Chegg Provides a Textbook Solution for Students
By Azam on December 17, 2008 
Chegg.com offers a rental solution for student textbook raised $25M round lead by KCPB and Foundation Capital. Chegg textbook rental business model is proving to be a sound model in similar manner as Netflix. The average college student, they say, spends $900 per year on textbooks. Chegg saves them 70-80% of that by renting them the books instead of selling them outright.
From VentureBeat
The company says it saved students from more than 4,000 universities about $16 million this year. When I remember the huge dent college textbooks left in my budget, and how many of my friends scoured the internet for good deals, it’s no surprise that the Chegg is taking off, since it claims to save students between 65 and 85 percent on their textbook bills.
The company also says it pays to plant one tree for every book that’s rented; Chegg has now funded more than 150 city blocks of trees.
Netflix-for-textbooks model seems obvious, and CEO Osman Rashid says he expects competition to emerge soon. But Chegg has a first mover advantage lead, and will be using the new round of funding to improve the service, though Rashid won’t reveal anything specific about what those improvements will involve. He says he isn’t worried as much about competition, but rather, “Are we doing all the things we need to be doing [to scale the business]?”
Chegg previously raised $2.2 million. Existing investors Gabriel Venture Partners and Primera Capital also participated in the new round.
Reading List
TechCrunch Textbook Rentals Big Business
VentureBeat TextBook site Chegg.com raises $25M from KPCB
Categories : Media & Ads, TechTags : Chegg, Foundation Capital, Gabriel Venture, KCPB, NetFlix, Osman Rashid, Primera, Textbook rental