Upgrading the classroom

Despite advances in recent years, education remains vastly under digitized. In 2020, only 3.6% (or $225B) of global education expenditure was allocated to tech. Although forecasts indicate an increase to 5.2% by 2025 this value can still be considered quite conservative. Why is the integration of effective technologies into formal education such a complex endeavor?

How technology is procured and used, how it is embedded in the classroom, and where the school is located are all critical factors to its effectiveness. When poorly managed, an increase in public spending on tech can bring relatively small improvements in education outcomes (Mckinsey). 

Historically, institutional K-12 solutions lagged behind B2C solutions. Only 4 of the 70 edtech unicorns are developing management solutions for the institutional K-12 segment. This translates to VC’s interest in companies offering these solutions - educational management startups raised $721M out of the $8.4B raised in the K-12 segment in 2021.

But the tide is turning. An increase in adoption rates, reducing skepticism towards new solutions and increasing pressure on administrators to increase budgets have all contributed to bringing much-needed hope for the advancement of tech in classrooms.

In an increasingly omni-channel and distributed learning environment, startups are stepping up with emerging solutions to help make teachers' lives easier. For example, GoGuardian, a startup that started as a Chrome extension that lets teachers monitor students' activity online during school hours, is used in over 10,000 US school districts. Another example is Nearpod that helps level up pedagogy via real-time tools for curriculum production.

Discover 50 companies revolutionizing tech for teachers

In other news

🇺🇦 Supporting Ukrainian students of all ages - the European Edtech Alliance. The European Edtech Alliance is compiling a list of Edtech initiatives offering support for learners from all learners from or in Ukraine. The list has already amassed 50+ solutions. If your company is not featured, you can fill out this form.

📈 How to prepare a Seed or Series A funding round - Brighteye Ventures. This guide aims to help founders through early funding rounds, and it includes perspectives on when to raise, outlined timelines, how to approach the right funds, getting introductions, pitch structures, closing and much more. 

🔮 Every company will be an edtech company - Reach Capital. Talent has always been in high demand, but as of late, it has been in the headlines more frequently. Studies project a global human talent shortage of over 85 million people by 2030, costing $8.5 trillion in unrealized annual revenues. People are hungry to reskill and upskill and as a result, Edtech is finally being seen as a must-have component to every company’s value proposition.

🗳️ Brighteye’s European Corporate Learning Survey 2022 - Brighteye Ventures. Brighteye Ventures is looking to conduct a study about the European corporate learning segment. This survey has less than 20 questions and all responses are anonymous. If you have a spare few minutes,  help us collect valuable insights.

Latest edtech deals:

The largest deals from the last month:

🇺🇸 San-Francisco based Cresta reached unicorn status with an $80M Series C at a $1.6B valuation. The startup develops an AI-powered platform designed to help contact centre agents to uncover expert behaviors from customer conversations and amplifying them with real-time assistance and coaching. 

🇮🇳 Byju’s, the highest-valued edtech startup, raised a $800M late-VC round at a $22B valuation. The round was led by its co-founder, Byju Raveendran, who invested $400M into the round. Sumeru Ventures, Vitruvian Partners and BlackRock also participated in the round. The financing comes at a time when the edtech giant is eyeing a possible IPO via SPAC. 

🇬🇧 The high cost of textbooks is a pain point for many students and parents, especially in higher education. Perlego, a startup revolutionizing academic textbooks, is looking to change that. The UK-based startup just raised a $50M Series B round led by Mediahuis and with participation from the VC arm of Raine Group, Evli Growth Partners and various angel investors. 

🇮🇳 Classplus, a platform designed to connect and engage tutors with their students and parents, raised an $80M Series D. The Dealroom team is tracking solutions enabling online tutoring. Are we missing any? Feel free to suggest companies.

🇺🇸 Osso VR, a startup developing training and assessment for healthcare professionals, raised a $66M Series C. Keep track of other medical education solutions on our platform.

Other notable edtech deals: 

🇺🇸 Stellic raised a $11M Series A. The startup is modernizing the university degree planning experience to help students graduate on time. More about the funding announcement on Stellic’s CEO letter. 👈 

🇫🇷 Invivox, a healthcare platform dedicated to democratising and facilitating medical training content between healthcare professions, raised a $7.7M Late-VC round led by Educapital and with participation from MACSF, ISAI and Bpifrance. 

🇬🇧 sAInaptic, an automated revision, learning, and assessment platform using natural language processing (NLP) technology to mark and give instant feedback on open-ended exam responses, raised a Pre-seed round led by Brighteye Ventures.  

🇨🇦 Disco, a platform to build, market, and sell live courses, workshops, and learning communities, has raised a $15 Series A round.  

🇮🇹 Epicode, a startup offering online courses for people looking to improve their web developing skills, raised a $11M Series A and announced a merger with Berlin-based Strive School.  

Read up on all the latest edtech deals in Dealroom.co.

Notable exits:

🇳🇱 Hague-based edtech company, Paragin, acquired dutch STEM education provider SOWISO for an undisclosed amount. 

🇧🇷 Mind Lab acquired the Brazilian startup eduK for an undisclosed amount. 

Read up on all the latest edtech exits in Dealroom.co

Tip of the month

Together with Edtech Garage and Brighteye Ventures, I’ll give a walkthrough through Dealroom’s Edtech dedicated platform today at 4PM CET. The tour will show how to navigate data visualisations, curated searches & lists and other fast & intuitive tools. We'll also host a Q&A. Sign up here (hope to see you there!).

Job opportunities

+3,000+ open roles at education management startups like Arbor Education and GoGuardian. 

And Dealroom.co is hiring for 12 positions, including an Account Executive Government, Senior Data Engineer and Client Success Manager.

Discover +34K jobs openings at edtech startups (login for full results)

Dive in

🤝 Supporting and funding Edtech - A landscape of VCs, CVCs, accelerators, and other stakeholders investing and supporting edtech startups. 

👩 Edtech startups with a female founder 

💸 Most active investors by number of edtech rounds invested in the last 3 months

Knowledge partners

Carla Napoleão

Innovation Analyst
Dealroom.co

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