Avion School, which helps Filipinos “become software engineers in 12 weeks”, has secured an undisclosed sum in pre-seed funding, led by Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen, a top executive of the edutech startup disclosed to e27.
San Francisco-based angel fund HEX Collective, besides several unnamed angels in the US and Europe, also joined the equity round.
“We will use the capital to help finance the next 15 batches of students within the next 12 months. This will allow us to bring over 400 new software engineering jobs into the market,” Avion Co-founder and CEO Victor Rivera said.
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“We are also keen on bringing an even stronger pool of engineers as instructors to ensure that their graduates are not only ready to get hired in the Philippines but also all across the world,” he added.
Avion was launched in Manila in May by Rivera and John Young (COO).
Rivera previously led Customer Success for PayMongo and also worked with WeClean (as Head of Growth) and Lalamove (as Logistics Consultant), whereas Young held various product roles in PDAX and MedGrocer.
Avion is building a new way for Filipinos to learn software development and other technical skills without having to pay upfront.
Its lessons/courses are derived from the specific skills that top startups in the world look for in their new hires.
Currently, Avion teaches a full-stack web development course, designed by MIT and Stanford computer science (CS) graduates and CTOs from well-funded startups.
The course is broken down into three parts: (1) frontend development under HTML, CSS and JavaScript; (2) backend development under Ruby and Ruby on Rails, and (3) learning to work with engineering teams.
As for the business model, Avion follows a concept called ‘income-share agreements’, which enables students to only pay for their tuition after they are hired as software engineers.
Learners are also free to make upfront payments of PHP 80,000 (~US$1,600).
The edutech venture is currently running two batches, comprising students from non-CS engineering and business school graduates to product managers. It also has a few CS graduates.
“We know the struggle of learning to code. This is why we try very hard to ensure that the courses we design are not just for computer science students, but also non-technical students,” Rivera said.
“We hold part and full-time courses on software development monthly, build real projects taken from startups in the US and Europe, and push our students to get hired globally,” he explained.
In addition to the core services on offer, Avion also helps its students find a job. For this, it has partnered with several hiring partners locally.
Huge market
Rivera said that the Philippine market is huge with over 750,000 potential students, and there is a trend among people to learn coding. “The trend of learning to code is driven by the current shift from businesses relying on traditional business models and moving towards online. With that, we’re seeing more and more people learning not only to understand the fundamentals of programming, but more to build a new wave of products.”
Plus, the local internet economy is growing, so is the demand for more engineers.
“The country’s internet market is expected to reach US$25 billion by 2025, and we’re excited to build the engine supplying new startups with engineers,” he said.
Mateen connection
Avion School marks the Tinder co-founder’s second deal in the Philippines after a capital infusion into the online payments startup PayMongo last year.
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Rivera revealed that Mateen was introduced to him by PayMongo founders. When Mateen got to know about Avion’s pre-seed funding plans, he jumped in and saw potential of being able to use Southeast Asia-based engineers in Silicon Valley.
Mateen has also joined in as a Direct Advisor to the company.
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The post (Exclusive) Tinder co-founder invests in Avion School that helps ‘Filipinos become software engineers in 12 weeks’ appeared first on e27.