Bootstrapped SG edtech firm’s subscription revenue booms

Singapore-based edtech firm KodeKloud earned an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of US$5 million in the first two quarters of 2022, its founder Mumshad Mannambeth told Tech in Asia. This figure is already 150% greater than the US$2 million in ARR the firm made in the whole of 2021.

The bootstrapped company said it has been profitable since 2019 and aims to change “extremely uninspired and dry” way of learning DevOps – which combines software development and operations.

From having 1,000 users in 2019, KodeKloud, which has only 30 employees, now has more than 500,000 students on its self-paced learning platform.

Kodekloud founder Mumshad Mannambeth / Photo credit: KodeKloud

Mannambeth, who had been a Dell EMC employee for nearly five years, founded KodeKloud in 2019. The edtech platform helps IT professionals to upskill for career growth in technologies such as DevOps, automation, and cloud computing. The company was part of Aurelia Ventures’ accelerator program in 2020.

“We simply didn’t feel the need to [raise funding], as our student base was growing exponentially, and organically,” he explained. “Sure, we could have raised funds to put towards betterment of product and paid marketing, but beyond that we wanted to make sure that our product and content was impactful to students’ learning development.

While the company has been profitable and has self-funded its expansion plans, it’s not closing its doors to external fundraising as it has product upgrades and market expansion planned. The firm said it would also welcome investors who could guide future steps. But for now, the Singapore-based firm is looking to make sure its services are solid.

Photo credit: KodeKloud

“The rigid manner in which knowledge transfer was being done caused a steep learning curve especially when DevOps is a relatively complex concept to begin with,” said Mannambeth, who is also a trainer on the platform.

He added that KodeKloud also fills in the void left by universities since DevOps skills are not formally touched on in school. This is because while expertise is sought after in the IT industry, these tools were only created relatively recently.

“This was the main push behind KodeKloud: to allow the company to inspire and effectively train students globally, equipping them with DevOps skills that can propel their professional growth and career,” said Mannambeth.

KodeKloud offers six subjects of learning: DevOps Basics, Docker, Kubernetes, Linux, Infrastructure as Code, and Programming. Besides a handful of free courses, it offers two paid tiers that give access to all premium courses and hands-on labs.

While the standard package is priced at about US$228 per year and the pro service is priced at about US$456 annually. The most expensive plan includes access to DevOps and Cloud playgrounds as well as to a pro service.