Udemy acquires coding platform as subject demand rises

Talentbuddy, an interactive platform that teaches coding, has been acquired by the online course platform Udemy. In a blog post, Udemy cited a need for more interaction and support for its coding students as the main reason for acquiring the smaller company, as coding is now the most popular subject offered on it's platform.

Vancouver-based Talentbuddy, an online school that focuses on teaching full stack web development, has been acquired by Udemy, an online learning and teaching marketplace headquartered in San Francisco.

2/2 We're thrilled to work together on enabling millions of students to build their coding skills using interactive learning experiences! — talentbuddy (@talentbuddy) February 18, 2016

TalentedBuddy, which is Udemy’s first acquisition, was founded in 2013 as a way to help developers prepare for technical interviews.

“We initially created an interactive programming platform that helped students prepare for coding interviews, solve problems in over 14 programming languages, and learn by studying the solutions of their peers,” the company said in a blog post. “Over time, we used the same approach to create new courses and mentorship programs focused on helping developers learn to create complex web applications with Node.js and Ember.js.”

Talentbuddy has been used by 45,000 developers to improve and learn new skills, and its past investors include Version One Ventures, Mike Edwards, BDC Capital, and Highline. Its founders, Octav Druta and Andrei Soare, will join the Udemy as employees.

Udemy currently has 10 million students worldwide, and has said that this acquisition is especially helpful as Talentbuddy’s technology will allow Udemy instructors to provide more hands-on lessons for students.

“Talentbuddy hasn’t just been building products the last few years; they’ve been working with actual students to understand their needs and have gained an intuitive sense about what enables aspiring programmers to reach their goals,” the Udemy team said.