SA国际传媒

Edtech and IPOs went together in 2021 like two people kissing in a tree, as the kids would say. First came , then came , then came with a special-purpose acquisition company deal valued at around $1.7 billion.

The boom in successful edtech IPOs and other exit moves in the sector via SPACs or mergers and acquisitions were pushed forward primarily by the COVID-19 pandemic. But the changes seen in the sector have been more nuanced than simply pointing to a pandemic, industry experts say.

For one, the United States has been laying the groundwork for more accessible online education and work through broadband infrastructure over the past decade, which contributed significantly to the country鈥檚 ability to grow and adopt the technology, said , managing director at , which focuses on edtech investing.

Then the pandemic hit and the entire country rushed to solve the second part of the U.S.鈥� connectivity infrastructure hangup: Laptops or personal computers and hotspots that some people simply couldn鈥檛 afford or didn鈥檛 have for one reason or another. Suddenly, those devices became a must-have for students, and programs in cities, counties, school districts and even private industry helped fill in many of the blanks.

Edtech adoption 鈥渉ad been happening a bit more steadily at the beginning, and then COVID accelerated a lot of that,鈥� Chiu said. 鈥淚n many ways, it’s very similar to what SARS did for e-commerce a couple of decades ago. We think we’re right at the beginning of this digital transformation within education, that the spend will continue to grow and the global markets for this opportunity will continue to be very, very compelling.鈥�

Another shift in edtech trends came from on the edtech space this year.

The new government oversight seems to have cooled off sector investment in China, where edtech startups had been leading the industry for years. That offered companies in other countries, including the United States, a larger platform鈥攖hough that doesn鈥檛 mean that Chinese edtech is out of the investing picture entirely.

Below are some of the biggest edtech industry moves, from IPOs to SPACs and M&A, that happened in 2021鈥攁nd what they could mean for the sector in 2022.

March

: As a private company, Coursera raised more than $443 million in funding, according to SA国际传媒 data. In March, it was valued at $4.3 billion as it prepared to go public on the , but the market was even more bullish on the company鈥攁t first. Shares closed at $45 apiece 36 percent higher than the company expected on its first day of trading, leaving it with a market cap of $5.9 billion. Since then, apiece as of mid-December.

June

: Chinese online tutoring platform , closing its first day of trading up nearly 44 percent from its offer price and raising almost $42 million. But the company鈥檚 nearly $17 share price at the close of its first day on the stock market has since dropped to about . The company raised at least over seven funding rounds before going public, according to SA国际传媒 data.

July

: Salt Lake City-based Instructure, which makes popular learning management system Canvas, raised $250 million in its July Unlike most other edtech companies on this list, Instructure鈥檚 shares , when shares went for nearly $21 at the market鈥檚 close. As of mid-December, they were valued at almost $23 apiece.

: In July, Duolingo arrived on the with a , raising $521 million through its IPO and closing out its first day of trading at about $140 a share, up nearly 40 percent. As of mid-December . The language learning platform had raised at least $183 million in funding as a private company.

: Folsom, California-based PowerSchool sold 39.5 million shares at almost $18 apiece in its IPO, raising $710.5 million. That meant the company, which develops cloud-based software for K-12 education, was following the public offering. Since then, its stock price grew, .

September

: Nerdy, which owns the popular Varsity Tutors, via SPAC in a deal valued at about $1.7 billion in September. The deal gave the St. Louis-based company up to $750 million in proceeds when it started trading on the NYSE. Since that deal, on Sept. 20, share prices have more than halved,

October

: San Francisco-based Udemy, which offers online courses for professional skills in technology and business, went public Oct. 29. It started the day selling shares at $29 apiece, but closed the day at $27.50 per share, still . After an initial surge in stock prices in November, shares were in mid-December.

and : Boca Raton, Florida-based Anthology and Reston, Virginia-based Blackboard their plans to merge in an effort to 鈥渃reate the most comprehensive and modern edtech ecosystem at a global scale for education.鈥� In other words, they were to become an edtech software behemoth for higher education. By October, .

Look ahead

: India-based 叠驰闯鲍鈥橲 had a busy year, acquiring Singapore-based for $600 million, then Redwood City, California-based for $500 million and finally India-based for around $1 billion, tech marketplace outlined . Now, 叠驰闯鲍鈥橲 is rumored to be considering going public in the United States through a SPAC,

Despite the dips in stock prices of many companies that did IPOs this year, investor interest in the industry seems to be as bullish as it was when the year started鈥攊f not even greater, , a partner at told SA国际传媒 news.

The infrastructure progress for digital learning also excites Kim as much as it does Chiu at Owl Ventures. With that in place, Kim said she sees a future where edtech is a centerpiece for education.

鈥淭he biggest shift is that before COVID, it was all supplemental, nice-to-have education that was digital,鈥� she said. 鈥淣ow, I think we’re really going to start to see real core education move forward on the digital track and ask 鈥楬ow do you supplement schools that don’t have resources for some of these classes?鈥� Can some of these platforms like , or some of the other bigger platforms start to enable more access to quality education?鈥�

Perhaps the answer to that question will become more clear in 2022.

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