THINK ON IT: Leif, a fintech investment group, is giving $10 million to support future students at the online coding bootcamp Thinkful. Leif offers a platform for schools and companies to create and manage income-share agreements (ISA), tuition models where students pay back a portion of their salary after completing a program and landing a job rather than paying upfront or throughout the program.
This money isn’t a typical venture investment round. The $10 million that Leif provides will cover the cost of Thinkful’s engineering immersion program for nearly 700 students who choose to pay via an income-share agreement. If and when these students land a job after finishing this program, they will pay back a portion of their paycheck directly to Leif.
“We would love to hold on to the ISAs and get paid back and keep all of the benefits or upsides to that, but we have to pay instructors today, and ISAs get paid after three years,” said Daniel Friedman, president and cofounder of Thinkful. “They are essentially financing us so we can offer ISAs. Without this we couldn’t accept more students and make the ISA option available more widely.”
Thinkful currently only offers ISAs for its engineering immersion program. According to a company spokesperson, the bootcamp has plans to raise more funds to expand the ISA offering to its other programs and “is already in talks with other potential capital providers.” Thinkful will use the Leif platform to manage its ISA offerings.
In January, Thinkful closed on a $9.6 million Series A fundraise to expand optional in-person learning hubs for students enrolled in the company’s online coding programs. The company has raised $16 million in venture capital overall.
