Galvanize's urban campus for digital entrepreneurs just landed a fresh $18M

Whoever said education is entirely moving onto the Internet and our devices might need to hold that thought.

Today, Galvanize, a network of urban campuses focused on education for tech and Internet entrepreneurs, is announcing it has landed $18 million as its first round of funding. The company said it plans to use the funds to launch new campuses across the U.S., starting with building out its San Francisco location and new education offerings.

Galvanize is an ecosystem, sort of an incubator, aiming to nurture entrepreneurs and their ventures with a variety of resources from education to networking, and even funding through its venture capital arm, all in one physical space — the closest thing to a “startup school.” The company is headquartered in Denver, Colo., but has been working on opening campuses in other locations.

“Galvanize is the future of education for the skills-based economy. Now is the time to more profoundly disrupt how we train the next generation of digital innovators and entrepreneurs,” said University Ventures Fund partner Daniel Pianko, who invested in Galvanize, in an official statement.

“Galvanize is more than a new model. It’s a movement that’s challenging how we approach technology, entrepreneurship, education and talent development,” he added.

Galvanize opened its first campus in Denver in Oct. 2012 and has since opened additional campuses in Boulder, Colo. and San Francisco’s SoMA neighborhood. The latter will expand to a 70,000 square-foot campus and will include additional classrooms, event space, and a 250-person auditorium.

Along with workshops, Galvanize offers its gSchool program, which is a 24-week immersive program focused on web development, likely attempting to rival the web development bootcamps that have become en vogue in the past few years.

University Ventures Fund led this round, with additional participation from other investors.

Galvanize was founded in 2012 by JimDeters, LawrenceMandes, and ChrisOnan.