State of Early Edtech

2020 is said to be the year of growth for educational technology as COVID-19 pushed schools to go remote. Although New York, the biggest public school system in the U.S. reversed its policy of using the 3% benchmark for school closures, as states continue to be plagued by rising coronavirus cases, educational technology and remote learning must be incorporated into school curriculums. 

Photo by Julia M Cameron

Some learnings from our recent report on the progressive shift to online learning: 

• Early-learning providers is already a crowded market with the fastest growing players having been established for over 10+ years. 
• Although online learning is about being remote and accessed from a distance, the most popular programs focus on building a sense of community while being apart, offering interactive ways to facilitate discussions, work on quizzes together, and even taking virtual field trips together. 
• Physical educational facilities are also adding online learning targeted programs to their portfolio in order to compete. 
• Read the full report on some of the most recently funded Edtech startups. 

Although these Edtech companies haven’t raised new funding recently, we cannot ignore their achievements. 

• Imagine Learning was founded in 2004 and is a $150MM+ valued company from Provo, Utah, and focuses on a complete suite of adaptive digital curriculum and assessment solutions for PreK-8. Its parent company is Weld North Education, a company focused on investing in and promoting PreK-12 digital education.
• DreamBox Learning was founded in 2006 and provides an online platform for students aligning with the needs of schools and teachers. Although not recent, it received a substantial equity fund of $130MM from TPG Growth in 2018, helping secure it as a leading edtech provider. It is currently led by Jessie Woolley-Wilson. 
• Achieve3000 is a medium-sized Edtech company located in Lakewood, New Jersey, and was founded in 2000 by Saki Dodelson. The company focuses on PreK-12 instructional solutions and just expanded its portfolio by acquiring Teachonomy, a community designed to equip teachers with the best teaching tools. 
• Legends of Learning is a small but might private Edtech company that provides game-based learning programs. It was founded in 2016 by Geoff Livingston, Sandy Roskes, and Vadim Polikov in Washington, DC.