This Week's Edtech Highlights: The Latest Brighteye Ventures Report on AI in Formal Education & PE Investment in European Edtech Nears $4b This Year.
👋 Hi and welcome to Brighteye Bulletin - your fortnightly take on all things in Edtech, HRTech and Workforce Empowerment, both from a Startup & VC perspectives.
Articles and Resources of the week
Brighteye Ventures Report: AI in Formal Education (K12, Higher & Vocational)
AI has often been described as a groundbreaking innovation poised to transform education by making learning more efficient, engaging, and effective.
AI-first Edtech startups are making strides in reshaping education, addressing key issues in workload and student motivation, among others, and unlocking new opportunities for teaching and learning. Intriguingly, so are ‘AI-second’ Edtech startups, appending AI elements to existing solutions using LLMs, rather than opting to be AI-centric, or focused on proprietary AI.
So, how exactly can AI solutions help stakeholders in education & learning organisations?
Educators to plan lessons, generate content, and grade coursework​
Students to receive adaptive learning support, complete homework more effectively, and get immediate, targeted feedback on their progress​
Administrators to optimise staffing and resource allocation, model financial scenarios, predict student outcomes, and improve operational efficiency​
Check out the report, to see how Brighteye Ventures sees this space evolving, key startups to watch, and what we think will be the ‘winning plays’ for AI startups operating in the formal education space.
PE investment in European edtech nears $4B
According to Pitchbook, PE investment in Europe’s edtech space surpassed 2023’s total in October, with it being on course to attract €4.4 billion by the end of the year. However, investment still tracks below 2021’s peak of €6.7 billion.
Multiverse: Data Skills Intelligence Report 2024
With a data skills gap widely acknowledged (e.g. according to the WEF, in the United States alone, it’s projected that businesses will need an extra 17,700 data experts every year until 2032 to meet their demand for data-driven decision making), and a recognition that data skills will be crucial to fully acknowledge the benefits of AI, upskilling of employees seems like a clear solution. In this report, Multiverse seek to map the data skills gap within organisations, with the objective of generating smarter, more targeted upskilling initiatives.
Investment news
Buddy.ai, a voice based AI tutor for kids has closed a €10.2m seed round led by BITKRAFT Ventures and Educapital. Other investors in this funding round include One Way Ventures, J Ventures, Point72 Ventures, and Goodwater Capital.
Wobby has raised a €1.1m Seed round from Shaping Impact Group: SI3 fund, V-Ventures and imec.istart for its AI information platform for knowledge workers.
Spanish tech training school, HACK A BOSS, has raised €5.5m from Axon Partners Group.
Munich based ExoMatter has raised a €1.7M pre-seed round to expedite materials science breakthroughs. The round was led by ZAKA with participation from Vanagon VC, BayernKapital, 212 NexT, Bloomhaus Ventures and angels.
Aethernrg, a solar design too, has announced a $2.5m seed round led by Noa (formerly A/O Proptech), with participation from Y Combinator, Collab Fund, Amino Capital, and Climate Capital.
Jobs in Edtech
Thymia is looking for both a Senior Full Stack Software Engineer and a Principal Data Engineer (London/Hybrid).
Ironhack is hiring an Admissions Associate (remote).
Granola is looking for a Founding Ops Manager (London).
Voize is hiring a Founders Associate (Berlin).
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed it, please share with friends and colleagues interested in European Edtech, HRTech and Workforce Empowerment. We also explore the AI space - stay tuned for more updates!
Onward & upward!