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§ Private Profile · 800 Brazos St, Austin, Texas 78701, US
Online learning platform providing cloud computing education and certification for IT professionals across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
A Cloud Guru has raised $40.0M across 2 funding rounds.
Key people at A Cloud Guru.
A Cloud Guru has raised $40.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Austin, Texas-based A Cloud Guru operates a B2B and B2C subscription online learning platform that provides cloud computing education and technical certification preparation. The SaaS company offers video courses, hands-on labs, and quizzes designed to help enterprise technology teams develop practical skills for major providers like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Prior to its acquisition, the educational platform expanded its global reach by purchasing Linux Academy in 2019 and ultimately scaled to serve more than 2.5 million individual learners and 4,000 enterprise customers. In June 2021, the business was acquired by Pluralsight, a portfolio company of Vista Equity Partners, in a strategic transaction that valued the combined enterprise at more than $2 billion. A Cloud Guru was originally established in London during 2015 by brothers Ryan Kroonenburg and Sam Kroonenburg alongside Ant Stanley.
Key people at A Cloud Guru.
A Cloud Guru has raised $40.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
A Cloud Guru's investors include Tom Jennings, Barney Harford, Richard Burton, AirTree Ventures, Elephant, Andrew Hunt.
A Cloud Guru has raised $40.0M across 2 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $33.0M Series B in April 2019.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 1, 2019 | $33M Series B | TOM Jennings | Barney Harford, Richard Burton, Airtree Ventures, Elephant | Announced |
| Jul 1, 2017 | $7M Series A | Andrew Hunt | Barney Harford, Richard Burton | Announced |
A Cloud Guru (ACG) is an online education platform that provides comprehensive cloud skills training, including certification courses, hands-on labs, interactive quizzes, and content for AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and more.[1][3][7] Founded with the mission "to teach the world to cloud," it serves individuals and enterprises seeking to bridge the cloud skills gap by offering accessible, engaging, and up-to-date learning to accelerate cloud adoption and career growth.[1][4][5] ACG solves the problem of expensive, outdated cloud training by delivering personalized, scalable education to over 2.5 million users worldwide, powering rapid upskilling for businesses and professionals.[1][2][6] Its growth culminated in a 2021 acquisition by Pluralsight, enhancing its scale and integration into a broader tech skills ecosystem.[1][2][6]
Brothers Sam and Ryan Kroonenburg founded A Cloud Guru in 2015 in Australia, frustrated by the high cost and irrelevance of existing cloud training amid rapidly evolving technology.[1][2][3] Drawing from their cloud engineering backgrounds, they built a serverless platform from scratch in under 30 days, leveraging community feedback to create fun, affordable courses priced like a movie ticket.[1][3] Early traction was explosive: within eight months, ACG gained over 280,000 students across 181 countries, evolving from basic courses into a full e-learning platform with labs and assessments.[1][3] Pivotal moments included 2018 investments from Summit Partners and Bain Capital Tech Opportunities, a merger with Linux Academy, and the 2021 Pluralsight acquisition, which validated its market leadership and expanded its reach.[1][2][6]
A Cloud Guru rides the explosive growth of cloud computing, addressing the critical skills gap as enterprises migrate to multi-cloud strategies amid digital transformation.[6][7] Its timing was ideal: launched during the cloud boom, it capitalized on demand for certifications and upskilling when legacy training lagged, influencing the edtech space by proving serverless models for global scale.[3] Market forces like talent shortages in AWS, Azure, and GCP favor ACG, as businesses prioritize cloud maturity for competitive edges; post-acquisition, it bolsters Pluralsight's enterprise offerings, shaping how millions build cloud-native careers and accelerating industry-wide adoption.[1][2][6]
As a Pluralsight brand, ACG is poised to dominate cloud skills development with expanding multi-cloud content, AI-driven personalization, and enterprise tools for hybrid workforces.[7] Trends like AI integration in clouds and rising certifications will fuel demand, potentially evolving ACG into a full tech-stack learning hub. Its influence may grow by setting standards for hands-on edtech, empowering broader workforce transformation—echoing its founding mission to make cloud mastery accessible to all.[5][6]
