Codeup buys Rackspace Cloud Academy

A San Antonio tech career training company has acquired Rackspace Technology’s cloudcomputing academy.

Codeup, which launched in San Antonio in 2013, purchased Rackspace Cloud Academy for an undisclosed amount in a deal that closed April 16.

“We have a 10-year mission to be the No. 1 place in Texas to enter a career in technology, and the acquisition of Rackspace Cloud Academy is just another piece in our continuing to that goal and that vision,” Codeup CEO Jason Straughan said. “We’re excited to integrate their curriculum and programs, students and alumni and partners into what we’re currently working on.”

Located in the Vogue Building on Navarro Street, Codeup has continued to expand throughout the pandemic.

“In February of 2020, we opened our Dallas campus, and then last year, we opened a virtual campus with offices in Houston and another virtual campus in Austin with offices this month,” he said.

With its Cloud Academy acquisition, he said, “we will have five additional classrooms at the castle,” the nickname for Rackspace’s headquarters in Windcrest.

The Rackspace purchase will increase Codeup’s campus and classroom footprint in Texas by 80 percent.

According to Straughan, the ownership change should be seamless for current Rackspace Cloud Academy faculty and employees. They’ll remain at the Rackspace facilities.

“We’ve kind of gone from teaching people web … seven years ago to now we teach data science, web development and, as of today, systems administration and cyber cloud,” he said.

Codeup’s courses range from 13 weeks to 22 weeks and cost between $13,500 and $29,500, with tuition-assistance programs. Last year, Codeup awarded more than $230,000 in scholarships to its students.

The school was the first coding boot camp in Texas, and the second in the country, to allow former military people to leverage their GI Bill or Veterans Affairs benefits to offset tuition costs, according to Straughan.

Codeup has trained nearly

740 people since it opened. Roughly 1,000 students have completed programs at the Rackspace Cloud Academy since it launched in 2013.

“We’ve always admired what (Rackspace) Cloud Academy was doing, and we’ve never considered them a competitor because we taught different curriculum in different areas,” Straughan said.

Codeup also partners with Project Quest, a nonprofit jobtraining organization in San Antonio.

Rackspace declined to comment for this article.

Marvin Pfeiffer / Staff file photos Students work on a project at Codeup in 2019. The purchase increases its campus and classroom footprint in Texas by 80 percent.

Codeup, based downtown, says its goal is to be the “No. 1 place in Texas to enter a career in technology.”