The State of the Dutch Edtech ecosystem

One of the most important industries for both societies and for spending, in the last 19 months Education has gone through one of the biggest forced disruptions in living memory. In partnership with Dutch Edtech, we’ve dived into the Dutch Edtech ecosystem of 406 startups, to see where Edtech in the Netherlands currently stands, the emerging trends, and where the future of education lies.

An underinvested sector

$6.5T is spent on Education globally each year, making it one of the biggest consumer categories.

Dutch sectors

Dutch edtech lagging behind

Despite being one of the leading European startup ecosystems, The Netherlands ranks 10th in Europe by funding for Edtech startups and 7th by total combined edtech startup valuation.

However, there is some positive movement, with VC investment growing at 90% CAGR since 2016, the fastest in Europe, albeit from a low base.

Edtech investment

Record investment in 2021

In total €110 million of venture capital has been raised by Dutch edtech startups since 2016, with Amsterdam edtech startups responsible for 79% of the total, and almost half of all investment raised in 2021 alone.
Dutch Edtech VC

The value of Dutch Edtech startups has also tripled in the last year, led by StuDocu and Goodhabitz. This suggests that a general early-stage ecosystem is beginning to build significant traction.

Dutch Edtech value

European edtech on the global stage

Global EdTech investment is on track to grow by 50% in 2021. And while Europe has been slower off the mark, investment is growing faster than in any other mature market, and is now home to three Edtech unicorns (two of which passed this billion dollar mark this summer).

Global Edtech companies are now worth €298 billion, a 3.8x increase since 2016.

The edtech opportunity

Global education and training expenditure is set to hit $10 trillion by 2030, while so far <4% of training and education has been digitized.

The means there is an enormous opportunity ahead for Edtech startups, in the Netherlands, Europe and the rest of the world, to claim ground in an industry that is changing faster than perhaps ever before.