Edtech Venture Funding Down in 2016, But Still Tops $1B

While we’re looking at venture deal numbers from the past year, let’s consider the education technology industry, which isn’t broken out by sector in the general reports I’ve seen.

A recent study by EdSurge, an edtech information firm, shows venture funding for U.S. education tech companies totaled $1.03 billion (across 138 deals) in 2016. Those numbers are down from the $1.45 billion invested in 198 deals in 2015, according to EdSurge.

Those stats track with the overall trend in VC funding nationally: the industry saw a “correction” or “normalization” downward after hitting a peak in 2015.

The EdSurge report breaks down the deal trends by subsector and stage, and provides a list of 2016’s top funding rounds for edtech companies—which include Age of Learning ($150 million), Udemy ($60 million), Kaltura ($50 million), and Galvanize ($45 million).

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.