Pictured: Codecademy founder Zach Sims
Zach Sims’ Codecademy has raised $25m in a Series C funding round led by Naspers, bringing the total amount raised by the company to date to $42.5m.
Lead investor in the round, Naspers, is a not-for-profit media giant based out of South Africa. Other investors in the round include Virgin founder Richard Branson, Union Square Ventures, Flybridge Capital Partners and Index Ventures.
Naspers has made investments in internet companies, including Tencent and Flipkart, that 1.3bn people worldwide already use.
‘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’
– ZACH SIMS, CODECADEMY
“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.
“The quality of the Codecademy product and the team’s execution have enabled a global footprint today and positions it well for future expansion.”
Tens of millions of people worldwide have logged onto Codecademy to teach themselves coding skills in languages ranging from JavaScript, Python and Ruby to PHP, HTML and CSS.
“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,” Zach Sims said.
“With millions of monthly users, and more than 50pc 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.”
