Listed tech training provider Northcoders has secured a further £4.5m in funding from the Department for Education Skills Bootcamps Wave 4 bid.
The funding will be used to train individuals on the Northcoders market-leading bootcamp and provides the group with a 12.5 per cent increase in funding per student.
Northcoders has also provided an encouraging trading update for the six months to the end of June 2023.
Revenues are up 50 per cent to £3.5m on the same period, with revenue visibility for the whole financial year up to £6.75m. Cash on the balance sheet is now £2.9m and net cash of £2m.
Chris Hill, CEO of Northcoders, said: “In spite of challenging market conditions, the board is confident of achieving further growth for the full year.
“During the period Northcoders won a number of contracts with large corporates as well as securing further funding from the Department for Education, providing the group with good forward visibility of revenues.
“The company is financially strong and we are well placed to further invest in the business for growth.”
Tech Returners, which was acquired in February 2023, has now been fully integrated into the business services division and is performing well.
Tech Returners specialises in training and placing of mid-senior level professionals looking to re-enter the workplace after a career break in the technology sector and was founded by Beckie Taylor and James Heggs.
Northcoders’ Business Solutions division secured a number of significant new contracts with large corporate clients including Deutsche Bank and BAE Systems.
The group also has confirmation of a repeat programme from KPMG to begin during Q4-2023 and a healthy business development pipeline which the board is confident will further boost full-year revenue visibility during the coming months.
In addition, to strengthening corporate business, the Business Solutions division has also secured its first public sector consultancy contract with a major government department.
The Training Bootcamps division grew its graduate hiring network by a further 9 per cent by engaging with 76 new organisations for the first time this year.
Northcoders now has a network of over 450 partner companies to sustain its graduate hiring from training bootcamps.
The group has also seen increased demand from individuals wanting to enrol on its core coding bootcamps and returner programmes.
Application numbers in the six months to June 2023 stood at 3,494, which compares favourably with the 3,662 applications in the 12 months to December 2022.
The trading statement did strike a note of caution due to the ‘prevailing headwinds’ facing the technology market, including budget constraints, workforce reductions and recruitment freezes that is affecting many of the group’s partner companies, which could affect the vacancies available to Northcoders Training Bootcamp graduates.
The statement added: “The board remains resolute in its approach and continues to inject significant investment into the group’s corporate sales and partnerships teams across all Northcoders’ divisions.
“This proactive measure signifies the group’s total commitment to ensuring exceptional outcomes for the individuals engaged in its training bootcamps and positions the group favourably for continued growth within its consultancy division, Business Services.”
Outside of business development activity, the group has made significant progress with its investment into its technology platform, Ncore, which remains on track for roll-out across all its training bootcamps in early 2024.
Ncore is expected to grow our capacity, increase gross profit margins in the group’s training bootcamps division.
The development of new training courses is going according to plan. Northcoders’ cloud engineering training course has been developed and launched.