The top 10 biggest edtech fundraisings in the last year

Edtech funding has been dropping since 2021, meaning only the best companies are raising money

Much like healthcare, the pandemic was a boon for the edtech space: thanks to the rise of e-learning and new technologies to help kids learn while schools were being shut down and the classroom shifted online, investors began pouring money into these companies. 

As a result, funding jumped 80% globally from 2019 to 2020, going from $8.61 billion to $15.46 billion. It then rose another 47% to $22.73 billion in 2021. The rise was even more pronounced in the United States, with funding growing from $3.3 billion in 2020 to $9.61 in 2021, a rise of 191% in one year.  

Then, much like the healthcare space, it all crashed once the pandemic receded: globally, investments fell 50% in 2022 and another 67% in 2023 to just $3.65 billion. In the U.S., funding dropped 55% in 2022 and then 64% in 2023 to just $1.56 billion.

As of early June, startups in the edtech space raised just over $1 billion in total funding around the world, meaning investments in edtech are on track to hit their lowest point in years. 

That does not have to be a bad thing, though: as belts tighten, and funding gets harder to raise, that just means that the companies that do manage to raise funding are going to be the best companies, the ones that actually deserve that capital. These will be the ones with real metrics and the ability to win the space. 

Here's a list of the ten biggest funding rounds raised by U.S.-based edtech companies in the last year:

Preply

• Description: Preply is an online tutoring platform, aiming to help students achieve their learning goals and prepare them to speak confidently.
• Founded: 2012
• Total amount raised: $170.1 million
• Last funding round: $70 million in July 2023
• Investors: Techstars, Point Nine, Swisscom Ventures, Reach Capital, Owl Ventures, Hoxton Ventures, One Way Ventures, All Iron Ventures, The Family, David Helgason, Inovo VC, Educapital, RTA.vc, Xevin Investments, SMRK VC Fund, Semyon Dukach, Digital Future, Horizon Capital, Eastlabs, ORBIT Capital, Evli Growth Partners, Hedgehog Fund, Niklas Ostberg, Full In, Mariusz Gralewski, Arthur Kosten, Vostok Ventures, Diligent Capital Partners, Gary Swart, Przemek Gacek, Torben Majgaard, Daniel Hoffer, Vadim Yasinovsky, Boris Shakhnovich

  Transfr 

• Description: We train people for well-paying careers available now in high-demand fields, enabling learners to find job security and upward mobility, facilitated by immersive, hands-on VR training.
• Founded: 2017
• Total amount raised: $87 million
• Last funding round: $40 million in September 2023
• Investors: JPMorgan Chase & Co., Akkadian Ventures, Spring Tide Capital, ABS Capital Partners, Album VC, Firework Ventures, Lumos Capital Group, David Blake, Fabio Rosati, Stuart Udell, Jeffrey Wald, Dennis Yang, Imagination Capital, Greg Norman, Jeffrey Venik, Bay Street Ventures, Upstage Ventures, Social Starts

Praktika

Learn to Win

• Description: Learn to Win provides a platform for creating and delivering interactive training modules for sports teams, businesses, and the military
• Founded: 2018
• Total amount raised: $34.1 million
• Last funding round: $30 million in June 2024
• Investors: Pear VC, Norwest Venture Partners, The Westly Group, J4.Venture, Hyperspace Ventures

Expressable

• Description: Speech therapy that makes your home a classroom
• Founded: 2019
• Total amount raised: $45.5 million
• Last funding round: $26 million in May 2024
• Investors: Digitalis Ventures, HarbourVest Partners, Lerer Hippeau, F-Prime Capital, NextView Ventures, Amplifyher Ventures

Fizz

• Description: Fizz is a social platform that serves as a private discussion forum and news feed for schools
• Founded: 2020
• Total amount raised: $41.5 million
• Last funding round: $25 million in August 2023
• Investors: Green Sands Equity, Owl Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Lightspeed Venture Partners, K5 Global, Rocketship.vc, Green Sands Equity, Octane Capital Management, Rakesh Mathur, Smash Ventures

Elevate K-12

• Description: Elevate K-12 is an instructional services company that provides live streaming instruction to K-12 classrooms
• Founded: 2015
• Total amount raised: $79.2 million
• Last funding round: $25 million in May 2024
• Investors:Trinity Capita, General Catalyst, IrishAngels, Arsenal Growth Equity, VITALIZE Venture Capital, Delaware Street Capital

Modal.io

• Description: Modal.io is a Mastery Platform that gives every employee the skills they need to do better work by teaching them the technical skills
• Founded: 2021
• Total amount raised: $31.7 million
• Last funding round: $25 million in April 2024 
• Investors: nsemble VC, Learn Capital, Left Lane Capital, SignalFire, Bling Capital, Norwest Venture Partners

Abre

• Description: Abre is a K-12’s data solution company that provides a software platform to integrate data from EdTech platforms across a school district
• Founded: 2017
• Total amount raised: $31.1 million
• Last funding round: $24 million in April 2024
• Investors: Golden Angels Investors, PeakSpan Capital, JobsOhio, Jumpstart Ventures, Golden Angels Investors, CincyTech, Connetic Ventures, Allos Ventures, M25

Elsa

• Description: Elsa is an AI-enabled language learning platform that focuses on spolen English communication
• Founded: 2015
• Total amount raised: $48.3 million 
• Last funding round: $23 million in September 2023
• Investors: SOSV, Bossanova Investimentos, Endeavor Catalyst, StartX, Gradient Ventures, Susquehanna International Group, Google Launchpad Accelerator, UOB Venture, Monk’s Hill Ventures, 500 Startups Vietnam, Globant Ventures, Vietnam Investments Groups, Uni-President Enterprises Corporation, David Evans, Asia Growth Investment Fund

International edtech companies

Of course, as noted above, the majority of edtech funding comes from countries outside of the United States, with the U.S. accounting for just 42% of investments in 2021 and 38% in 2022.

For example, the biggest funding round of the last 12 months globally was in GoStudent, an Austrian digital platform that connects students to teachers in a virtual learning environment. The company raised a $95 million funding round in August; it has now raised over $780 million. 

Other European companes that raised funding include Lepaya, a Netherlands-based company that offers training so that businesses can upskill their staff; it raised $38 million in September. Meanwhile, Zen Educate, a London-based platform that connects teachers with openings in schools. The company raised a $37 million funding round in February, bringing its total raised to $71.5 million.

The Middle East has also seen plenty of activity in the edtech space, notably Noon, a social learning platform company based in Saudi Arabia that raised a $41 million Series B in November. Another Saudi company, iStoria, an edtech app that helps people improve their English language through reading stories, raised $1.33 million in January.

There's also Loora, an Israeli e-learning app that allows its users to learn and speak English, which raised $12 million in March. 

There's also Lamsa, which means “touch” in Arabic, a platform dedicated to early childhood learning, offering entertaining education to children, data and insights for teachers and an opportunity for co-playing with parents. That company has raised $1 million in funding. 

(Image source: marmoremena.com)