Code First Girls Pitch Deck: All 11 Slides + Teardown

See all 11 slides of the Code First Girls pitch deck — a 2023 deck — with a slide-by-slide teardown of what the deck does well and where it falls short.

Code First Girls successfully raised a $5.1M Series A in 2023 with a deck that prioritizes market demand and enterprise traction over traditional educational metrics. By framing their mission as a solution to the UK’s £30bn programming talent gap, they transitioned from a social impact project to a critical infrastructure partner for the FTSE 100. The deck is notable for its aggressive growth visualization, showing 80+ new clients since FY19/20 and a client list that spans 50% of the UK’s largest banks. While the deck lacks a formal team slide or detailed unit economics in this 11-slide versi…

Key takeaways

Code First Girls: The Series A Teardown

Code First Girls represents a shift in how social impact startups approach venture capital. In their 2023 Series A deck, which facilitated a $5.1M raise, the company moves away from the 'non-profit' aesthetic, instead presenting a high-octane B2B growth story. The deck is lean, at only 11 slides, and focuses heavily on the supply-and-demand imbalance in the UK tech market. By positioning themselves as the primary pipeline for female tech talent, they transform a diversity initiative into a business-critical utility for the FTSE 100.

Slide 1: The Brand Identity

The title slide sets a high-energy tone. Using high-contrast black and white photography of women in tech environments paired with a vibrant pink accent color, the brand establishes itself as modern and professional. The '2022' branding suggests this deck was likely in circulation leading up to the 2023 close. It is a standard cover, but the inclusion of the logo and the year provides immediate context for the vintage of the data to follow.

Slide 2: The Macro Opportunity

Slide 2 is a classic 'Market Size' slide with a specific geographic focus. It claims the 'Demand for tech talent is insatiable' and predicts the market will 6x by 2025. The slide uses two circles to compare the 2021 TAM (£5bn) to the 2025 projected TAM (£30bn). The data is attributed to 'Microsoft Data Science utilizing LinkedIn Data,' which adds a layer of third-party credibility to the aggressive growth claims. By focusing on the UK market specifically, they make the opportunity feel tangible and immediate rather than a vague global estimate.

Slide 3: The New Model

This slide explains the mechanics of the business using a Venn diagram. It splits the value proposition between 'Employers' and 'Candidates.' For employers, the focus is on 'Regional & Ethnic Diversity' and a '100% ROI on job placement.' For candidates, the hook is 'free education without penalty' and 'autonomy.' This slide is crucial because it addresses the 'who pays' question. By stating they fund the education, they clarify that the candidate is the product and the employer is the customer. The mention of 'igniting industry action' suggests a B2B sales strategy that leverages corporate social responsibility (CSR) budgets alongside recruitment budgets.

Slide 4: The Traction Curve

Slide 4 is the 'money slide' of the deck. Titled 'Client Growth is Exploding,' it features a line graph showing a sharp upward trajectory starting in late 2021. The metrics provided are impressive: 80+ new clients since FY19/20, 50% of the UK’s biggest banks, 5+ government departments, and representation across 10+ industries. The bottom of the slide is a 'wall of logos' including Goldman Sachs, Deloitte, Rolls-Royce, and GCHQ. This level of enterprise social proof is rare for a Series A social impact startup and serves as the primary de-risking mechanism for investors.

Slide 5: The 10-Year Vision

Moving from the present to the future, Slide 5 outlines the long-term 'Network Effects.' The company aims to be the 'global community that empowers half the planet.' The specific goals listed are more grounded: building the world’s largest data set on women tech candidates and becoming an 'absolute necessity' for tech employers. This slide attempts to move the company from a 'recruitment agency' valuation to a 'data and platform' valuation by emphasizing the proprietary data set they are building through their community.

Slide 6: Social Proof and Testimonials

The final slide in this selection focuses on testimonials. Unlike many decks that feature student quotes, this slide prioritizes the buyer's voice. It features high-level endorsements from Issi Saumtally (Chief Data Officer, Cabinet Office) and Duncan Milne (Partner, Deloitte). The quotes emphasize the 'calibre of the candidates' and the 'brilliant set of candidates.' This reinforces the Slide 3 claim of 100% ROI and high-quality talent, proving that the 'free' education model does not result in lower-quality output.

What Code First Girls Does Exceptionally Well

The strength of this deck lies in its B2B framing . Many education startups fail to raise significant VC funding because they are viewed as low-margin 'bootcamps.' Code First Girls avoids this by focusing on the 'insatiable' demand from the enterprise side. They aren't selling courses; they are selling a solution to a £30bn talent gap.

