Codecademy raises $2.5M to make you a coding master

There’s something about Codecademy that made investors plunk down $2.5 million dollars today to help the Y Combinator startup teach more people to code online. Codecademy uses game mechanics to make JavaScript instruction fun and engaging for people who use its simple, clean online interface.

The money is going to be used to hire new team members, according to co-founder Zack Sims, who  told VentureBeat the company is going to be looking for coders and designers to help with the rollout of new coding languages.

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To coincide with their funding announcement, Codecademy launched a new programming course today written by Union Square Ventures partner Albert Wenger. Joining USV in the funding round are O’Reilly AlphaTech, Thrive Capital, SV Angel, Yuri Milner, Chamath Palihapitiya’s  Social + Capital Partnership, Founder Collective, Michael Arringcton’s CrunchFund, Collaborative Fund as well as a star-studded list of angel investors including Vivi Nevo, Dave Morin,  Naval Ravikant, and others.

Codecademy had more than 200,000 users who had completed 2.75 million exercises when Sims and co-founder Ryan Bubinski presented their company at Y Combinator Demo Day this Summer. “We’re not talking about users now,” said Sims, but he added, “things have not really slowed down.