A global wave of education innovation: the Edtech funding report 2022
Globally, venture capital investment in edtech startups has smashed all previous records. $20B was invested into edtech startups in 2021 (up 1.3x since 2020), startup value is up 15.8x in the last decade, and one-third of all edtech unicorns were minted in last year alone.
Brighteye Ventures’ third annual European Funding report, made with the support of Dealroom data, digs into the development of the Edtech funding landscape to date, and the future trends set to define the next generation of startups and of learners.
This project is part of our ongoing partnership with Brighteye Ventures, Europe’s leading edtech venture capital fund. Together with Brighteye, we aim to map the edtech innovation and provide global intelligence and trusted insights into edtech startups & scaleups, investors, and beyond across the edtech ecosystem.
A second record-breaking year for edtech startups
After the hive of activity in 2020, the hopes of Edtech founders and specialists were high going into the new year. If anything, 2021 has shown Edtech’s growth isn’t an ephemeral trend.
In 2021, Edtech startups raised $20B in VC funding globally, that’s more 1.3x the 2020 total. This growth has been mainly driven by megarounds, which accounted for 62%. Not only are $100M+ rounds are becoming more frequent, but also more global.
Increasing geographic distribution
2021 also produced a broadening of the edtech funding landscape. The Chinese government crackdown on online tutoring platforms meant that China not only lost its lead in Edtech (-4.3x vs 2020) but was surpassed by Europe for the very first time. Edtech investment is becoming more geographically distributed.
A new unicorn every two weeks
There are now 64 Edtech unicorns globally, 23 (or ⅓) of which passed the billion dollar mark in 2021 alone. The US leads for edtech unicorns creation, with 32.
Strengthening of the European Ecosystem
Investment into European Edtech startups has more than doubled in the last year, making the region one of the fastest-growing globally. Although rounds up to $40M lead the European funding landscape, late-stage investments are increasing their share of capital.
GoStudent, 360Learning, Multiverse and Ornikarhave all surged with $100M+ rounds in 2021. A sign that the European Edtech ecosystem is heating up.
Diversity in Edtech
The report also lays out some of the first analysis on funding distribution by founding team gender composition in edtech startups. In 2021, 77.8% of all Edtech funding was secured by all-male founding teams, compared to only 2.6% for female-only founding teams. While 19.6% of funding was secured by mixed -teams.
There is still much improvement to be made, however, the European Edtech funding distribution is considerably more diverse than the European startup average. In Atomico’s latest State of the European Tech report, we saw that only 9.9% of total capital was raised by mixed and all-women founding teams vs 20% by Edtech mixed and all-female founding teams.
We’re delighted to have partnered with Brighteye to bring forward the most comprehensive data yet on the global edtech startup ecosystem.
To read the full report head to Brighteye’s website:
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