2018 Global EdTech Investment projected to reach $6 Billion

July 2018 was a US$1 billion EdTech venture investment month globally. This brings 2018 to US$4 billion year to date – on track to deliver US$6 billion for the full year based on this momentum but assuming we won’t see a repeat of July in the next six months.

Globally, July’s investments are nearly as much as the average annual US investment over the past five years in a single month. July saw a number of late stage venture rounds in China, the US and India with a strong block of Series B rounds including the UK. China invested US$600 million, the US close to US$300 million and India over US$120 million, building on strong momentum – however we don’t expect the level of investment this month to be repeated any time soon.

The US witnessed their largest deal for 2018, Dreambox at US$130 million, somewhat unexpected or overdue perhaps, having closed their last round, a Series B for US$10 million in 2015. Guild, Galvanize and Skillshare closed Series C rounds with Swing and Raise Me closing Series B rounds to close out a very strong July for the US.

China completed Zhouybang’s Series D for US$350 million in July, continuing the mega-round trend that’s simultaneously building confidence in a ‘new normal’ while raising questions about the size and shape of exits we will need to see in the 2020+ window to deliver threshold returns for this much capital.

Over US$15 billion of venture capital has been invested in education around the world over the last 5 years and with July’s results, we consider 2018 on track to potentially deliver a US$6 billion venture investment year. This level of investment would almost double 2017 but is still subject to a number of late stage rounds and continued momentum on early stage investment.