Galvanize has been bought by K12, a publicly traded learning company based in Herndon, Va., for $165 million in cash.
The deal, which closed on Monday, includes Galvanize’s campus in downtown Austin in the Northshore building at Second and Nueces and seven other campuses across the country.
In the deal, K12 gets Denver-based Galvanize’s management, brand recognition, network of alumni, Galvanize campuses and programs in data science and software development, said Nate Davis, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of K12’s Board of Directors, during the company’s earnings call Monday afternoon.
K12 expects Galvanize to contribute $50 million in revenue this year, Davis said. K12 had more than $1 billion in revenue in 2019.
K12, founded 20 years ago, serves more than 13,000 students nationwide through K12-powered Destinations Career Academies, which combine traditional high school academics with career technical education. With the acquisition of Galvanize, K12 extends its education platform to adult learners.
Galvanize, founded in 2012, had raised $167.5 million over nine rounds of funding. The company has more than 1,500 employees and thousands of alumni have graduated from its data science and web development programs.
The leadership team will be staying – all the way from the CEO, down to each campus’ employees, said Harsh Patel, Chief Executive Officer of Galvanize.
” We plan on expanding our Military Education programs in Austin in particular as a result of this acquisition, and to expand our Data Science programs there,” he said.
Otherwise, the Galvanize campus in downtown Austin will continue to operate business as usual.
Galvanize’s other campuses are in Boulder, Denver, New York, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Seattle. In addition to its in-person campuses, Galvanize offers full-time and part-time immersive online boot camps.
In 2018, Galvanize bought San Francisco-based Hack Reactor, making it one of the largest coding programs in the country.
“I am proud to join K12 in our shared goal to bridge the gap between industry demands and education. Together, we will prepare more learners to thrive in the modern digital economy,” Patel said in a news release. “The K12 team believes in Galvanize’s mission to teach industry-relevant skills and lifelong learning techniques. I’m looking forward to continuing our work to make people’s lives better and to make education more accessible and more affordable.”
K12, a for-profit education company that sells online schooling and curricula, said the acquisition of Galvanize positions it as a “premier provider of career readiness education services and a leader in skills training, technology staffing and developing talent and capabilities for Fortune 500 companies.”
There is a shortage of qualified tech workers nationwide and K12’s acquisition of Galvanize will help fill those roles. There’s a huge demand for workers to fill data science jobs in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other tech hubs.
About 85 percent of Galvanize’s graduates are employed with average salaries of $90,000, within six months of graduating from its programs. Galvanize’s graduates have gone on to work for 2,250 companies including Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Apple. Galvanize has also partnered with Fortune 500 companies like IBM, McKesson and Cognizant to upskill their current workforce. Galvanize also partners with the U.S. military to help train soldiers in software engineering and serves as a preferred provider of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ VET TEC program.
