Helping make the makers of tomorrow, London’s Makers makes off with £7 million

London-based Makers, a startup that’s aiding in the creation of a generation of tech talent who are skilled and ready for the changing world of work has raised £7 million in a new funding round. The significant investment will allow Makers to offer a wider variety of tech bootcamp and apprenticeship courses over the next three years.

The £7 million round was led by BGF, and saw the participation of existing investors Forward Partners and Educapital. 

According to Makers’ projections, these new course offerings over the next three years will open up 5,000 opportunities in tech for people who would not otherwise have had access said opportunities. On the other side of the coin, Makers’ will be able to provide its clients with a diverse pool of trained and ready-to-go talent.

Founded in 2012, Makers identifies high-potential career switchers that posses no background in tech, offers training in the area of software development, and helps place these individuals in leading companies. 

According to the company, since its founding, more than 3,000 people have been trained to become software engineers, and has successfully placed candidates with household names including Google and Deloitte Digital.

In addition to free apprenticeship programmes for students, 30% of places on its Bootcamp courses are taken as full scholarships, 40% of students are women (double the UK tech industry average) and 40% are from underrepresented ethnic backgrounds.

“Ten years ago, Makers launched the first European Coding Bootcamp and five years later we continued to innovate, becoming early providers of software engineering apprenticeships. Now, with this investment, we will expand our offer across more technical disciplines, increasing the opportunity for people to switch careers into tech and enabling employers to fulfil all of their tech talent needs,” explained Makers CEO Claudia Harris.

“We are driven by a vision of a tech industry that represents society and where people from all backgrounds can find work that they love. Tech shapes every aspect of our lives but is disproportionately run by people from a narrow segment of society. That needs to change. That’s why we recruit students from all backgrounds and from the day we were founded 10 years ago we have never focused on qualifications, just potential.”