Training Industry Magazine - Fall 2016 - 60


CLOSING
D E A L S

ENGAGING CONTENT DELIVERY FOR CODING TRAINING:
CODECADEMY CLOSES SERIES C FUNDING ROUND
- TARYN OESCH

In July, Codecademy closed a $30 million
Series C funding round led by Naspers
Ventures. Existing investors Union
Square Ventures, Flybridge Capital
Partners, Index Ventures and Sir Richard
Branson also participated in the round,
which the company plans to use to
localize its content, develop its platform,
build its mobile presence and develop
additional content.

month subscription that includes a
personalized learning plan, assessments,
and live advising, along with the free
online content. Expanding Codecademy
Pro offerings is one of the goals Sims has
said he would like to achieve with the
company's new funding.

The key to Codecademy's appeal is a
combination of its no-cost model and
its engaging, participatory content
WE WANTED TO MOTIVATE
style. According to Sims, "We wanted to
PEOPLE SO THEY LEARNED
motivate people and get them hooked
FOR THE SAKE OF LEARNING. so they learned for the sake of learning."

Codecademy previously raised $12.5
million in funding from investors
including Y Combinator, Kleiner Perkins
Caufield and Byers, SV Angel, Yuri
Milner, Thrive Capital, O'Reilly AlphaTech
Ventures and Bowery Capital.
While they were students at Columbia
University, Codecademy founders Zach
Sims and Ryan Bubinski started teaching
programming in student groups, finding
these experiences more meaningful and
effective than studying independently
or in a classroom. They saw, as many
professionals in the IT and training
industries have also noted, a growing
programming skills gap in the workforce,
so in 2011, they launched Codecademy
with the assistance of Y Combinator. In less
than one year, they had 500,000 users.
Most of Codecademy's programs are
free, though the company recently
launched Codecademy Pro, a $19.99/

| 60

For example, in 2012, Codecademy
launched CodeYear, a New Year's resolution
challenge. 200,000 people, famously
including Michael Bloomberg, signed up
in the first week. As Fast Company pointed
out soon after Codecademy launched,
the courses' gamified elements "actually
work, because they're pegged to actual
accomplishments ('Hey, I learned how
to spawn a dialog box!') and because,
like any well-designed video game, the
first few 'levels' are fast and easy enough
to be fun without feeling like work." An
interactive, gamified learning system can
make it easier to approach a potentially
intimidating new skill like coding.
Codecademy investor Naspers Ventures
was established by the international
internet company Naspers in 2016 to
invest in technology companies in highgrowth markets. The firm made its first
edtech investment (in social learning
startup Brainly) in May. A month later,

it invested in Udemy, saying that these
investments "solidify our belief that
education globally can be transformed
with the right technology platforms."
In addition to focusing on learning
technologies as "a sizeable market
that has not yet seen the technology
impacts [Naspers has] seen in other
sectors," Naspers Ventures is also looking
to expand its investment in the U.S.
market; with Naspers' global reach, the
company believes it can help learning
technologies companies with the
potential to grow beyond the U.S. The
venture firm is headquartered in San
Francisco for easy access to a number of
such companies.
As training organizations rely more and
more on external training suppliers, there
is a growing number of entrepreneurs
in L&D. Especially in the technology
sector, according to Doug Harward,
CEO of Training Industry, Inc., "there is
an increase in investment funding for
companies to provide innovative tools
and apps to deliver and reinforce training
content." Naspers Ventures' recent entry
into learning technologies is evidence
of this trend, and its investment in
Codecademy especially demonstrates
the growing importance of technology
as both an important skill set and a tool
for improving learning engagement
and outcomes.
Taryn Oesch is an editor at Training Industry,
Inc. Email Taryn.

https://www.naspers.com/news/transforming-education-with-technology http://www.venturebeat.com/2016/07/12/codecademy-raises-30-million-to-further-its-global-and-academic-expansion/ http://www.venturebeat.com/2016/07/12/codecademy-raises-30-million-to-further-its-global-and-academic-expansion/ http://www.naspers.com/investors/news/naspers-announces-investment-in-brainly-%E2%80%93-its-firs http://www.naspers.com/investors/news/naspers-announces-investment-in-brainly-%E2%80%93-its-firs http://www.businessinsider.com/meet-zach-and-ryan-they-can-barely-buy-their-own-drinks-and-theyre-teaching-the-world-to-code-2012-4 http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665136/codecademycom-finally-an-interactive-coding-class-thats-fun http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665136/codecademycom-finally-an-interactive-coding-class-thats-fun https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/trainingindustry/tiq_2016winter/#/30 https://www.naspers.com/about https://www.codecademy.com/pro http://www.trainingindustry.com/blog/blog-entries/another-year-of-the-mooc.aspx

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