Is European Edtech funding falling behind?
The fourth annual European Edtech Funding report, by Brighteye Ventures with Dealroom data, has just been launched. It digs into the health of the Edtech funding landscape in 2023, the market development, most prominent regions, and future trends set to define the next generation of startups and of learners.
While in the first half of the year Edtech’s VC funding remain strong, in the second half of the year the sector felt significantly less optimistic, with the surge of capital that defined 2021 being replaced by a pullback in VC investment and valuations. It’s hard to find a bright outlook in lean times, however, Edtech remains a $6.5T market opportunity, and Education one our most important problems to solve.
Global Edtech returns to pre-pandemic levels
In 2022, global Edtech startups raised $9.1B, that’s down 55% from 2021 but still 18% higher than pre-pandemic levels. Although the year had a strong start, with over 70% of the total VC funding raised in H1 2022, funding slowed down significantly, with only $2.5B raised in H2 2022.
European Edtech remained the most resilient
All the core Edtech markets (Europe, US, India, China) dropped in VC funding compared to 2021 levels. However, Europe stands out as the least impacted region. While the European VC funding in 2022 decreased by 31% compared to 2021, still doubled compared to 2020 ($0.9B vs $1.8B).
The rate of new unicorns slowed down in 2022
Following a similar trend across different sectors, in 2022 Edtech’s new unicorn creation slowed down significantly across all regions. The most significant dropped occurred in the US, where only 3 new unicorns were minted in the last 12 months compared to 17 in 2021.
Specialists occupy the top ranks in new investments
GSV and Brigtheye Ventures maintained their positions as the most active VCs in Edtech by the number of new investments, with 10 and 8 new participated deals respectively.
Generalists also remained active in the sector, with prominent names like Tiger Global, Andreessen Horowitz and Global Founders Capital ranking in the top 10.
Workforce development was the most funded segment
While layoffs by tech companies have been a recurring theme last year, companies are increasingly spending to retain their staff. Corporate Learning was the only edtech segment that maintain the levels of VC funding in 2022. This was driven by larger rounds, such as Multiverse‘s $220M Series D, Coachub‘s $200M Series C and SoSafe‘s $73M Series B.
During the last 18 months, we’ve been working with Brighteye Ventures 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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