Oct 22, 2023

This is a list of growing startups in the education technology space. From 2021 to 2025, the global Edtech space is expected to grow to $112.39 billion with an annualized growth rate of 17.85%. Big names like Udemy, MasterClass and Teachable might get all the attention. (And we will cover many edtech unicorns on this list.) But there are plenty of smaller, fast-growing Edtech startups to keep an eye on in 2023 and beyond. Without further ado, here’s our list of interesting Edtech companies worth knowing: 1. GoStudent Funding: $781.3M (Debt Financing) What they do: GoStudent is an online tutoring platform. The website helps find tutors across 14 different school subjects, from math to English. The site claims to have more than 10,000 students. In November 2021, GoStudent became the highest valued K through 12 education technology platform in Europe with a valuation of $1.6 billion. 2. Edapp Funding: $7.2M (Corporate Round) What they do: EdApp is a SaaS platform that supports retail and corporate training. Used by companies such as CocaCola, Colgate and Deloitte, the app offers hundreds of free courses that covers a range of topics, from data protection to operating machinery. EdApp also offers 24/7 live chat with customer success managers for onboarding assistance. 3. Preply Funding: $170.1M (Series C) What they do: Preply is an online marketplace for finding tutors in a variety of different languages. The Preply platform also contains a “structured learning” option for those that want a tutor to help them take a more organized route. In addition to rankings, Preply also ranks tutors based on a machine learning model. The company reports that they have over 100,000 students on their platform. 4. Labster Funding: $150.5M (Series C) What they do: Labster hosts several “virtual labs” for doing experiments in VR. Specifically, students use VR and AR software to practice lab techniques virtually. The major benefit is that students can practice in a safe environment. And prepare them for real-world lab work. Labster currently has over 150 virtual labs on its platform and boasts over 1,000 University clients. 5. Cambly Funding: $60.2M (Series B) What they do: Cambly is an on-demand video platform for finding English language tutors. Includes features for lesson recordings, chat translations, courses and certifications. Cambly has a plan specifically for organizations that want to learn English. 6. Seismic Funding: Undisclosed What they do: Seismic is a software to help facilitate in-house staff training for companies. In other words, it’s a learning platform for the B2B market. Their software comes with plug-and-play modules for training customer service reps and sales staff. Along with interactive tools that help employees practice scenarios they’ll face in the real world. 7. Embrace Funding: Undisclosed What they do: Embrace is a tool for helping teachers document student performance in the classroom. The tool is designed to save educator’s time when creating lesson plans and documenting student results. Embrace reports that their tool cuts down reporting time by about 50% compared to traditional methods. 8. GoPractice Funding: Undisclosed What they do: GoPractice is an online training program for learning how to grow a customer base. Unlike some of the other edtech companies on this list, GoPractice doesn’t offer a variety of courses in different areas. Instead, their 12-week course is designed to help startups find product market fit, launch, and scale their product. The GoPractice curriculum also includes lessons on product management, systems thinking, and data analytics. 9. BetterUp Funding: $566.9M (Series E) What they do: BetterUp is a coaching and training platform designed to boost employee engagement and productivity. Focused on enterprise companies, BetterUp is technically SaaS. But also delivers coaching services through its platform. The company is currently valued at $4.7 billion and has raised $600 million. 10. CuriosityStream Funding: $279.7M (Post-IPO Equity) What they do: CuriosityStream is “Netflix for educational content”, like documentaries and educational series. Plans range from $2.99/mo for HD video to $9.99 for 4K quality. CuriosityStream’s advisory board includes notable names like Glenn Close, Don Henley, and Michio Kaku. In Q3 2021, CuriosityStream posted $18.7 million in revenue and grew their subscriber count by 50%. 11. Udemy Funding: $311.4M (Secondary Market) What they do: Udemy is an online learning platform with 130,00 courses on dozens of different topics, from marketing to singing. In addition to à la carte course offerings, Udemy also has a “Udemy for Business” plan. This a subscription service that allows unlimited access to 5,000 courses. 12. Lingoda Funding: $73.6M (Private Equity) What they do: Lingoda is an online language school. The startup’s platform offers group or 1-to-1 classes in English, German, French, or Spanish. Also, Lingoda develops its own learning material in-house, which helps standardize the methodology. The company reports that they have 70,000 students and 1,400 teachers. 13. Teachoo Funding: Undisclosed What they do: Teachoo is an education platform that hosts a variety of online courses designed for English speaking students in India. Current course offering include tax preparation, Microsoft Excel and math. 14. Brainly Funding: $148.5M (Series D) What they do: Brainly is a social learning network. Users can ask questions about a range of different school subjects. And help their peers in order to receive points. The number of Brainly users grew from 150 million users in 2019 to 350 million a year later. 