In a sea of online coding schools promising full-stack fluency and six-figure jobs, Scrimba dares to be radically different. This Oslo-based startup has created a lightweight yet powerful education platform that’s rethinking how developers learn to code — and who gets access.
At its core, Scrimba is an interactive learning platform for aspiring developers, offering self-paced courses and structured bootcamps in frontend development, AI, and more. But the real magic lies in its tech: a proprietary video format called “scrims,” which allows students to pause any lesson, jump into the code editor, and tweak or run code live — all within the video itself.
“It’s not just watch-and-code. It’s code-while-you-watch,” says co-founder and CEO Per Harald Borgen, explaining why scrims have become the centerpiece of Scrimba’s approach.
A Visual Revolution in EdTech
Traditional video-based learning tends to create a passive experience, and coding is anything but passive. Scrimba tackled this friction head-on by making the video itself part IDE, part classroom, and fully hackable.
Every scrim effectively becomes a live environment. Users can:
- Edit the code in the video frame
- Execute changes instantly
- Switch between teacher-led content and hands-on practice seamlessly
This hybrid format has attracted more than 120,000 monthly active users, enabling the platform to scale organically through community-driven momentum.
From Bootstrapped Beginnings to Y Combinator Backing
Founded in 2016, Scrimba spent its early days iterating on product mechanics with a lean core team. Over the years, it pulled in nearly $940,000 in funding, including backing from Y Combinator (Summer 2020 batch), Amasia, Alliance Venture, and Schibsted Ventures.
That capital helped refine both the curriculum and tech stack while maintaining their signature low-cost model — a “gym membership”-priced education platform aimed at global learners. With over 500,000 students served and $1.9 million in revenue in 2024 alone, Scrimba is proving that democratizing dev education can also be a sustainable business.
Meet the Makers: A Lean, Mission-Driven Team
Unlike many venture-backed startups bloated with middle management, Scrimba keeps its structure nimble. The team of around 10 includes:
- Per Harald Borgen (CEO) and Sindre Aarsæther (CTO), leading vision and technology
- Bob Ziroll and Tom Chant, heading education
- Designers like Daniel Butler and Roku Blac ensuring a high-quality UX/UI
This compact, focused team has become a model of remote-first productivity and design-led product development.
Why Scrimba Isn’t Just Another Coding School
There are hundreds of platforms promising to teach you JavaScript or how to build your first app. Scrimba’s edge isn’t just in its scrim tech or affordability — it’s in pedagogical innovation. Learning to code isn’t just about syntax; it’s about feedback, iteration, and failing forward.
By embedding code interaction directly into the learning content, Scrimba is shortening the learning loop and making feedback feel immediate. This is what sets it apart in the increasingly crowded EdTech landscape.
What’s Next?
With the rise of AI and evolving expectations for developer education, Scrimba is well-positioned to scale into new verticals. Bootcamps are evolving, and so are learners’ expectations — and Scrimba’s unique hybrid format is meeting that change head-on.
Whether you’re a total beginner or a dev looking to upskill in frontend or AI, Scrimba.com offers one of the most accessible, innovative, and downright enjoyable coding experiences available today.
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