In August of 2011, my co-founder Ryan and I started Codecademy to create an easier, more accessible way for people to learn technology skills. While the world and our business have changed so much since then, our mission remains the same: to empower millions of people to build inspiring careers in technology.
Now, in our tenth year, we’re entering a brand new chapter – one that allows us to double down on that mission. We’re thrilled to be working together with Skillsoft, who announced that they have entered into an agreement to acquire Codecademy.
There are many reasons why I’m excited about this deal, and I’m especially excited about what it means for our learners. Working with Skillsoft allows us to accomplish more, and in less time, than we could as an independent company. That means we can do more and build more for our learners.
Why Skillsoft?
Skillsoft is one of the largest and longest-standing leaders in digital learning, working with 75% of the Fortune 1000 to equip their workforces with the skills of tomorrow. After originally talking to them about a potential partnership, we quickly realized that we not only shared the same vision, but that we’d be able to achieve that vision even faster by working together as one. Like Codecademy, Skillsoft believes in a world where every person and every team has the opportunity to realize their full potential through learning, and together we will continue building that world.
Codecademy’s goals align with Skillsoft’s strengths. As we look ahead to 2022 and beyond, their resources and expertise will empower us to achieve the following:
- Build our curriculum: We will leverage Skillsoft’s extensive content catalog to expand our offerings in domains like cybersecurity and cloud computing, as well as explore new modes of learning.
- Scale our work with businesses: We will leverage Skillsoft’s B2B relationships and expertise to get our hands-on learning platform in front of the biggest companies in the world.
- Grow globally: We will work with dozens of Skillsoft’s global teams to reach fast-growing international markets like India.
For Skillsoft, Codecademy represents the future of digital learning – how millions of people and organizations can thrive in our tech-enabled world. They are working with us because they believe in our product and because they want to scale it to thousands of companies and their workforces worldwide. I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve built so far, and am excited for what we’ll continue to build in this next chapter.
What’s next?
Nothing will change about the Codecademy platform and learning experience in the immediate future – just as our mission and goals are staying the same. Until the deal closes, it’s business as usual, and after the closing we look forward to accelerating our growth and doubling-down on our mission. As we add more resources to our team, we’re excited to deliver even more products, curriculum, and learning experiences that will help our learners thrive throughout their entire careers.
When I think about Codecademy in the future, I envision a lifelong companion to every person working in technology – which will be most people in the future. We can help someone learn their first programming language and discover the career path that’s right for them. We can connect them directly to potential employers after helping them become job-ready. We can help them build skills that will make them better at their job, and help their companies prepare for the future. We can do all this through our interactive learning platform, as well as brand new experiences like instructor-led training, coaching, and mentoring.
This has been the vision of Codecademy all along, and combining with Skillsoft gives us the resources to achieve it faster than we’d be able to on our own. Our joint mission is to help people lead better careers and better lives, and we’ve never been in a better position to do just that.
I am hugely grateful to the Codecademy team, whose hard work and commitment to our mission made this opportunity possible. You helped us build the best technical learning platform in the world, and I look forward to seeing what you’ll achieve with greater resources and a bigger platform.
To everyone who’s been on this journey with us so far, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I can’t wait to see where we go from here.
