The Rise of Edtech: One BIG result of the 2020 Pandemic
One of the biggest emerging trends to come out in 2020 was the rise of Edtech (Educational Technology). I don’t need to go into too much detail about how disillusioned and concerned parents and students were feeling about institutional education as a whole prior to the pandemic. The crazy rising costs of education with a range of 144% to 200% in tuition increases since 2000 according to US News & World Report. (Source:https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2017-09-20/see-20-years-of-tuition-growth-at-national-universities)
There was also a non-surprising consequent rise in student debt (almost $29k usd for bachelor degree) and frankly declining quality and student satisfaction of schools at almost all levels.
MOOCs like Coursera, Udacity, EdX, Udemy were a precursor to the Edtech boom in the 2010s. It fizzled out despite the promise of making education more accessible. But it did show that education is at heart a big bundle: not just content itself but arguably, it’s the network, community, identity & the credential.
The pandemic lockdowns showed the Education emperor had no clothes. The pandemic completely unbundled this & forced every parent and student to re-evaluate what it is they were getting with their hard earned money. Basically NOT very much. Especially in California where my kid goes to school.
But thankfully Education is changing. Lots more options coming up: Homeschooling for example really grew, doubling to 11.1% in households with school age children. Outschool generated $100M in bookings and raised over $120M in two rounds in 2020 and 2021.
We’ve also seen the rise of ISA’s (Income Sharing Agreements) prior to 2020 as exemplified by Holberton School, Lambda School, Kenzie Academy,Strive School in Germany, even Mate Academy out of Ukraine. These companies have only continued to grow and expand more in the post 2020 world.
But more importantly: the INTERNET really came to the fore. One of the best classes I ever took was an online writing class by David Perell called “Write of Passage'' in 2020. Amazing group of people, great content and I personally learned a ton. They took the best of what traditional offline schools do, but combined it with the best of the internet (international distribution, flexibility, remote and diverse).
Venture Capitalists have definitely noticed these new trends, changes and opportunities.
Reforge raised $20M, Ondeck raised $20M, Maven a cohort driven education platform raised $20M from A16Z. Professor Galloways Section 4 for business school students. One of the most exciting companies is Synthesis (https://www.synthesis.is), a spin out from SpaceX.
There is so much activity happening here and I truly believe all these new education options are great for society in the long run. This will be the space to watch in the next few years and if done well, this might be the leverage that pushes our civilization to the next level.