The client concentration is also a major highlight. Capturing 50% of the UK's largest banks is a significant moat. In the enterprise world, banks are notoriously difficult to clear for procurement and security. By showing logos like Barclays and Goldman Sachs, Code First Girls signals to investors that they have already passed the most rigorous corporate hurdles, making future scaling much easier.

Finally, the visual consistency is excellent. The deck uses a limited color palette (Pink, Black, White) and high-quality photography that makes the company feel like a premium brand. This professional polish is necessary when your target customers are the Cabinet Office and Deloitte.

What is Missing from the Deck

While the 11-slide deck is effective, there are notable omissions that a founder should be aware of:

Team Slide: The provided slides do not include a breakdown of the leadership team. For a Series A, investors typically want to see the pedigree of the founders and their ability to execute in both the education and enterprise sales sectors. · Unit Economics: While they mention '100% ROI,' the deck lacks a slide on Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) vs. Lifetime Value (LTV). How much does it cost to train one woman, and what is the average placement fee received from a partner like Deloitte? · Competition: The deck operates as if Code First Girls is in a vacuum. There is no mention of other coding bootcamps (General Assembly, Le Wagon) or diversity-focused recruitment platforms. · The Ask: The provided slides do not state the amount being raised or the intended use of funds. While we know from publisher reports that they raised $5.1M, a standard pitch deck usually concludes with a clear funding requirement and a roadmap for that capital.

Founder Lessons: How to Apply This Strategy

1. Solve a 'Burning' Problem: Code First Girls doesn't lead with 'it would be nice if more women coded.' They lead with 'there is a £30bn talent shortage.' Founders should always frame their mission as a solution to a massive, quantifiable economic problem.

2. Use Logos as a Moat: If you have enterprise clients, make them the centerpiece of your traction slide. A single logo from a company like Goldman Sachs is worth more than a thousand words of growth projections.

3. Define Your 'Data Moat': Slide 5 is a great example of how to pitch a service business as a tech business. By claiming they will own the 'world's largest data set' on their demographic, they are telling investors that their value isn't just in the placements they make today, but in the proprietary information they will own tomorrow.

4. Prioritize the Buyer's Voice: In a two-sided marketplace, the side that pays the bills is the one that needs to be featured in the testimonials. Code First Girls correctly identified that investors care more about what the Partner at Deloitte thinks than what a student thinks, because the Partner at Deloitte is the one who validates the revenue model.

Frequently asked questions

What is the primary revenue model suggested by the deck?
While specific pricing is not disclosed, Slide 3 and Slide 4 indicate a B2B recruitment and placement model. The company offers '100% ROI on job placement' for employers, suggesting that while education is free for candidates, the enterprise clients pay for access to the talent pipeline and diversity hiring services.
How does Code First Girls define its market opportunity?
They define it through the lens of the UK's tech talent shortage. According to Slide 2, they utilize Microsoft Data Science and LinkedIn data to show a Total Addressable Market that is expected to 6x, reaching £30bn by 2025 for new programming roles.
Which industries are most represented in their client base?
The deck highlights a strong presence in finance and government. Slide 4 explicitly mentions that 50% of the UK’s biggest banks are clients and displays logos for Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Barclays, NatWest, and Credit Suisse, alongside the Cabinet Office and GCHQ.
What is the 'Network Effect' mentioned in the vision slide?
Slide 5 describes their network effect as the accumulation of the 'world’s largest data set on women tech candidates.' By becoming an 'absolute necessity' for tech employers to scale, they aim to integrate directly into the global talent pipelines of major corporations.
Does the deck include financial projections or a specific 'Ask'?
The 11-slide version provided focuses on traction, market size, and vision. It does not include a detailed use of funds, specific revenue projections, or the exact dollar amount being raised, though publisher data confirms the round resulted in $5.1M.
Cover slide of the Code First Girls pitch deck — Series A 2023
Code First Girls pitch deck, slide 1 (2023)

Code First Girls pitch deck: the facts

Company
Code First Girls
Year
2023
Stage
Series A
Slides
11
Sector
Education / HR Tech
Deck type
Fundraising
Outcome
$5.1M Raised
Headquarters
Europe (UK)

Code First Girls pitch deck PDF

The full Code First Girls deck is embedded on this page and can be read slide by slide in the browser — no download or account required. Each slide is covered in the breakdown above.

