CodeCombat teaches kids how to code through online games that are engaging, effective, and scalable. The need for this has only grown since COVID-19.
The Challenge of Coding Education
Coding is the #1 job skill, and 90% of parents want their kids to learn it. Yet schools are struggling to scale up computer science quickly enough. Schools must teach:
- Engagingly: how do you get all kids excited about coding, when most don’t think coding is for them? Of AP CS test takers, only 29% are female, 22% are students of color.
- Effectively: how can you teach real code to young students, when even in college, traditional instruction leaves 32% of students failing Intro to CS courses?
- Scalably: how can you find CS teachers to teach every student, when teachers who know coding will leave to work as software engineers at nearly twice the salary?
- Online: how can you deploy distance-learning-compatible curriculum during COVID-19, which closed schools for 1.6 of 1.7 billion students worldwide?
The Solution
To solve these curriculum challenges, schools turn to CodeCombat, a coding game that uses real code and personalized learning to let any teacher teach computer science, offline or online. Our custom code engine lets learners type real Python and JavaScript with simple error messages and a smooth learning curve. The game-based learning format is so much fun that kids want to play it, with 170K monthly active learners playing at home. And our comprehensive curriculum lets schools quickly deploy world-class computer science courses.
Traction
Strong demand had already led to over $2M bookings in 2019. Then, in 2020, COVID-19 accelerated everything, creating $4.3M in new B2B sales pipeline and increasing B2C revenue 75% in two months. To serve this surge in B2C demand, we’re launching our new online classes product, hiring pro coding teachers to teach live coding lessons. On the B2B side, after two years of development, we’re fully launching Ozaria, our next-gen schools product, which is perfect for distance learning.
