SV FOR SILICON VALLEY: SV Academy, a San Francisco-based provider of vocational courses in sales and business development, has raised $9.5 million in a Series A round led by Owl Ventures. Other investors include Bloomberg Beta, Kapor Capital, Rethink Education, Strada Education Network and Uprising.
Founded in 2017, SV Academy currently offers an online 12-week course that aims to prepare students with the skills needed to land business development and sales jobs at tech companies. Tuition for the program costs around $10,000, but students do not pay. Instead, this fee is covered by companies that pay the school upon hiring its graduates.
Students are expected to pass a rigorous application review before being accepted. Once the courses begin, they take online classes, meet with mentors and work on group projects. At the end of the program, they are matched with employers. SV Academy guarantees that all jobs will have a starting salary of at least $79,000.
Admission is competitive. According to TechCrunch, SV Academy currently receives about 1,000 applications a week, and graduates about 100 students every month. Of the company’s graduates, 60 percent are women, 40 percent are African American or Latino, and 70 percent are first-generation U.S. college graduates.