15. Cuemath Funding: $121M (Series Unknown) What they do: Cuemath operates a live-class platform for learning math and coding. Classes are held on Cuemath’s own platform with access to video calls and personalized worksheets. Parents can track the progress of their child on the app, which updates after each class. 16. Quizizz Funding: $47M (Series B) What they do: Quizizz is a gamified learning platform for children and employees. Teachers can create quizzes or use a library of existing content for student assignments. Employers can create polls or quizzes to support employee training (during presentations, onboarding, etc.). Reports are available in the product with instant feedback on class performance. 17. Photomath Funding: $29M (Series B) What they do: Photomath is a mobile application for solving mathematical equations instantly. The app uses the smartphone’s camera to scan math problems and provide solutions with step-by-step explanations. Photomath has more than 220 million downloads from App Store and Google Play. 18. Mursion Funding: $40.1M (Series Unknown) What they do: Mursion is a VR training platform for workplace training. Specifically, developing “emotional quotient” (EQ) skills. Their product delivers personalized simulations with the use of AI and human specialists. The company has offers training programs for leadership training, healthcare, and more. 19. SplashLearn Funding: $25M (Series C) What they do: SplashLearn is a gamified math learning product for elementary school children. Their content library includes more than 4,000 games designed to explain math concepts. 20. RangeForce Funding: $38.1M (Series B) What they do: RangeForce operates a cloud-based learning platform for cybersecurity training. The startup’s product offers a cyber attack simulator for employees to improve their skills. Managers can track the team’s performance with reporting features. 21. CoachHub Funding: $333.5M (Series C) What they do: CoachHub is a B2B digital coaching provider. This startup creates personalized talent development programs for employees to hone their skills and delivers them remotely via video. Employees and HR teams can measure performance within the application. CoachHub has more than 2,500 business coaches in its network. 22. Wonderschool Funding: $49.1M (Series B) What they do: Named as one of Fast Company’s most innovative education companies , Wonderschool gives child caretakers the ability to start a school out of their homes with a comprehensive software platform designed for non-technical users. Wonderschool’s software lets small schools market themselves to prospective students and parents, handle routine admin work like enrollment and billing, and was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential Companies for 2022. 23. A Cloud Guru Funding: $40M (Series Unknown) What they do: The explosion in popularity of cloud certifications for Salesforce, Azure, AWS, and countless other hard technical skills has made the certification testing process a lucrative niche for many edtech startups. A Cloud Guru provides access to over 400 courses and 1,800 labs with subscription pricing for the individual or enterprise pricing for larger companies. 24. ExecOnline Funding: $87.7M (Series D) What they do: Leadership development has typically been done in-house or left up to individual executives. ExecOnline aims to change that by partnering with elite business schools like Darden, Berkeley, Wharton, and MIT to provide executive education to future leaders at companies like Pitney Bowes, Lululemon, and more. Named on the GSV EdTech 150 and a Forbes 2016 Top Technology company to watch, ExecOnline continues to expand their network of top universities and a larger student base. 25. Busuu Funding: $14.8M (Series Unknown) What they do: London based Busuu compacts learning languages into digestible, bite sized pieces that are based on the learner’s proficiency level. In addition, there’s also a large community of over 120 million students and tutors that are available for 1:1 private lessons or group lessons. 26. Top Hat Funding: $234.4M (Series E) What they do: Top Hat is aiming to reinvent online learning with immersive experiences like lectures that include GIFS, 3D images, and stimulating presentations that are a big departure from traditional static powerpoints. Top Hat integrates with existing learning management systems so educators can manage grades, attendance, and assignments. Their software is now used at 75% of the top 1K universities in North America. 27. BrightWheel Funding: $88.8M (Series C) What they do: Brightwheel is a child care center software solution that lives in a tidy app. Brightwheel automates billing and staff management, monitors student health, and lets educators communicate directly with parents. The SF-based startup claims to save one hour a day per staff member and parent satisfaction after a center implements Brightwheel stands at 100%. 28. Skillshare Funding: $136.8M (Private Equity) What they do: Skillshare focuses on providing hands-on, creative lessons with project based homework that helps learners accumulate practical skills that they can show off to potential employers or clients. From baking cupcakes to raising venture funding, Skillshare focuses on a more quantitative skill set than other more technical learning platforms. The platform is well over 2M students strong, and has exploded in popularity since the Covid pandemic. 