What the Code First Girls pitch deck was used for

This is Code First Girls’ 11‑slide Series A pitch deck, used to raise approximately $5.1M (£4.5M) in 2022/2023 from lead investor Active Partners and a group of prominent female angel investors.[1][9][10] The company is a London‑based social enterprise that provides free coding courses to women and non‑binary people and sells B2B talent solutions to employers.[4][8][12][14] The deck reframes Code First Girls from a mission‑driven training provider into a high‑growth B2B talent engine, emphasizing its ability to train more women to code than UK universities and to deliver guaranteed, diverse tech hires for large enterprises.[6][10][15] The funds were raised to scale internationally, expand programmes, and move toward a target of teaching 1 million women and building a global community of women coders.[1][13][15]

Business model: Social enterprise providing free coding and technical training to women and non‑binary people, monetized via corporate talent solutions, sponsorship, and B2B hiring services.[4][8][14]

Raised
£4.5M (approximately $5.1M) Series A[1][9][10]
Lead investor
Active Partners[1][9][10]
Investors
Active Partners (lead), Michelle Kennedy (CEO and founder of Peanut), Claire Davenport (CEO of notonthehighstreet.com), Rona Ruthen (former VP at Monzo), Rosaleen Blair CBE (founder of Alexander Mann Solutions), Clare Johnston (CEO and founder of The Up Group), Additional prolific female angel investors as described by Code First Girls and press coverage
Founded
2012[14]
Founders
Entrepreneur First founders (initially created by EF founders)[9]
Headquarters
London, United Kingdom[11][14]
Industry
Education / HR Tech (coding education and tech talent recruitment)[4][8][12][14]

Round: Series A (described as the company’s first institutional fundraise, labeled Series A rather than Seed).[1][9][10]

Year: 2022 (round announced September 2022; Business Insider coverage aligns with this timeframe even though some references frame the deck as securing a Series A in 2023).[1][9][10]

Total funding: £4.5M Series A (~$5.1M), described as the company’s first fundraise.[1][9][10][13]

Use of funds as presented: To scale Code First Girls internationally, expand programmes, and set the company on a path to teach 1 million women and become a large, global community of women coders dedicated to closing the gender gap in tech.[1][10][13][15]

What happened after the Code First Girls deck

Following its £4.5M Series A round led by Active Partners and female angel investors, Code First Girls has continued to expand as a major provider of free coding education for women and a B2B talent‑pipeline partner for over 100 corporate employers, with ambitions to reach a million women globally.[1][5][6][11][13][14][15]

What the Code First Girls deck got right

What could have been stronger

How an investor would read this deck

What draws attention

Risks that stand out

Questions this deck invites

What founders can take from the Code First Girls deck

Code First Girls pitch deck: common questions

What does Code First Girls do?

Code First Girls is a social enterprise that provides free coding and technical training to women and non‑binary people, primarily across the UK and other regions, while helping companies access diverse female tech talent through hiring and talent‑pipeline programmes.[4][8][12][14]

How much did Code First Girls raise in its Series A round, and when?

Code First Girls raised a £4.5M (around $5.1M) Series A round in 2022, which Business Insider and other sources describe as a Series A completed with lead investor Active Partners and a group of prominent female angel investors.[1][9][10] Although the deck is referenced as helping secure a Series A in 2023, funding announcements place the round in September 2022.[1][9][10]

Who invested in Code First Girls’ Series A round?

The Series A was led by consumer‑focused investment firm Active Partners (known for backing brands such as Soho House, Leon, Rapha, and Honest Burgers) and joined by a number of notable female angel investors, including Michelle Kennedy (Peanut), Claire Davenport (notonthehighstreet.com), Rona Ruthen (former VP at Monzo), Rosaleen Blair CBE, and Clare Johnston (The Up Group).[1][9][10]

What was the focus of Code First Girls’ Series A pitch deck?

Code First Girls used its 11‑slide Series A deck to pitch a model where it trains women for free at scale and then monetizes through B2B employer partnerships, highlighting its community of tens of thousands of women, strong diversity metrics, and guarantees around job placement and ROI for employers.[6][10][15] The deck was featured publicly by Business Insider as the pitch that helped raise about $5.1M.[10]

How big is Code First Girls’ community and impact so far?

