2012 saw venture capital and private equity investors pour over $1B into private Ed Tech companies. But while deal activity remains high, 2013 has seen Ed Tech investors pursue primarily smaller investments as funding dropped 26% in the first half of the year driven by strong deal activity into early stage companies.
Despite the drop, there have been several notable large Ed Tech financing deals in the year-to-date. Both Laureate Education and Lynda.com took over $100M, respectively, in separate investment rounds. And online MOOC platform Coursera took over $60M from investors including GSV Capital, New Enterprise Associates and Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers.
The chart below highlights the top 10 largest Ed Tech financing rounds in 2013 YTD, which combined for nearly $600M in aggregate funding. Interestingly, there are a handful of investors who participated in more than one of the 10 largest 2013 Ed Tech financing rounds including Insight Venture Partners (Open English, Pluralsight), the Washington D.C.-based International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector development arm of the World Bank (Laureate Education, Coursera) and Accel Partners (WyzAnt, Knewton, Lynda.com).
Ranking as of December 20, 2013
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