Y Combinator pours $125k into Philippine edtech firm for software developers

Philippine-based edtech firm Avion School has raised US$125,000 from startup accelerator Y Combinator to build a school that teaches Filipinos how to become global software engineers who can work remotely.

Avion School co-founders Victor Rivera (right) and John Young/ Photo credit: Avion School

The company provides a 12-week course that teaches students the engineering stack and skills required by startups worldwide. The course also has a focus on employability, teaching collaborative and communication skills through the more than 80 partner companies that are associated with the coding school.

Avion School sees an opportunity in markets such as the US, where it claims there are around 800,000 developer jobs that aren’t being filled.

It offers Income Share Agreements, where the program’s participants don’t need to pay for the course until they’re hired by a company. Toward the end of the program, the startup also provides career placement support to students.

“The reality is that hiring engineers is insanely difficult because not enough people are trained with the skills required to build tech products,” said Victor Rivera, CEO of Avion School. “In essence, we’re building a ‘call center 2.0’ but with software engineering talent.”

Since the launch of the company in May, it has graduated seven batches of students and partnered with companies Xendit, PayMongo, and Pulley, among others.

See also: Edtech needs to do some soul-searching as it powers ahead

The coding school claims that its graduates have been offered salaries at least 40% higher than the market rate, with some students seeing their salaries go up by as much as 5x the market rate.

Avion School has previously raised a pre-seed round from investors that include Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen, Fourth Realm, Francis Plaza, and other angel investors