BloomTech, the online school that spent most of its life as Lambda School, is closed. California’s Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education records December 31, 2025 as the last day of instruction. The company site is still live as of October 8, 2026, with an “Apply Now” button, a free trial, and 2022 placement numbers on the homepage, so treat it as abandoned marketing rather than an open program. What actually happened sits in two documents, a federal consent order and a state closure notice. Our BloomTech Data Science program page carries the same verified record in shorter form.
Austen Allred, its CEO, started the school in 2017 as Lambda School, built around the income share agreement: study now, pay a percentage of your salary later once you are earning. That financing model, more than the curriculum, is what made the school famous and what eventually drew regulators. It rebranded to BloomTech in late 2021 into 2022. The headcount traces the arc on its own, with layoff rounds in April 2020 and April 2021, then 88 people cut in December 2022 (about half the company), and another halving in December 2023 that, per Wikipedia, removed all full-time instructors.
What the CFPB’s April 2024 order found
On April 17, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a consent order (2024-CFPB-0001) naming both BloomTech and Allred. The CFPB’s enforcement action found that the school marketed its income share agreements as “not loans” carrying “no finance charge” when they were consumer loans carrying an average finance charge of about $4,000. It also found that BloomTech advertised job-placement rates of 71% to 86% while its own internal figures were closer to 50%, and in some cases as low as 30%.
The order fined BloomTech $64,235 and Allred $100,000, both paid into the CFPB’s victims relief fund. It permanently banned BloomTech from consumer-lending activities and banned Allred from student-lending activities for ten years.
What the order did to existing ISAs
The order also reached back into contracts students had already signed. Income share agreements were rescinded outright for graduates who had not held a qualifying job in the previous year. Finance charges were eliminated for graduates more than 18 months past their program who were earning $70,000 or less. Current students were allowed to withdraw and cancel their ISAs. Those are the three categories a former borrower should check against their own situation.
For context on the money at stake: the Data Science program page listed $13,500 upfront in the US, $12,000 for international students, or deferred tuition quoted at “$19,000+”. BloomTech also advertised a “110% Tuition Refund Guarantee”, a full refund plus 10% for a graduate who followed the job-search program and got no qualifying offer within a year. With the program closed, that guarantee is uncollectable.
The ISA still advertised on the program page is a separate, later set of terms: $2,950 down, then 14% of salary for 48 monthly payments once you earn at least $50,000 a year, and not offered to California residents. That it is still posted means nothing. The April 2024 order permanently bars BloomTech from consumer lending, so no new ISA can lawfully be issued. The historic ISA the CFPB examined was different again, at 17% of income for 24 payments, capped at $30,000.
The homepage placement numbers are the company’s own
Two figures still sit on bloomtech.com: an 86% job-placement rate and a $37,000-plus median salary increase for placed graduates. Both are BloomTech’s own unaudited 2022 numbers, and the second is a salary increase, not a median salary. They are also the exact kind of claim the CFPB order contradicts, since the order found the school’s own internal figures were closer to 50%. Read them as marketing the company published about itself, not as verified outcomes. For the record, techinterview.org has no affiliate relationship with BloomTech and earns nothing from this page, and the bootcamp-directory hubs linked below are non-affiliate too.
After the layoffs, Allred launched Gauntlet AI, a free Austin-based AI training program that r/codingbootcamp threads describe as running through the BloomTech entity. It is separate from the Data Science and full-stack coding bootcamps BloomTech used to run, and its outcomes are not something this record can verify.
How the closure is recorded
The authoritative closure document is California’s. The BPPE closure notice states that the school reported December 31, 2025 as the last day of instruction. It tells former students to request their transcripts, enrollment agreements, and ledgers as soon as possible, and lists Allred’s Austin contact details for those records requests. It also tells California residents, and anyone who attended in-person instruction in the state, that they may qualify for the Student Tuition Recovery Fund, with the state’s OSAR office able to help file a claim. STRF claims are subject to a statutory filing window, and a school’s closure can start that clock, so confirm your own deadline with OSAR rather than assume there is none.
The timeline, with sources
| BloomTech / Lambda School, as of October 8, 2026 | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Founded as Lambda School, built on the income share agreement | Wikipedia |
| March 2019 | California’s BPPE fined the school $75,000 and ordered it to stop operating without approval | Wikipedia |
| April 2020 | First layoff round (19 people) | Wikipedia |
| August 2020 | BPPE approved the school after it agreed to stop offering ISAs in California | Wikipedia |
| April 2021 | California’s DFPI settled over how student contracts were described as debt; second layoff round (65 people) | Wikipedia |
| May 2021 | Three former students sued | Wikipedia |
| Late 2021 into 2022 | Rebranded from Lambda School to BloomTech | Wikipedia |
| April 2022 | Another lawsuit, naming CEO Austen Allred | Wikipedia |
| December 2022 | Layoffs of 88, about half the company | Wikipedia / Class Central |
| March 2023 | Class-action lawsuit filed | Wikipedia |
| December 2023 | Half of remaining staff and all full-time instructors laid off | Wikipedia / Class Central |
| April 17, 2024 | CFPB consent order (2024-CFPB-0001): ISAs found misdescribed, placement claims inflated; fines and lending bans imposed | CFPB |
| December 31, 2025 | Last day of instruction | BPPE |
| October 8, 2026 | Site still live with “Apply Now” and 2022 placement claims | techinterview.org record check |
If you were a BloomTech or Lambda School student
Three actions, in order of how time-sensitive they are. First, if you are still being billed on an income share agreement, match your situation to the three relief categories above. If a servicer is still collecting on an ISA the order rescinded, or charging a finance fee the order eliminated, the CFPB enforcement action linked earlier is the document to cite back at them; don’t wait to be notified, since the relief may be something you have to invoke yourself. Second, request your transcripts, enrollment agreement, and ledger now, through the contact the BPPE closure notice lists (the notice gives an Austin mailing address and [email protected]), because records get harder to retrieve the longer a closed school sits dormant. Third, if you are a California resident or attended in-person instruction in the state, a Student Tuition Recovery Fund claim is on the table, but because a statutory filing window applies, contact the BPPE’s OSAR office promptly to confirm your own deadline; OSAR can help you complete the application.
What this teaches you to check in a school that is still open
BloomTech’s record doubles as a checklist for vetting any program that is still enrolling:
- An income share agreement is a consumer loan. Get the finance charge, the APR, and the total you could end up paying in writing before signing. “Not a loan” with “no finance charge” were the exact claims the CFPB found false.
- Ask how a “placement rate” is computed, who counts as placed, and whether a third party audited it. BloomTech’s 86% was its own unaudited figure, against internal numbers closer to 50%.
- Confirm the school holds current state approval, such as an active BPPE approval in California. BloomTech operated without it in 2019 and was fined for doing so.
Run those checks against a program that still operates and still publishes audited outcomes; the AI and machine-learning bootcamp hub and the broader bootcamp directory are where to start.
Useful next steps:
