European venture capital investment in ed tech has fallen recently, but it shows signs of a resurgence, driven partly by new interest in workforce training.
That’s according to Brighteye Ventures, an ed-tech venture capital firm in Europe, which published the sixth edition of its European EdTech Funding Report, highlighting trends in investment on the continent and worldwide.
According to the data, European ed-tech venture capital investment fell from $1.2 billion in 2023 to $839 million in 2024. This includes deals completed in early learning, K-12, higher education, continuing education, corporate education, and lifelong learning. Deal count only fell slightly, from 288 transactions to 276 year-over-year.
Over the past few years “there’s been a lot of narrative around [funders] having a lot of dry powder to invest into new solutions,” said Rhys Spence, the head of platform and research for the firm, in an interview. He believes many investment firms in education raised money and poured it into companies in 2021 and 2022, and, after a pause, they’re preparing to become active in the space again.
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Europe saw a sharp rise in ed-tech investment in Q4 of 2024, with $299 million put into the sector – a 71 percent rise on the amount secured in Q1. However, this was spread across far fewer deals. Brighteye Ventures believes that the momentum is likely to carry through Q1 of this year.
“I’d be quite surprised if we didn’t see a real resurgence in Europe with maybe 30 or 40 percent higher VC investment this year relative to last year,” Spence said.
The United Kingdom has a significant lead within Europe when it comes to how much venture funding is going into education. There were 207 deals closed in the U.K. last year for a total of $565 million, far more than Europe’s second highest market, France, where 61 deals were completed, valued at $231 million.
Some of the top deals coming out of these regions included fundraising by London-based Zen Educate, a teacher marketplace that recently raised $37 million; and Paris-based Edifice, which focuses on student education tools and recently raised $11 million.
The countries with the next-highest amounts of education-focused venture capital were, in order of volume of investment, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria.
Globally, investment in ed tech is on the rise, the report said, signaling a growing ecosystem, in which investors are demonstrating increased confidence in the sector’s long-term potential, Brighteye Ventures predicts.
According to the data, global ed-tech funding increased for the first time since 2020-2021, from $5.6 billion in 2023 to $6.3 billion in 2024. This follows years of fluctuations. Investment in ed-tech skyrocketed during COVID as demand for tech tools surged, then subsequently fell post-pandemic with the return to in-person learning.
A recent report by Oppenheimer & Co., a brokerage and investment bank, concluded that global ed-tech investment now tops 2020 levels, excluding the market in China, where funding since that period has plummeted.
According to Brighteye Ventures, international deal count rose from 915 in 2023 to 1,153 in 2024, representing the highest number since 2019 – an increase that represents one of the most “promising things” researchers see in their analysis, Spence said. However, with more deals completed, funding was more widely dispersed, resulting in lower average deal size.
The increase in deal count was largely driven by activity in the United States, which “in venture circles, often sets into motion a wave of activity in other regions,” the report said.
I’d be quite surprised if we didn’t see a real resurgence in Europe with maybe 30 or 40 percent higher VC investment this year relative to last year.
Rhys Spence, head of platform and research, Brighteye Ventures
Ed-tech funding within the U.S. rose by more than $1 billion from 2023 to 2024. The portion of deals completed in the U.S. relative to other regions also grew significantly, representing 44 percent of all deals last year.
According to Brighteye Ventures, deals under $15 million globally also saw a significant uptick last year. Investments between $1 million and $4 million grew from 186 in 2023 to 335 in 2024. Deals between $4 million and $15 million also grew from 120 to 215.
The surge of funding for early-stage ed-tech startups is a sign that more investment is likely to follow, Spence said, as it “usually indicates what’s coming down the pipeline for ed tech in the next 18 months to two years” and suggests a resurgence in mid-sized rounds when companies look to raise again.
The data also show that more companies and investors are putting a focus on workplace and corporate learning, as well as creating scalable and flexible learning environments, the authors of the report say. Increased interest in these areas may be associated with the rise of agentive artificial intelligence solutions, Spence said, as well as broader interest in tech’s role in improving and enhancing productivity.
Companies focused on corporate learning that received funding last year include Singapore-based Eruditus, which provides workforce training and raised $150 million; and American-based SchooLinks, a careers platform that recently raised $80 million.
Investors going forward will be interested in technologies that support “learning happening on the job so people can be more effective and more productive in their roles,” Spence said. That’s likely to lead to a new focus on “a wave of solutions largely powered by various aspects of AI.”
