Startup Plans to Expand Low-Cost, Online Cloud Training Beyond AWS

Written by Aldrin Brown
August 28, 2017

‘A Cloud Guru’ announced this week it has secured $7 million in Series A funding, which it intends to use to add similar training for Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Salesforce.

It’s about to get a whole lot easier – and less expensive – to get those public cloud certifications.

For the past two years, A Cloud Guru – a startup launched by a pair of Australian brothers – has been working to revolutionize delivery of IT training by offering online Amazon Web Services (AWS) certification courses for as little as $29 each.

A nine-course “advanced” bundle with all eight AWS certifications costs $339.

This week, A Cloud Guru announced it has secured $7 million in Series A funding from Silicon Valley based Elephant Venture Capital, which it intends to use to add similar training for Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Salesforce.

“We think there is a huge play to disrupt the way IT training is done,” co-founder Sam Kroonenburg told The Australian Financial Review.

“The big problem with cloud used to be security,” he added. “Now everyone has worked out that it’s more secure in most cases, but we don’t have the people with the skills.”

A Cloud Guru maintains offices in Austin, Texas; Washington, D.C.; London and Sidney, Australia.

Expedia, Capital One and Xero are among its corporate customers.

The company’s website proudly boasts it has already delivered AWS training to more than 250,000 students in 160 countries since it launched in late 2015.

They hope to reach the one-million-student mark during the next year.

“There’s about 1.7 million cloud-related vacancies right now and spend on cloud by 2020 will be $203 billion,” co-founder Ryan Kroonenburg told the publication. “Someone has to teach the engineers how to do it.”

The $125 million Elephant Venture Capital fund was started about two years ago by 30-something-year-old venture capitalists Jeremiah Daly and Andy Hunt.

Hunt is also co-founder of eyewear company Warby Parker.

“We chose to invest in A Cloud Guru because they’re destroying the existing technical training paradigm,” Hunt is quoted as telling tech.eu. “It’s amazing that they’ve figured out how to profitably deliver training of this caliber at a price that’s accessible to everyone, and we look forward to helping them reach their millionth customer.”

Visitors can sample an hour-long AWS Technical Essentials course for free.