Cass Entrepreneurship Fund invests £600K to accelerate tech education growth for young people

The Cass Entrepreneurship Fund, together with Emerge Education and super angels, has invested £600k in Fire Tech, the UK’s leading provider of extracurricular Tech Education for 9-17-year-olds.  The capital will be used to fund UK and international expansion.

To date, Fire Tech  has delivered more than 7,000 courses to young people across the UK, Italy, France, Gibraltar and Australia. Parents choose Fire Tech because of their world-class locations (including Imperial College, the Science Museum and Wycombe Abbey), engaging tutors, collaborative environment and innovative curriculum. Fire Tech is known for promoting an inclusive environment where more than 50 per cent of places on weekend courses are often filled by young women.

Oliver Finch, who led the investment on behalf of the Cass Entrepreneurship Fund, said:

“Jill Hodges and her team at Fire Tech design and deliver world-class programmes in technology education for young people. The courses and materials build familiarity across a range of technologies and software, and help students to develop real problem-solving skills, resilience and teamwork. We are delighted to support Fire Tech’s next phase of growth, as it furthers its UK and global expansion to capitalise upon this in-demand area of youth education and experience.”

Jill Hodges, Founder/CEO said:

“65 per cent of children in primary school today will work in jobs that do not exist yet. Our mission is to prepare kids for the tech-driven economy in a fun and engaging way.  We’re experiencing 40 per cent year-on-year growth this year and have strong demand from individuals, educators and institutions from around the world asking us to bring our programme to their markets. Parents are eager for this product because they don’t feel that their children are getting enough of these critical skills in traditional education; parents don’t want their children left behind.”

About the Cass Entrepreneurship Fund:

The Cass Entrepreneurship Fund is a £10m commercial Venture Capital fund, based in-house at Cass Business School. The Fund invests in high-potential, revenue-generating businesses.

The Fund was established with the backing of Peter Cullum, CBE, as part of a wider vision to improve business support and entrepreneurial skill-building within Cass Business School and across the early-stage growth-business community.

About Fire Tech:

Fire Tech offers hands-on, creative education technology courses that provide 9 - 17 year olds with the 21st century skills they need to succeed in an increasingly technology-driven economy.

Unlike other tech education providers, Fire Tech offers a range of courses in coding, creating and making, such as video game design, app design, robotics and digital music production which are designed to ensure that participants learn as much in a week as they would in a year of programmatic coursework in secondary school.

Founded by Jill Hodges in 2013, Fire Tech has since delivered over 7,000 courses and workshops. Fire Tech aims to ensure that young people are prepared for a world where technology increasingly drives the economy and are committed to making tech education available and accessible to all children. Scholarships are available to support this goal.

About Emerge Education:

Emerge Education is a hands-on early stage investment firm focused exclusively on the education technology sector. The Emerge Education Team have personally founded companies that have created over $200m in value, including Mendeley (acquired by Reed Elsevier) and Tigerspike (acquired by Concentrix), and have been seed investors in some of Europe’s best-known edtech successes, including Pi-Top, Wonde and Lingumi.