Filipino Startup Avion School Secures P6 Million Investment

Filipino startup Avion School has just bagged a $125,000 investment from Y Combinator, a U.S.-based accelerator that has invested in Airbnb, Dropbox, and Reddit.

Avion School is an edtech startup that teaches aspiring software engineers in only 12 weeks. It was only formed in 2020, but has already managed to secure two major investors. The first of which occurred in July 2020, and included Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen as one of the company’s first investors.

The platform aims to promote software development education in the Philippines in order to give Filipinos the skills and opportunities needed for employment. Software development is a career that can be done via remote work and is currently in demand around the world.

Avion School’s biggest draw for potential students is that it allows enrollees to pay for tuition after they’ve been hired as software engineers. The startup also assists its graduates in landing positions after completing the 12-week course.

“The reality is that hiring engineers is insanely difficult because not enough people are trained with the skills required to build tech products,” said Victor Rivera, CEO of Avion School, to Tech in Asia. “In essence, we’re building a ‘call center 2.0’ but with software engineering talent.”

Avion School said it would use the initial investment from Mateen to finance the next 15 batches within 12 months and produce at least 400 new software engineers. Since then, seven batches have graduated from Avion School.

The startup claims that its graduates have landed jobs with salaries that are 40 percent higher than the market rate, and some students have reportedly secured salaries that are five times the market rate.