Closing In on $2 Billion In EdTech Investments

In Silicon Valley Turns Its Eye to Education, the NYTimes reports that venture firms invested $1.87 billion in 2014 in edtech companies. This figure is up 55% from the previous year, and is the highest since the sector started to be tracked in 2009. 

 

The biggest edtech investments include: Pluralsight (techie online training - $135 million); Minerva (premium blended education - $70 million); Remind (K-12 messaging - $40 million); and Edmodo (K-12 learning / social platform - $30 million).    

 

 According to EdSurge, higher education absorbed $394 million of all edtech investments in 2014.

 

Nearly $2 billion in edtech funding might seem like lots of money, but compared to the total size of the education sector this figure is actually quite small. The latest data I can find is from 2011-2012, where postsecondary institutions spent $488 billion.  This breaks down as $306 billion at public institutions, $160 billion at private nonprofit schools, and $23 billion by the for-profit private players.    

 

How much does higher education spend on technology?  According to a PRNewswire report, the global postsecondary edtech market was $43 billion in 2013 and is expect to rise to $66 billion in 2019.

 

The edtech investments look even smaller when compared to the rest of the tech world.  In 2014 Uber got $1.4 billion alone in venture money.  

 

What sites, blogs, or reports would you recommend to figure out the size, scope, composition, and direction of the postsecondary technology sector?

 

Is higher ed investing endowment money in edtech companies?

 

How do you keep track of the companies, dollars, mergers, acquisitions, and deals in the higher ed edtech space?

 

Is the real story in higher ed technology found in companies focused mostly on education, or in bigger companies where education is one of the verticals that are served?

 

Where does the world of educational technology start and publishing end - or are the big publishing companies better understood now as educational technology companies?