29. Course Hero Funding: $477.4M (Series Unknown) What they do: Course Hero provides university students with libraries chock full of study guides, course materials, and past papers from a large list of name brand universities. Expert tutors provide custom assistance based on each student’s needs and step by step video explanations are offered as well. Elite institutions like Cornell are even on Course Hero with thousands of study documents for students to learn from. 24M students and educators are currently on the platform. 30. Aceable Funding: $105.7M (Series C) What they do: Focusing purely on profitable real estate licensing and driver’s education courses, the Austin Capital Factory accelerator alum has grown substantially since their launch in 2013. Over 200 employees call Aceable home, and 1M driving students and 88K real estate students have taken Aceable courses. Aceable livens up the typically dry content for defensive driving and driver’s license courses by serving up interactive videos, content, and activities for learners. 31. PlayerLync Funding: $18.8M (Series B) What they do: Offering mobile training for spread out workforces, PlayerLync’s mobile training platform is used by Blaze Pizza, Crocs, Chipotle, and other enterprise companies worldwide. Delivered via tablet software, PlayerLync connects corporate best practices and training to decentralized locations so employees can learn on demand wherever they are instead of constantly making costly treks to corporate headquarters. 32. Guild Education Funding: $643.2M (Series F) What they do: Another rapidly growing reskilling platform for employees of large companies, Denver based Guild has delivered notable career advancement results for folks ranging from frontline employees at Chipotle to minority employees at brands like Disney, Lowe’s, Walmart, and Discover. According to the startup, employees enrolled with Guild are 2.7x more likely to stay at their employer, and Black employees are 2.1x more likely to be promoted after going through a Guild program. 33. EduMe Funding: $27.2M (Series B) What they do: Onboarding has become a critical activity in a deskless world. EduMe allows new employees to ramp quickly with their simple software featuring an intuitive interface. Partnerships with BambooHR, Iterable, and other enterprise software means a quick integration and easy set-up. Business results include dramatically reduced onboarding time, reduction in time to productivity , and happier, more engaged employees. 34. InStride Funding: Undisclosed (Seed) What they do: InStride provides enterprise education for employees at large companies like Aramark, Adidas, Carvana and many more. By connecting leading educational institutions like the University of Virginia with employees looking to grow their careers, InStride is building curriculums around real business problems and training employees to solve them. InStride has over 40 corporate partners, 52,000 learners, and 2,300 academic offerings for professionals looking to grow in their careers. In addition, InStride participants are 3x more likely to be promoted . 35. Panorama Education Funding: $92.7M (Series C) What they do: Panorama partners with over 1500 educational districts across America to provide a dashboard of student behavior, attendance, grades and more. The startup boasts that participating school districts have a 33% better graduation rate and 86% fewer behavior referrals compared to districts not using Panorama’s software School districts with more detailed data on their students end up with far better outcomes. Notable participating school districts include NYC, Detroit Public Schools, Dallas Independent School District, and SF Public Schools. 36. Chegg Funding: $227.3M (Post-IPO Equity) What they do: Chegg is an American education technology company that provides a range of student services, including online textbook rentals, homework help, tutoring, and internship matching. The company was founded in 2005 and has since grown to become one of the leading online learning platforms for college and high school students. Chegg’s mission is to empower students with the tools and resources they need to succeed in their academic and professional pursuits. 37. Noodle Funding: $102.3M (Series C) What they do: Noodle partners with universities to create online and in-person courses for students. They currently offer more than 100 online degree and non-degree programs, with subjects ranging from health sciences to information management. 38. Matific Funding: $57M (Series B) What they do: Matific creates interactive math courses called “episodes” for students in grades K to 6. The courses are accessible via tablets and personal computers. There are millions of students using Matific worldwide, and some classrooms have seen a 34% increase in student results by using Matific. 39. Ethena Funding: $50.4M (Series B) What they do: Ethena provides clients with online compliance training for its employees. With a 93% positive rating from learners, the startup offers courses in a variety of topics, including harassment prevention and hiring and interviewing. Its client base includes Netflix, Figma, Medium and more. 40. CreatorUp Funding: $6M (Series A) What they do: CreatorUp is a digital media and video creation startup. Used by large companies including Google and TikTok, clients can search for creators to produce the specific type of video to meet their business needs, and creators can sign up to be paired with clients. The company offers more than 400 digital media services and thousands of video production specialists on call. 41. GoGuardian Funding: $200M (Private Equity) What they do: GoGuardian is a software startup that monitors K-12 students’ internet usage. Educators can filter the content of any device and notify staff about harmful online activity. To date, over 22M students across 10K+ schools use GoGuardian. 