Investing in codary

Published in

Educapital

4 min readSep 20, 2022

We are thrilled to announce our participation in codary’s €3.5m round, alongside Speedinvest, Sparkmind and FJ Labs. codary is a Germany-based coding platform for children and teenagers launched in 2020 by Amanda Maiwald, Antonia Schein and Nikolaj Bewer.

➡️Bridging the skills gap right from childhood

The younger generations are often thought of as digital natives, suggesting that, unlike their parents, they would not need to be taught anything at all about the digital world they live in. There is mounting empirical evidence that this is not the case. What is expected of young people today goes way beyond the ability to use digital devices or software, consume and create content online, and participate in digital communities (a set of skills often referred to as digital literacy [1]). According to the World Economic Forum, programming skills are amongst the 10 most in-demand skills for the future of work. And yet, only 13% of young Europeans have “engaged in programming activities”[2], and only 15% have a basic knowledge of coding and computer science. This number keeps rising but slowly. codary is changing that.

➡️️️Making code learning fun and effective through pedagogical innovation

codary teaches children how to code through a blended approach that combines online-only classes and a self-paced learning platform.

codary offers its program through a B2C subscription model, granting access to a live class on a weekly session and a full access to the platform and the content.

The classes are cohort-based (bringing together groups of up to 10 children) and held on a weekly basis. This pedagogical approach has demonstrated its efficacy, in terms of learning outcome and engagement rate, as children learn together and become friends by solving programming challenges together. These weekly coding classes are tought by coaches that go through a rigorous selection process and then have access to standardized content, ensuring the quality of the classes.

These cohort-based classes are supported by a web-based coding platform and a mobile app, with highly gamified content and exercices. The reward system allows for increased engagement amongst children while helping them to test their knowledge.

codary’s different courses guide them through a 12 month+ learning journey, during which they learn how to code in Python (with Minecraft) but also develop transferable critical thinking skills, from numerical to logical reasoning.

➡️A team on an impact mission

Amanda, Antonia and Nikolej have impressed us right from the start. They bring a complementary set of skills and are extremely product-focused. They are driven by their impact mission — to help all children benefit from top quality code learning courses and help bridge the gender gap in tech. Their mission resonates with our ambition to back companies that have the potential to become a European category leader. We are very excited to join them on their journey.