Four entrepreneurs from Greater London will launch the first-ever Code Ninjas centre on British soil this September
Since its announcement to recruit in the U.K. a few months ago, the American kid’s coding franchise has already signed up its first franchisees for the country.
After attending a Code Ninjas discovery day in May, the four friends and entrepreneurs instantly recognised the opportunity and secured their position to become the brand’s first UK franchisees.
Opening this September, the Code Ninjas Pinner and Harrow centre is already receiving customer enquiries. Keen to capitalise on the demand, David Graham, founder and CEO of Code Ninjas, expects it won’t be long before other prospects follow suit.
“We’ve never had a franchisee come on board as quickly – it actually made Code Ninjas history,” he explained. “We’ve had an unbelievable response since announcing the franchise is expanding into the U.K.—more than 40 serious prospects attended our first UK discovery day.
“Coding is big business; parents are crying out for a fun, friendly portal for their children to develop this skill. It was a case of ‘right place, right time’ for our expansion and we’re very excited to have welcomed our first U.K. franchisees into the fold.”
The franchisees bringing Code Ninjas to the UK are Prasad Prabhakaran, Srinivasa Rao, Sridhar Bhat, and Sharath Iyer, who come from varied backgrounds in technology, finance, telecoms, operations and education.
“As a team, our skills are complementary, and our objectives are the same – we want to build a profitable business that will make an impact in our community,” said former technology executive, Prabhakaran. “Kid’s coding programmes are in such high demand across the board. In Pinner and Harrow specifically, there is an abundance of business professionals who understand the importance of technology and the benefit of programmes, like Code Ninjas, for their own children.
“With such demand for kid’s coding sessions, we expect the franchise to grow quickly. Our long-term goal is to open additional centres in neighbouring communities in the coming years. We’re very proud that we’re the first to bring Code Ninjas to the U.K. and can’t wait to see what the future holds.”
Centres to teach kids how to code is a growing business, both in the U.S. and the U.K., as parents are continuing to put an emphasis on STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) education for their children.
Graham, also a father of two, understands the obvious need for the Code Ninjas franchise in the UK: “In this day and age, it’s crucial that our children are able to not just use but understand and master the technology that plays a part of their everyday lives. What we offer is a fun, safe place where kids can come and just be kids, whilst learning a valuable skill. That’s why the programme has performed so well. We now have more than 150 Code Ninjas centres across the U.S. and Canada, with almost 100 more openings planned before the end of the year.”
Graham is confident that the U.K. will replicate, if not surpass the U.S. in terms of growth speed and breadth of coverage. The brand states that nine out of 10 parents want their children to learn how to code and Code Ninjas aims to provide this service to as many communities in the U.K.