Startup Radar: VCs on 10 edtech startups you need to know

Global venture investment in edtech has continued to dwindle this year after the pandemic drove record levels of investment.

So far this year, $2.7 billion has been invested in edtech startups across 453 deals, according to PitchBook data. At its peak in 2021, VC funding in the sector reached $17.2 billion as COVID-19 forced schools and businesses to close, moving learning online. But the return to normalcy, combined with the downturn, has caused deals to slow particularly in the later stages.

“The edtech VC landscape experienced a notable shift from Q1 2022 to Q1 2023, marked by a decrease in overall investment activity and a decline in mega-deals that were prominent in 2021,” said Zara Zama, head of platform at edtech VC Emerge Education. “Whilst 2023 is unlikely to see a return to the funding levels of the years prior, education is a long game, and we expect to see consistent growth in the next decade.”

Zaman also noted that advances in AI have the potential to significantly transform the edtech sector, allowing further opportunities for scale, personalization and improved access.

We asked Zaman and four other VCs active in edtech to share two startups—one in their portfolio, one not—that they expect to excel this year.

Zara Zaman
Head of platform, Emerge Education (London)

SkillsTrust (Ireland)

“SkillsTrust harnesses the power of AI, along with communities of industry practitioners, to build an ever-expanding library of authentic job-task simulations, tailored to the real-time needs of employers. It contributes to a more transparent and equitable hiring process by ensuring that all people have the chance to show their true potential.

“By differentiating high-performing candidates with the skills needed for the job from those that simply interview well, we are excited about the potential to improve outcomes for both employers and job seekers.”

Green Flower (US)

“A category that most people don’t think of when it comes to edtech: cannabis education. Green Flower is the world’s most comprehensive, on-demand training platform, built specifically for cannabis professionals. For individuals, it offers industry-adopted training programs for upskilling and career transitions. For businesses, it offers compliance training, supports employee onboarding, and provides credentials and certifications.

“It is already trusted by government officials, business leaders and higher education institutions driving the cannabis industry forward. We find this growing niche, in a rapidly growing industry, interesting and the early mover status of the company to be promising.”

James Kim
Partner, Reach Capital (San Francisco)

Polygence (US)

“Polygence helps learners ‘find their why.’ Polygence connects middle and high school students with expert mentors who help them discover, explore and showcase their passions, resulting in high-quality projects ranging from published research papers to full-fledged video games to award-winning animations.

“As a former teacher, I observed firsthand the power of project-based learning to engage even the most disengaged students and to teach important life skills like research, communication, and perseverance. Polygence is making project-based learning scalable with a cutting-edge tech platform (including AI-driven teaching feedback) and a repeatable, scaffolded pedagogy. The company is growing quickly and profitably, with backing from Reach Capital, Floodgate (Fund), Learn Capital and others.”

BuildWithin (US)

“At Reach Capital, we believe that ‘learn while you earn’ workplace learning programs such as apprenticeships will serve as a critical pathway for high-demand ‘new collar’ roles. BuildWithin provides software and services to help employers find, onboard, train and manage apprentices and other work-based learning participants to fill their talent gaps.

“As an official apprenticeship intermediary registered with the U.S. Department of Labor, partnering with BuildWithin allows employers to launch new apprenticeship programs without having to worry about managing compliance and reporting in-house. The end-to-end software creates alignment between the employer’s mission-critical tasks, the competencies required for those tasks, and the technical instruction underpinning those competencies — ensuring that apprentices can begin adding value from day one. BuildWithin is growing quickly, serving employers across the U.S. as they launch and accelerate their apprenticeship programs.”

Benoit Wirz
Partner, Brighteye Ventures (Luxembourg)

UpHill Health (Portugal)

“Uphill Health is a Brighteye Ventures portfolio company that enables hospitals to adopt, automate and track best practices in care delivery — increasing hospital capacity up to 2x while improving patient outcomes. Excessive wait times now affect half the world’s healthcare systems. Hospitals’ key constraint is medical professionals’ time.

“Uphill dynamically maps optimal medical pathways for most common medical conditions, allows healthcare practitioners to train on those pathways and then facilitates and tracks real clinical actions, giving medical professionals the ability to serve more patients and provide better, more timely care. The company is growing quickly across Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.”

Spotted Zebra (UK)

“Spotted Zebra is a workforce management platform for large companies that automates the process of mapping the key skills required to be successful in a role including soft skills. Most large organizations recognize that they need to adopt skills-based hiring to hit productivity and innovation goals but have no ability to map the actual capacities of their workforce.

“Using Spotted Zebra they can identify skills gaps, target hiring appropriately and develop individuals internally and externally with the requisite skills, as well as automating much of the long-term planning required to identify those skills which are likely to be needed to achieve strategic goals 2-3 years hence.”

Kriti Bansal
Principal, Owl Ventures (New York)

Leap Finance (India)

“Massive demand has been unlocked post-Covid for international students wishing to pursue studies abroad. In a highly fragmented market, the Leap Finance platform is an end-to-end solution for students seeking education opportunities abroad starting from test preparation, guidance, community and mentorship to funding needs and financial requirements in the country of education.

“They’re focusing on building a community of international students which is roughly six-to- seven million students every year. The company provides college counseling, loans to students and utilities like bank accounts and credit cards in the country of destination for these students. Leap was founded by Vaibhav Singh and Arnav Kumar who have brought on board an excellent team entrenched in edtech and financial services.”

Multiverse (UK)

“According to NABE, 47% of businesses reported a shortage of workers with the right skills for the job. Multiverse has built an immersive and experiential platform to create a diverse group of future leaders with the best-matched skills.

“The company provides professional apprenticeships in tech through on-the-job learning by finding, training and supporting talented individuals irrespective of where they are in their career journey. They’ve built a community of 10,000 apprentices who have successfully launched careers in tech. Multiverse is truly reimagining how people learn through combining hands-on-learning with mentorship.”

Helen Gironi
Director, Ufi Ventures (London)

Data Literacy Academy (UK)

“Data Literacy Academy is a Ufi Ventures portfolio company that provides data literacy training for technical and non-technical staff. Poor ability to read, write and communicate data in context is ranked as the second biggest internal blocker to the success of data programmes. Employees gain valuable, recognised qualifications to take forward in their career. We invested in the business because of its success in addressing a key skills gap.”

Patika.dev (Turkey)

“Patika.dev is a train-then-hire business. A different take on skills-based hiring, which is growing in popularity. Partner companies open their own programs with Patika to train new talent and directly hire from the programs: The impact is strong as the barriers to learning are lowered —students don’t pay—and companies spend on upskilling and gaining insight into skills rather than spending on finding already trained candidates.”
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Featured image courtesy of Multiverse