This company has raised £660k to help the future generation of innovators

Fire Tech, a London-based provider of extracurricular tech education for nine to 17-year-olds has today (October 24) secured its £660k funding, led by the Cass Entrepreneurship Fund.

The capital raised will be used to fund expansion into the UK further, and internationally. The company also participated with Emerge Education and investment angels on the round.

Founded in 2013, the business has delivered over 7,000 workshops and courses to young people across the UK, Italy, Gibraltar, France and Australia, held at locations such as Imperial College London and Wycombe Abbey.

Jill Hodges, Fire Tech’s founder and CEO, commented: “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 their children are getting enough of these critical skills in traditional education; parents don’t want their children left behind.”

According to Fire Tech, the UK is facing a digital skills gap which is predicted to eventually grow. More than three in four companies have reported shortages in digital skills, costing the economy £63bn per year in lost GDP.

Fire Tech is aiming to support and encourage future generations of innovators and, therefore, grow the UK’s skills available to the digital economy.

Sean Bint, Fire Tech’s head of learning, added: “It’s exciting the see courses such as Unity 3D, Python Programming and Rapid Prototyping selling out - the students just dive right in.”

Fire Tech promotes an inclusive environment where more than 50 per cent of places on weekend courses are often filled by young women. The business offers various courses in coding as well as video game design, robotics, digital music production and app design.

Oliver Finch, who led the investment on behalf of the Cass Entrepreneurship Fund, concluded: “Jill and her team at Fire Tech design and deliver world-class programmes… 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.”

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