Code First Girls reports having taught more women to code than the entire UK undergraduate system and becoming one of the largest providers of free coding courses for women globally, delivering over £75M worth of free technology education and teaching around 150,000 women by 2024.[6][12][15] It also works with over 100–130 companies on talent subscriptions and has reached hundreds of thousands of women through its programmes and community.[11][15]

Sources

Funding and outcome facts on this page were researched on 2026-08-30 from the pages below.

Code First Girls pitch deck slides

Code First Girls pitch deck slide 1 of 11
Code First Girls pitch deck — slide 1 of 11
Code First Girls pitch deck slide 2 of 11
Code First Girls pitch deck — slide 2 of 11
Code First Girls pitch deck slide 3 of 11
Code First Girls pitch deck — slide 3 of 11
Code First Girls pitch deck slide 4 of 11
Code First Girls pitch deck — slide 4 of 11
Code First Girls pitch deck slide 5 of 11
Code First Girls pitch deck — slide 5 of 11

What each slide of the Code First Girls pitch deck says

Slide 2

THE MISSION GIVING WOMEN THE U2FAIR ADVANTAGE Code First Girls places women and underrepresented minorities in tech jobs. We've trained more women how to code than the entire UK university system. We have 10x revenue and user growth since FY19/20.

Slide 3

DEMAND FOR TECH TALENT IS INSATIABLE - MARKET WILL 6x BY 2025 Total addressable market for current programming roles in the UK* t Data Science utilizing LinkedIn Data.

Slide 4

AND TECH EMPLOYERS ARE DESPERATE FOR DIVERSITY = 1QUALIFIED WOMAN FOR EVERY 115 ROLES BY 2025 By2025 By 2025 New skilled graduates™* New roles in Software, Data, AI/ML, Cyber * **Source: Microsoft Data Science utilizing LinkedIn Data. **Source: UCAS

Slide 5

BETTER FOR EMPLOYERS WE IGNITE INDUSTRY ACTION WE DELIVER REGIONAL & ETHNIC DIVERSITY WE ACHIEVE 100% ROI ON JOB PLACEMENT CODE FIRST GIRLS HAS CREATED A NEW MODEL — BETTER FOR CANDIDATES WE BUILD COMMUNITY & SUPPORT WE GIVE AUTONOMY TO CANDIDATES WE FUND THE EDUCATION & WITHOUT PENALTY

Slide 6

- THE CODE FIRST GIRLS MODEL MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSES Open instructor-led tech sprints & automated coding challenges for 1,000's 8 week closed classrooms Beginners to professionals Universities & career switchers Mass candidate acquisition & ' Regional candidate pipelines & engagement, employer brand building University seeding on behalf of employers 14-18 week cohort in data, software & 90% want to move to class full-stack. 50 universities UNCGABPED 92% want to move to nano degree 128 overstbseribed Best candidates pre-selected by region & profile Scalable talent solution 100% job placements filled 810% oversubscribed 100+ employers

Slide 8

THE CODE FIRST GIRLS COMMUNITY DRIVES OUR DEFENSIBILITY OUR COMMUNITY %< 80,000 50+ women taught to university partners code for free 57% 34% fromunderrepresented STEM degrees ethnicities 35% 90,000+ first generation to followers across all attend university social channels HUONG NGUYEN CAREER SWITCHER TO FRONT-END ENGINEER @MCKINSEY CHANDI PALAN CAREER SWITCHER TO Al PRODUCT OWNER @ FACULTY ISABEL SCAVETTA @UNIKICKSTARTER & FELLOWSHIP TO AGILE (Al & DATA) ENABLER @ ROLLS ROYCE "L MARY ADENOLA @UNIKICKSTARTER & FELLOWSHIP TO DATA ANALYST @ Aptiv

Slide 9

IN 10YRS WE WILL BE THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY THAT EMPOWERS HALF THE PLANET TO BE THE CREATORS OF OUR FUTURE

Slide 11

"Firstly can thank you and express what a hugely wonderful and brilliant set of candidates that you arranged for. Truly outstanding bunch! It has made it ever so hard to disappoint any of the candidates as they were all so good and inspiring." CHIEF DATA OFFICER, Lo CABINET OFFICE Cabinet Office "We have been really impressed with calibre of the candidates from CFG. Thank you for sourcing such great individuals. We really look forward to welcoming them into Deloitte later in September." Deloitte. PARTNER, DELOITTE *genuinely* would not have had the confidence to pursue a career in tech if it wasn't for @CodeFirstGirls - have met so many women in tech who started from doing a CFG course and…

Slide text above is read directly from the Code First Girls deck PDF embedded on this page.

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