Code First Girls has secured £4.5m in Series A funding round to support its goal of giving one million women the opportunity to learn to code and get into the tech industry in the next five years.
The Series A was led by investment firm Active Partners alongside a group of female angel investors, including a former director of Bumble, former VP of Monzo and COO of MoneyBox.
Anna Brailsford, CEO, Code First Girls said: “Our mission is to close the serious, long-term gender gap in the tech industry by giving women the opportunity to learn to code and get jobs in tech, at no cost to them.”
According to Code First Girls women represent only 21% of the UK tech industry and black women less than 3%.
Brailsford added: “We’re proud of both our social and commercial impact, having already taught 80,000 women to code for free. Our next goal is to become the world’s first EdTech unicorn dedicated to women.”
Founded by Alice Bentinck MBE and Matthew Clifford MBE, Code First Girls aims to have more than 26,000 women go through its “CFGdegree” leading to a job in tech.
Clifford previously co-founded startup accelerator Entrepreneur First, which in June raised £130m.
“Traditional education providers are failing to address the significant tech talent shortages across the industry today, as well as the huge lack of diverse talent. Code First Girls offers the solution to this problem,” said Tom Profumo, investor, Active Partners.
Active Partners has previously backed the likes of Leon, Rapha, Soho House, and Honest Burgers.
Euan Blair’s multiverse became the UK’s first edtech unicorn earlier this year following a £176m raise.
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