Masterschool raises $100 million in Seed to address job shortages

Masterschool, a network of tech career-training schools, announced a $100 million seed funding round led by Group 11, with significant participation from Target Global, Pitango Ventures, Dynamic Loop Capital, Sir Ronald Cohen, and other strategic investors.

Building the largest network of career schools in the world

With 1 million unfilled IT jobs in the U.S. alone, the tech talent shortage is one of the biggest challenges facing companies today and is expected to reach 85 million unfilled jobs worldwide by the end of the decade. 57% of tech executives listed the labor shortage as their top concern. Though talent is everywhere, educational opportunity is not. The traditional education model is broken which is one of the leading factors in the shortage. Masterschool is changing that.

To address this shortcoming, Masterschool created a network of career-training schools for technology. The company is solving the challenge of training talented individuals for high paying tech jobs, with a choice of top tech professionals teaching on the online platform; they have built a proven and scalable business to rewrite the broken education model. What's the catch? Students only have to pay for the courses after they have been hired in the field. This alleviates any financial stress many students have while also incentivising job prospects. Remarkably, in the same breath, Masterschool empowers students to bypass the financial and operational inefficiencies of legacy education, while also allowing growing companies to address the massive talent shortages we see in the market today.

As CEO and co-founder of Masterschool, Michael Shurp, stated, “Our mission is to ensure that anyone in the world can build an inspiring career.” Through the Masterschool network, tech creators and industry experts launch schools, teaching and mentoring promising students with a curriculum that prepares them for careers in the most in-demand fields. Masterschool takes a data-driven approach to help ensure success for their students at each stage of the process, culminating in a job placement. The company also continuously analyzes technology and market trends, adjusting to course curricula and materials to meet the market and each student's needs. Moreover, researchers from Masterschool collaborate with researchers at leading institutions such as the European University Institute and MIT Sloan School of Management to continually review and improve the admission process to minimize bias and ensure diversity of its students.

Once accepted, students can join schools led by recognized experts and industry leaders including Charlotte Chaze, Niklas Steenfatt, and Keith Galli. The 6-to-9-month course features a team of educational professionals supporting a dynamic syllabus. Students then enter a Career Accelerator where mentors work with them on their soft skills, and job opportunities are presented and assessed.

Their past graduates have an impressive record; Graduates from dozens of Masterschool schools have been hired by some of the largest tech companies, including Google, Microsoft, and Intel, more than doubling their previous salaries on average. With the $100 million funding, Masterschool will significantly scale up its network and increase the number of schools to provide the life-changing opportunities that come with a tech career to an ever-widening group of people.

Masterschool was founded in 2019 by Eran Glicksman (CTO), Roi Tzikorel (Chief of Impact), Michael Shurp, and Otni Levi (Co-CEOs). They are based in Tel Aviv with over 100 employees in Tel Aviv, New York, Berlin, and London.