[November 12, 2014]

Venture Capital Firm Invests $5.4 Million in gr8code, a Tampa Based, Women-Owned Startup

A venture capital infusion of $5.4 million over four years will bring attention and resources to a women-owned developer boot camp based in Ybor City. Scheduled to receive the funding from OmniElite Financial Group (OmniElite), gr8code is locally owned and co-founded by Virginia Barnett, Phuong Nguyen Cotey and Deborah Alvarez Neff. The gr8code curriculum is designed to make students proficient, confident and employable in a compressed timeline.

Through a nine-week, fully intensive course on front-end development, gr8code teaches HTML, CSS (News - Alert), JavaScript and associated server-side tech. Practicing professionals are training students out of a historic bungalow in Ybor City to think and work like a developer. Justin Davis, gr8code's vice president of program development, is an internationally recognized designer and developer whose clients include Coke Zero, Bic, Metlife and Lenox. Davis created the curriculum from a user experience, quality-over-code mill perspective.

"This funding is substantial and will help us expand our programs faster and broaden our reach," says Virginia Barnett, CEO and co-founder of gr8code. "It's immensely rewarding to know that we can empower local residents and seriously change their lives while growing the intellectual capacity of our tech sector, too. This funding, whih we believe is the largest ever in Florida awarded to a women-owned business, puts us on the map and further positions our market as a tech attractor, which is an economic driver for our community."

According to a recent report by Babson College, less than 3 percent of the 6,793 companies that received $51 billion in venture capital from 2011 to 2013 were women-led startups. Daniel James Scott, associate director of entrepreneurship at University of South Florida St. Petersburg, which boasts one of the country's leading entrepreneurial programs, states that after exhaustive research, he believes this funding to be the largest for a women-owned tech startup in Florida.

"We believe in gr8code's vision and look forward to their impact in the entrepreneurial tech space locally, nationally and even worldwide," says Steve Brickner, president and CEO, at OmniElite. "This is not a typical investment for us, but after meeting with the gr8code team and several of our key investors, it quickly became apparent that we wanted to be involved in this tech initiative."

In addition to providing traditional and non-traditional students career-changing skills, gr8code has established partnerships with several local businesses that are seeking to hire front-end, back-end, .net and mobile app developers upon completion of the nine-week course. The existence of these relationships creates a job stream that makes the education even more attractive.

"It's a very good thing to know that venture capitalists are supporting a STEM initiative in the state of Florida instead of San Francisco, Austin or New York," says Daniel James Scott.

Financing is available for the $10,000 nine-week course, which includes a complimentary MacBook Pro and facilitation of interviews and job offers. The expectation for a student who successfully completes the boot camp is almost immediate employment in high paying jobs with salaries averaging at $55,000.

ABOUT GR8CODE:

gr8code, is a Tampa, Florida based company that teaches computer coding skills in nine intensive weeks and connects graduates with employers looking to hire. For more information, visit www.gr8code.com or call (813) 268-CODE (2633).

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