Image: Codecool
The Hungarian ed-tech scale-up is set to expand across Europe as it aims to address the region’s growing IT skills gap.
Budapest-based Codecool has raised €7m in a Series C investment round led by Integral Venture Partners.
Codecool offers online training in IT and programming as well as talent matching for employers seeking developers and IT staff. The company currently runs five schools in Hungary, Romania and Poland, and is planning to expand following this latest investment.
“We’re planning to enter two new markets this year,” said Codecool CEO József Boda, citing Austria, Serbia and Bulgaria among the likeliest candidates.
“Our target is to operate more than 10 Codecool campuses by 2025,” he added.
“Expansion, however, does not only mean increasing the number of our schools. Further developing our corporate reskilling and upskilling courses are also in our focus. Our experience shows that executives are increasingly open to train or reskill their existing employees, as it is often time-consuming and costly to find new experts with appropriate skills on the labour market.”
The company also said it is targeting several thousand graduates per year by 2025.
Europe’s IT skills gap
In total, Codecool has raised €12.5m to date. Previous investors Lead Ventures and PortfoLion Capital Partners joined Integral Venture Partners on this latest round.
Codecool offers a 12-month full-stack programming training programme as well as a four-month front-end course. These courses come with real-life team projects alongside mentor-led online classes.
The company is among 26 partners in the European Software Skills Alliance, along with AWS, Adecco and Nvidia. Launched last year, this alliance will embark on a four-year project to address the digital skills gap in Europe, funded by the European Commission.
Together they will develop a new, EU-level software development skills strategy and curriculum.
According to Eurostat data, 58pc of enterprises across the EU reported having problems filling vacancies requiring relevant ICT skills in 2018. This figure had been steadily increasing since 2013. As of 2020, the European Commission reported up to 825,000 ICT job vacancies across Europe.
