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Coding prodigy swapping GCSEs for Silicon Valley

Adriana Elgueta
BBC News
BBC Toby works at his desk in his bedroomBBC
Toby, 16, has secured a $1million deal with Silicon Valley investors for his AI platform Beem

As a toddler, Toby Brown first began tinkering with padlocks. Then he started kitting his house out with alarms made out of bits of paper and wires.

By the time he was in primary school, he had coded timetable games and was selling them back to his teachers in Twickenham, west London.

The schoolboy later ed Hack Club, a global hackers' community for teenagers, where he became their youngest employee at age 13.

Now at 16, Toby has secured a $1m deal with Silicon Valley investors for an AI platform he has built, Beem.

family handout Toby, a seven-year-old boy, is building computer. He is wearing a blue T-shirt and is holding a metal object inside a white metal case. In the background is a bookcase full of ornaments, books and photographs.family handout
Toby as a seven-year-old building a computer

Toby has postponed taking his GCSEs and instead is jetting off to build up his business in sunny California.

He said: "This amount of money is going to be so helpful. I actually got the phone call on my birthday, so it was a great birthday gift.

"My friends were quite shocked by it. I made the mistake of not telling them early enough, and it got to the last week of school, and the news came out, and suddenly everyone was like, 'Ah, Toby, can I have a tenner":[]}