Treehouse nabs $7M, passes 25K students and announces plan to teach high schoolers to code

After hitting $3.6 million in revenues and launching Android, iOS, WordPress and jQuery courses, tech education startup Treehouse has major news to share: the company has raised a $7 million Series B round, led by Kaplan Ventures with participation from The Social+Capital Partnership.

Since debuting nearly a year and a half ago, Treehouse has grown rapidly in the face of competition from startups like Codecademy and Udemy, landing a book deal through Wiley Publishing and luring in 25,000 active users in the process. Apparently “all but several hundred” of these active users are paying members.

CEO Ryan Carson tells us the new funds will be utilized in two ways: Treehouse “will be increasing headcount and working on new tools for [its] students.”

With these increased resources, Carson says Treehouse only plans to double down on the technology vertical — this means no expansion into writing, math, cooking, etc. Carson went on to explain that technology is “an ever-changing field so we know it’ll take a lifetime of hard work, just to teach it properly. We truly believe giving every human technological literacy will change their lives and the world.”

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In addition to its series B, Treehouse is announcing a “High School Pilot Program,” which aims to teach high school seniors programming skills to be job-ready in 6 months. The program costs $9 per month per student, and Treehouse tells us it is “planning on schools beginning to sign up this summer and starting with students in the Fall.” This follows Treehouse’s move to give away 5,000 premium accounts to students late last year.

As for profitability, Carson says the company is not yet profitable since it increased its burn rate after raising a $5 million serious A back in April of last year. Carson tells us this move was made “so we could grow fast and establish a lead in the ed-tech space.” The company is expected to break-even later this year.

Photography by Emma Weber