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WiseTech Global, Australia’s largest ASX-listed technology company, is pumping $8.7 million over three years into the charity that rescued Grok Academy, a free online coding platform, as both organisations attempt to draw a line under separate scandals that have damaged their reputations.
WiseTech, which develops logistics software used by freight and shipping companies worldwide, is seeking to rebuild following founder Richard White’s forced resignation as chief executive in October 2024. Grok Academy, meanwhile, is recovering from harassment findings that brought down its founder, prominent coding educator James Curran.
“I think you should sort of see this as a bit of a fresh face for Grok,” WiseTech chief executive Zubin Appoo said. “Yes, there’s some history there that we don’t want to be associated with. We want to focus on how we move forward.”
WiseTech Global CEO Zubin Appoo and KIK CEO Louise Nobes.Credit: WiseTech Global.
The funding will support KIK Innovation, an Adelaide-based education charity that acquired Grok Academy’s platform and intellectual property in November 2024 after the organisation faced collapse.
Grok had been a significant player in Australian schools technology education, providing free coding courses to students at 3400 schools and running the National Computer Science School, a summer program that had operated for more than two decades. More than 1 million students have used its learning platform.
Former Grok Academy chief executive James Curran resigned from his position.
The announcement marks a significant evolution in the relationship between WiseTech and Grok. White, a billionaire software entrepreneur who founded WiseTech in 1994, had previously pledged $50 million to support Grok’s education programs. But that relationship soured in July 2024 when he abruptly withdrew his personal financial support, triggering redundancies that affected 80 of about 100 staff.
Louise Nobes, who founded KIK Innovation and now serves as both its chief executive and WiseTech’s new head of education, said the acquisition was completed rapidly after a board director flagged concerns about Grok’s survival.
“It was actually a board director that said, you know, you might need to reach out to some of your contacts at Grok and see how you can provide some support,” Nobes said. “That really just led to a very fast-paced evolution.”
Nobes said KIK inherited no ongoing legal disputes related to Curran or the television show Future Fixers, which this masthead revealed this month had been quietly mothballed after eight near-complete episodes featuring Curran were deemed too toxic to air. The show, which was financially supported by Grok, had been designed to showcase teenage technology talent on prime-time television.
“It was literally the platform that came over to KIK Innovation with a couple of key staff, and that’s all,” she said. She added that no educators had raised concerns with her following the revelations and no schools had dropped the Grok Academy platform.
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The scandals that precipitated Grok’s near-collapse were detailed by this masthead in October 2024. Curran, an associate professor who had helped write the national computing curriculum for primary and high school students, was subject to three separate investigations that substantiated harassment allegations.
Nine women, including six who were high school students at the time of the alleged conduct, accused him of sending inappropriate messages. Curran apologised but his departure triggered the organisation’s unravelling.
White’s exit from WiseTech followed a joint investigation by this masthead and The Australian Financial Review that revealed a $2 million settlement with a former lover and allegations of bullying by a former director. While White remains WiseTech’s largest shareholder and board chair, he stepped down as chief executive, making way for Appoo.
White was recently cleared by an internal WiseTech investigation that found no evidence he misused company funds in his close personal relationships with two women. He is still facing an ongoing investigation by corporate regulator ASIC for alleged insider trading, however, specifically selling more than $200 million in shares during a prohibited “blackout period”.
White and WiseTech Global have said that White obtained independent legal advice before the share trades in question.
Asked whether WiseTech had changed any governance processes following the Curran matter, particularly around programs involving young people, Appoo said: “We have very strong protocols in place, especially when young people are involved... But no, there was no specific change that we made as a result of anything that happened with the prior iteration of Grok.”
Richard White at WiseTech’s investor day in December.
He added that before finalising the sponsorship, “there was a lot of work that went into vetting and reviewing KIK, including Grok as part of KIK, and we were very comfortable with that sponsorship arrangement”.
White was involved in approving the deal in his capacity as board chair, Appoo confirmed, though he said the chief executive drove negotiations.
Nobes said the Grok Academy platform had grown 35 per cent since KIK took over. “We want to be in every classroom in Australia – every classroom has a disadvantaged young person,” she said.
The sponsorship will support the WiseTech Global Programming Competition, which offers $30,000 in prizes for high school students, and create a pathway to WiseTech’s Earn & Learn program. That initiative pays year 12 school-leavers to study computer science at university while working at the company, with 125 students currently enrolled.
The Grok platform offers courses in programming languages including Python, JavaScript, HTML and CSS, alongside cybersecurity and design thinking. All content is free to teachers and students across Australia and New Zealand.
WiseTech has pledged $8.7 million to get Grok Academy into more schools.
Appoo said the partnership reflected WiseTech’s belief that coding skills benefit students regardless of their eventual career.
“It helps you solve problems,” he said. “It helps you think about problems with a logical mindset and know how to deconstruct and reconstruct and solve problems in a really smart way. Our view is that coding is going to help people, no matter what industry or what job they end up in.”
For WiseTech, the sponsorship also forms part of a broader education strategy aimed at addressing skills shortages in the Australian technology sector.
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