CAPSLOCK raise £1m pre-seed as demand for cyber security talent reaches tipping point

As the world continues to move towards a digital future, the unmet demand for cyber security professionals is becoming an urgent societal problem.

CAPSLOCK, an online cyber security bootcamp provider, has completed a £1.04m pre-seed round to help adults re-skill and land high-paying jobs in cyber security, whilst simultaneously plugging the skills gap and deferring over £1m of up-front tuition fees.

The pre-seed investment was completed in two tranches and investors include Ufi VocTech Trust, GC Angels, the British Government, and a group of 9 angel investors.

In March 2021, CAPSLOCK launched their pilot cohorts using Income Share Agreements, re-skilling 86 adults who didn’t pay any up-front costs.

Professional dancers, chefs, military veterans, accountants, and other career-changers enrolled and have since started lucrative cyber security careers. Dyson, BBC, ITV, BAE, HSBC, Boohoo, and PwC have all hired CAPSLOCK graduates in aid of tackling the cyber security skills shortage.

As part of their Income Share Agreement, those graduates will repay a percentage of their monthly income back to CAPSLOCK over a set period of time, but only once they have landed a high-paying role.

The pre-seed raise is one of the largest in the UK during 2021 and many investors recognise that there could be massive opportunities in the edtech sector, given that the shift from offline to online learning will continue long after students are allowed to return to physical classrooms.

Investors such as Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures, and Y Combinator have all demonstrated their appetite for Income Share Agreements as a revenue model, and CAPSLOCK are now leading the way in the UK, having originated over 140 FCA-regulated ISAs within their first 8 months of operations.