Lambda School, a revolutionary school that invests in people in helping build satisfying careers, announced it has raised $74 million in a Series C funding round led by Gigafund, the VC firm known for its investments in companies like SpaceX.
According to TechCrunch, Tandem Fund and Y Combinator (where Lambda School was incubated) also participated in the round.
Announcing the funding, Lambda School Co-founder and CEO Austen Allred wrote in a blog post,
“Gigafund only invests in companies that it believes will reshape the world’s most important industries, and we’re honored to be included in this portfolio. In conjunction with the funding, Gigafund co-founder and managing partner, Stephen Oskoui, will join our board. This new financing will support our mission to unlock student potential, regardless of circumstance, by developing career-oriented educational programs and reducing the financial risks to pursuing a better career.”
Founded in 2017 by Austen Allred and Ben Nelson, Lambda School provides a new path to a rewarding career by offering career-oriented courses to students. Currently, it offers live online classes in full-stack web development and data science. Lambda School’s courses are designed after consulting top tech companies on what skills they look for in candidates, and include learning activities that help learners master each key skill.
Lambda School covers not only the fundamentals of computer science, but also gives its learners the opportunity to apply their theoretical knowledge. It allows them to learn hands-on by building real and ready-to-ship products and graduate with 1,200 hours of coding experience. Lambda School also reduces the financial risk for its students by charging no upfront tuition, and allowing them to pay only after they land a job, that too when they start making an annual income of $50,000 or more.
Commenting on the funding, Stephen Oskoui, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Gigafund, said in a written statement,
“My co-founder and I built Gigafund on the investment approach we used together at Founders Fund, focusing on ambitious entrepreneurs with a multi-decade vision for their companies. We back the world’s most transformative entrepreneurs and look forward to Lambda School leading the revolution in education that we’ve all been waiting for.”
Highlighting its future course, Austen Allred said, “Lambda School is poised for growth, especially as traditional higher education faces unprecedented uncertainty and dissatisfaction. Students seek new, alternative paths to gain the skills they need. It will take creativity and iteration to build a new future for education that’s truly centered around student success. Every day, we’re inspired by our own students – and we’re up for the challenge.”
Austen said the new funding will enable the company to invest in improving and expanding its programs to deliver positive student outcomes. He added the funding will also accelerate initiatives the company has been focused on for the last several months, including optimizing student experience, admissions, critical team hiring, expanding accountability for student outcomes, and diversity and inclusion, among other efforts.
According to Austen, as reported by TechCrunch, Lambda School currently has about 3,000 students on its platform, all taking live classes according to timetables programmed for different time zones. He claims there is more demand than they can handle right now, even with the new fundraise.
