Indianapolis-based coding school secures $100M investment
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) — Indianapolis-based Kenzie Academy has secured a $100 million investment from Community Investment Management, an institutional impact investment manager in San Francisco.
The technology and coding school at 47 S. Meridian St. says the funding will support student tuition financing for its tech and coding programs and help build a nationwide strategy.
The funding will also help Kenzie focus on its goal of enrolling 10,000 new students in the next three years. By redesigning its Income Share Agreement program as part of CIM’s investment, the academy says it can lower both its monthly repayment rate and tuition costs. The academy says students who use an ISA to enroll in the program only start making payments after they graduate and get a job earning $40,000 or more annually.
Kenzie has enrolled over 400 students to date. It opened in January 2018 with backing from Google and Facebook, WISH-TV reported.
“There are millions of Americans who are barred from high-quality post-secondary education because of where they live and their financial situation. And many who are ‘lucky enough’ to go to college find themselves buried in debt and without a job,” said Kenzie Academy Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Chok Ooi. “This $100 million will level the playing field, enabling deserving individuals, regardless of their background, to access high-quality training that leads to a high paying job in tech for only $100 upfront. Kenzie will be scaling our online classroom to teach engineering skills to anyone, anywhere, and then find them the types of jobs that will change their lives.”