42. Unibuddy Funding: $32M (Series B) What they do: Unibuddy is a peer-to-peer platform for recruiting prospective university students. With over 500 partners across 35 countries, students and university staff can chat using the messaging tool and attend virtual events to further boost engagement. 43. Juni Learning Funding: $11.3M (Series A) What they do: Juni Learning is an online learning platform for students ages 7-18. The curriculum covers Computer Science, Math and English. Students can choose from 3 different course formats, including: 1:1 lessons, on-demand and bootcamps, which are priced at $30 per course. 44. Summer Funding: $20.1M (Series A) What they do: Summer is a digital solution that helps employees understand and navigate student loan debt. Used by companies such as Mattress Firm to state governments, the startup has 100+ partners. To date, over 75,000 borrowers have saved an average of $31,000 by using Summer. 45. Codelicious Funding: $7.3M (Series Unknown) What they do: Codelicious is a startup that creates customizable computer science courses for K-12 students. The curriculum aligns with state and national computer science standards. Depending on grade level, students learn different coding languages, including JavaScript and Python. 46. Littera Education Funding: Undisclosed (Grant) What they do: Littera Education is an online platform that provides tutoring for students. The curriculum includes reading and writing as well as math for K-6 students. Students enrolled in the math tutoring received an equivalent of 2.5 years of additional math learning per year. 47. Hivebrite Funding: $43.5M (Series B) What they do: Hivebrite is a platform that helps clients manage their community and increase engagement. Clients have full control over community members’ sign-up method, profiles and membership pricing. The analytics feature also allows clients to see how well their emails perform and which members are most engaged. 48. Galvanize Funding: $184.9M (Debt Financing) What they do: Galvanize runs boot camps for entrepreneurs, engineers and data scientists across its nine physical and two remote campuses. Students can become software engineers in 12 weeks and the reported compensation of graduates is $95,000. 49. Esme Learning Funding: $37.5M (Series Unknown) What they do: Esme Learning offers online courses for individuals, universities and businesses across a variety of subjects, including cybersecurity, fintech and blockchain. Previous clients include Salesforce, Mastercard, HSBC and more. The company claims to have 30x the course completion rate of other MOOCs (massive online open courses). 50. CareAcademy Funding: $33.3M (Series B) What they do: CareAcademy offers online training for senior care professionals. Approved in all 50 states, more than 250,000 care workers are currently learning through CareAcademy. The startup claims to have 60% faster onboarding for new hires and 4x more class completions than in-person training. 51. Hive Diversity Funding: $5.9M (Seed) What they do: HIVE Diversity is a digital recruiting platform that connects companies and university students and recent graduates. Most job seekers are looking for entry-level positions who have 1-2 years of experience. HIVE clients include American Express, Accenture, Disney Careers and more. 52. DataCamp Funding: $31.1M (Series B) What they do: DataCamp is an online learning platform for data skills. Users can learn R, Python, SQL and more from the 100+ courses available. Over 2,500 companies and 80% of Fortune 1000 companies use DataCamp to improve data literacy across their teams. 53. Medley Funding: $3.7M (Seed) What they do: Medley is a membership service that matches members with a group of 6-8 others from diverse backgrounds. The group meets with a coach for guided discussions over the course of 4 months using Medley’s curriculum. Member-only events are also available, with topics from battling imposter syndrome to becoming more grounded. 54. Outschool Funding: $240.2M (Series D) What they do: Outschool has created an educational platform for small live classes designed for homeschooling. Specifically, students and parents can choose from over 1,000 live classes designed for children, including ballet, drawing, STEM skills and anthropology. To date the company has had 500,000 students take at least once class and a total of 140,000 classes. Outschool now has a valuation of $3 billion and teachers have generated a reported $45 million from the platform. 55. Deanslist Funding: Undisclosed (Seed) What they do: DeansList is a software company that captures data about students’ soft skills, such as leadership and teamwork. Using this data, schools can better address absenteeism, improve classroom behavior and school culture and generate student report cards quickly. 56. Everspring Funding: $63.5M (Series Unknown) What they do: Everspring develops online and in-person courses for universities across a wide variety of subjects, including marketing, analytics and technology development. Pricing starts at $2,000 per month and the self-service CourseBuilder option nets out to approximately $5 per student. Conclusion That completes this list of 56 Edtech startups with significant growth in 2023. What stands out about many of these companies is the fact that they cater to completely different markets, from schoolchildren all the way up to executives that spend most of their time in B2B boardrooms.