The story of Scrimba started with a self-developed programming language, and the search for an educational tool to help teach others to use the new language. What existed at the time was not experienced good enough, and the founders therefore developed an interactive video format tailored for code training. It is this technology that forms the basis of the Scrimba training platform.
Schibsted Ventures has followed the founders during the last few years, and has waited for an appropriate opportunity to join the team. We are now purchasing 4,5% of the company, directly from the owners.
“As Schibsted har ownership of several digital marketplaces where jobs are central, learning or so-called upskilling is a very exciting area to invest in. The future of work is being challenged through the development of new technology, faster than many have imagined, and the need to stay relevant as an employee will be increasingly important,” says Investment Manager, Mats Staugaard.
He adds, “This is not a big, but an important investment. Scrimba’s unique approach to learning through technology is amongst the most exciting happening within upskilling.”
Over 1 million users
Scrimba has over one million unique users from all over the world, and over ten thousand are paying customers. The company has five employees in Norway and eight abroad. The 2022 accounting figures show revenues of NOK 18.7 million and operating results of NOK – 0.3 million. The other investors Y Combinator (US), Alliance (NO), Nordic Makers (SE), StartupLab (NO) and Amasia (US), keep their ownership share as before.
CEO at Scrimba, Per Harald Borgen is pleased to add Schibsted Ventures to the ownership side. “Both Scrimba and Schibsted operate in the intersection between content and technology, and we are both focused on B2C. In addition, Scrimba is on its way to becoming a two-sided platform, a category Schibsted has a lot of experience with from its marketplaces,” he says.
He continues, “We look at Schibsted Ventures as a perfect partner for us, and we are pleased to finally have them on the ownership side and on our board.”
Up next: Scrimba 2.0
Scrimba is also getting ready to launch a new version of the product, which they have been working on for over three years. “Scrimba 2.0 will be much better than the current version. It will take ownership over a larger part of the learning journey. In addition to taking courses, users will be able to build projects, experiment with code, and collaborate with each other to a much greater extent,” comments Borgen.
The company is also working on “The AI Engineering Path,” an educational program that will teach developers to build AI-based products. They have already brought in major AI players as partners, including Hugging Face and LangChain.
He adds, “Hugging Face is the world’s largest platform for sharing AI models, while LangChain is the most popular code library for building AI applications. So we are very pleased that they are embracing our technology, and will help us with course development and distribution.”
The course will be launched in the last quarter of 2023.
“We are experiencing very high interest in what we do. Our growth is purely organic and we have no salespeople or marketers on the team. Our main focus is to create the world’s best product and educational program,” Borgen finishes.
