Codecademy raises $30M to teach the world to code

by Taylor Majewski
July 12, 2016

With over 16 million registered users to date, online coding school Codecademy is bringing digital skills to the masses—for free.

Today, the company announced it has raised a $30 million Series C round led by Naspers through its Naspers Ventures division. The company is planning on using the new financing to grow the company’s product, build out its team, develop its mobile presence and expand globally.

“Since we founded Codecademy in 2011, we have seen an explosion of interest in learning to code as a key component of a 21st century education,” said Zach Sims, CEO of Codecademy, in a statement. “With millions of monthly users, and more than 50 percent of those outside the US, there is a great opportunity in partnering with Naspers to expand our business to deliver a wider breadth of courses in more languages and new geographies to create an education that allows anyone to access economic opportunity.”

With an emphasis on accessibility, Codecademy allows users to code from anywhere with an internet connection. When you sign up, the platform prompts you to create a “path,” which is essentially a customized curriculum. From there, you can dictate your own coding education, and take interactive, online classes in everything from basic HTML to Ruby on Rails. Codecademy also leverages an online network of peers to help users learn coding concepts, providing constant feedback and articles to accelerate individual learning.

“Traditional universities are poorly equipped to meet the evolving demands of technology students and employers, and Codecademy fills an important and valuable gap in the market,” said Larry Illg, Naspers Ventures CEO, in a statement. “The quality of the Codecademy product and the team’s execution have enabled a global footprint today and positions it well for future expansion.”

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Jobs at Codecademy (a Skillsoft company)

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