CAPSLOCK raise £1m as demand for cyber security talent increases
As the world continues to move towards a digital future, the unmet demand for cyber security professionals is becoming an urgent societal problem.
CAPSLOCK, an online cyber security bootcamp provider and part of the Ufi Ventures Portfolio, has just completed a £1.04m pre-seed round to help adults re-skill and land high-paying jobs in cyber security, whilst simultaneously plugging the skills gap and deferring over £1m of up-front tuition fees.
The pre-seed investment was completed in two tranches with investments coming from Ufi Ventures, GC Angels, the British Government, and a group of nine angel investors.
This pre-seed raise is one of the largest in the UK during 2021 with many investors recognising the potential opportunities in the edtech/voctech sector, given the shift from offline to online learning will continue long after students are allowed to return to physical classrooms.
CAPSLOCK has launched additional cohorts with the funding, taking their total number of cyber security learners enrolled this year to 172. In terms of cyber security enrolments, that is more students than any UK university has achieved in 2021. 70% of CAPSLOCK learners land a role in cyber security within just 3 months of graduation, with an average outcomes salary of £32,200, demonstrating the buoyancy within the UK cyber security sector. Graduates of the CAPSLOCK programmes have secured roles with Dyson, BBC, ITV, BAE, HSBC, Boohoo and PwC.
Speaking about the impact of their investment Alex Bishop, Investment Manager at Ufi Ventures said:
"At Ufi, we continue to be enthused by the unique learner proposition at CAPSLOCK, enabling learners to access skills needed for work in high demand sectors in the UK, such as Cyber Security, whilst removing the upfront financial barriers to training, through their innovative Income Share Agreement model.
The evidence of impact demonstrated through the career transformations of their learners to date has been striking, with salary levels increasing post enrolment across the cohort. We are excited to support the business moving forward as they scale their bootcamp model to even more learners.”
Dr Andrea Cullen, Lead Tutor & Co-founder of CAPSLOCK said:
"Increasing diversity within the UK’s cyber security workforce is something we’re proud to be leading. It’s at the heart of everything we do, from removing financial barriers with Income Share Agreements, through to encouraging people of all genders, ethnic backgrounds and types of neurodiversity to enrol and re-skill with CAPSLOCK. This funding allows us to scale throughout 2022, grow the CAPSLOCK team and look towards re-skilling thousands of UK adults a year".
CAPSLOCK are launching new cyber security cohorts in 2022, with applications currently open to those who want to re-skill and help plug the cyber security skills gap. Next year, CAPSLOCK will be developing a new curriculum to plug other key technology skills such as secure software development and cloud engineering.
You can find out more about CAPSLOCK here: www.capslock.ac