The State of EdTech Investing: Are You Up-to-Date?

The State of EdTech Investing: Are You Up-to-Date?

 

Educational technology (EdTech) continues to make headlines today, and not just for the obvious reasons of improving the reception and performance of students in and out of classrooms. EdTech has become an investment hotbed, considering that more than $37.8 billion has been invested in educational technology companies since 1997 (with 62% of those dollars invested in the last three years specifically).

Many educators and advisors agree that EdTech has become a vital resource to educational institutions, one that we cannot ignore today. Through the power of technology in education, schools can provide more access to education, refine educational availability based on learning needs and habits, and teach students that can’t necessarily come into school every day.

 

Regardless of its use-case, everyone agrees that EdTech is here to stay.

 

EdTech Players

Who are some of the biggest EdTech investment players in the game today?

  • Common bond: Focusing on supporting students and higher-ed institutions with loans, financial services, and financial support, Commonbond raised $50 million in the last year. As they work to find a solution to student debt, more EdTech startups are working hard to try and give them a run for their money.
  • Trilogy Education: Raising $80 million through their first round of funding, Trilogy Education has partnered with 35 universities to fill skills gaps, like offering short-term coding boot camp programs.
  • Handshake: This startup raised $40 million for its proprietary platform that helps students fresh out of college or high school connect with the right employers. In turn, they are trying to decrease the number of time students spend job searching, which can potentially turn into an employment slump.
  • DreamBox: Raising more than any other EdTech startup, Dreambox secured $130 million in growth equity funding from TPG’s The Rise Fund. The platform is an adaptive learning company that specifically focuses on math, a typically hard subject for students.
  • HolonIQ: Known as the world’s most comprehensive global education intelligence platform, HolonIQ is all about the data. They provide data that helps investors to find companies that are the right fit, reducing the time and money typically put into the search.

 

That’s just a small peek into what companies, startups, and inventors are doing in the world of education technology today. If you are thinking of investing in these opportunities, now is not the time to delay. The numbers are only going to swell.

 

Looking to the EdTech Future

The education industry as a whole is expected to rise to $8 trillion by 2025. Exponentially increasing every day, investors know something as critical as education is never going to diminish in prominence.

 

Technically, EdTech is nothing new. It’s just growing in power due to the communication, digital, and technology tools at our fingertips today. So while we look for new technologies to teach kids, let us look at how these technologies will alter the learning experience for these digital citizens.

 

References

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robynshulman/2018/01/26/edtech-investments-rise-to-a-historical-9-5-billion-what-your-startup-needs-to-know/#400869913a38

https://about.crunchbase.com/blog/edtech-educational-technology-investors/