
• What evidence did the deck provide of Bridge gaining traction in the corporate market beyond initial reference customers, and how material was Bridge to total revenue at the time?
• How did Instructure characterize competitive dynamics with other major LMS platforms and what concrete data (e.g., RFP win/loss statistics, market share studies) did it include, if any?

What founders can take from the Instructure deck

• A late-stage/public-company investor deck can effectively use a narrative of **market expansion**—in this case, from higher education into K-12 and corporate learning—to frame a much larger total addressable market and justify continued growth investments.
• Positioning multiple products (Canvas and Bridge) as parts of a unified learning ecosystem helps articulate a broader platform story that resonates with both education and enterprise investors.
• Including a clear forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures slide, as Instructure does, is critical for public-company decks that rely on future-oriented guidance and adjusted financial metrics.
• Showing the evolution from venture-backed private company to IPO and onwards (with disclosed prior funding and IPO history) can reassure investors about capital structure and the company’s experience operating under public-market scrutiny.
• Anchoring product and market claims in historical facts—such as Canvas’s 2011 launch, Bridge’s 2015 introduction, and Instructure’s 2008 founding—provides a credible backbone for the growth story in an investor deck.
• Explicitly addressing multiple customer segments (higher ed, K-12, and corporate) allows a SaaS company to show diversified revenue opportunities, but also underscores the importance of explaining segment-level performance and strategy in the deck.

Instructure pitch deck: common questions

What does Instructure do?

Instructure is an educational technology company that develops cloud-based learning management platforms, best known for its Canvas LMS used by higher education and K-12 institutions, and its Bridge platform aimed at corporate learning and employee engagement.

When and by whom was Instructure founded?

Instructure was founded in 2008 in Utah by Brian Whitmer and Devlin Daley, who set out to build a modern learning management system that could compete with incumbent LMS products.

When did Instructure go public and under what ticker?

Instructure went public on November 13, 2015, listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol INST and raising roughly $81 million in its IPO.

How much funding did Instructure raise before going public and who invested?

Prior to its IPO, Instructure raised approximately $90 million in venture capital, including a $30 million Series D round in June 2013 and a $40 million Series E pre-IPO round in February 2015 led by Insight Venture Partners with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners and EPIC Ventures.

Which markets did Instructure target in its 2017 investor deck?

The 2017 investor deck positions Instructure’s Canvas and Bridge platforms as serving higher education, K-12, and corporate learning markets, describing an expansion from its original higher-education focus into K-12 school districts and enterprise customers, which contributes to a large estimated total addressable market.

Sources

Funding and outcome facts on this page were researched on 2026-08-22 from the pages below.

• Instructure IPO Info
• Instructure Inc., Creator of Canvas LMS, Goes Public
• Instructure
• Instructure Secures $40 Million in a Pre-IPO Series E Round
• Instructure – $81 Million IPO // Cooley // Global Law Firm
• Company Overview & Key Facts
• Instructure Inc., Known for Canvas LMS, Plans to Go Public
• Instructure

Instructure pitch deck slides

What each slide of the Instructure pitch deck says

Slide 2

FORWARDING LOOKING STATEMENTS & NON-GAAP MEASURES INSTRUCTURE This presentation and the accompanying oral commentary contain "forward-looking" statements, within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are based on our beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to us. Forward-looking statements include information concerning our possible or assumed future results of operations and financial performance, business strategies, potential growth opportunities and the effects of competition. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts and can be identified by terms such as "…

Slide 5

THE INSTRUCTURE STORY INSTRUCTURE I Recuring (2016 ~88%) 1% I Octerred Revenue [7 Non-recuring (2016 ~12%) $1109M Backlog Tg $289M N 65% DU $73.2m $204M 1 70% 1 $145M $44.4M som 261M s113M -. | $6.4 Billion 2013 2014 2015 2016 2013 2014 2015 2016 ® Headquartered in Salt Lake City with 900+ employees worldwide ® >100% retention revenue Offices in London, Sydney, Hong Kong, Brazil ® >2,000 customers in 40 countries’ ® Flagship products Canvas & Bridge Q) 92% Customer Support Satisfaction @ 100% native cloud As of December 31, 2016

Slide 6

BUILDING SUPERIOR SOFTWARE THAT INSTRUCTURE MEETS EVOLVING CONSUMER DEMAND nN a 13 FR $y mA -® da AA Consumerized Collaborative ald Mobile Engaging EEE” EE

Slide text above is read directly from the Instructure deck PDF embedded on this page.

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