SEATTLE, Jan. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The investments made to learning technology companies in 2019 were the highest in the history of the learning technology industry by an extraordinary margin and blasted past the records set between 2015 and 2017 and far outpaced the historic high in 2018.
"While 2018 appeared to be a banner year for global learning technology investment with total investment reaching an astonishing $16.34 billion, it pales in comparison to the investment patterns of 2019," reports Sam S. Adkins, Chief Researcher at Metaari and author of the whitepaper. "A breathtaking $18.66 billion flowed to edtech companies around the world in 2019. To put this in perspective, investments in 2018 and 2019 combined far outstrip the total combined investments made to all edtech companies for the entire twenty-year period between 1998 and 2017. There are interesting patterns in the recent investor behavior."
Metaari publishes their annual investor whitepaper in the first week of January every year. The new free whitepaper has 87 pages, 12 tables, and 13 charts. It is called "The 2019 Global Learning Technology Investment Patterns: Another Record Shattering Year".
To obtain the free whitepaper, email your request to: [email protected]
In the last four years, investors have aggressively shifted their interest away from legacy products like Self-paced eLearning to next-generation companies developing Cognitive Learning, AI-based Learning, Mixed Reality Learning (AR-based Learning and VR-based Learning), Mobile Learning, Location-based Learning (Location Intelligence), Game-based Learning, and even Educational Bots (both physical and virtual).
In 2019, $312.2 million was invested in just 13 legacy eLearning companies, down from the $398.5 million invested in 43 eLearning companies in 2018, and down from the $416 million in 2017. In stark contrast, investors were keenly interested in next-generation advanced learning technology companies. An astonishing $3.67 billion went to 120 AI-based Learning companies in 2019, up from $2.89 billion in 2018. In 2019, $2.97 billion went to 176 Mobile Learning companies, up dramatically from the $1.96 invested in Mobile Learning companies in 2018.
"The massive funding in 2019 was heavily concentrated in the edtech unicorns," comments Adkins. "Unicorn is a term for a company that has over a billion dollar valuation. Education technology unicorns were relatively rare until 2017 and 2018. There were 44 learning companies that garnered over $100 million in 2019 compared to the 31 that obtained over $100 million in 2018. In 2019, the 44 edtech unicorns combined obtained $8.56 billion in funding, 45.9% of the total global investments."
Investment patterns can expose "customer-facing" trends if funding shifts to companies that serve specific buying segments. In 2019, investors showed a strong interest in corporate-facing learning technology companies. Investment in corporate-facing companies nearly doubled compared to 2019; investment reached a breathtaking $10.39 billion. In contrast, investments made to consumer-facing edtech companies dropped by 23.2% to $6.67 billion in 2019 compared to 2018.
Funding for higher education learning technology companies increased in 2019 to $740.58 million, nearly double the funding that went to these companies in 2018. One surprising pattern was the decline in funding going to PreK-12 edtech companies. Funding dropped significantly for PreK-12 learning technology companies in 2019. In 2018, PreK-12 edtech firms garnered $1.42 billion in investment but they obtained "only" $855.32 million in 2019. Funding for the two academic segments combined accounted for 8.6% of global investments in 2019, down from 11.2% in 2018, and down significantly from the 21.4% in 2017.
"The US is again the top learning technology investment hub," adds Adkins. "The US accounted for just over 58% ($5.5 billion) of all investments made to learning technology companies in 2017. This changed dramatically in 2018, with companies in China garnering 44.1% of all funding, followed by the US at 32%. This reverted in 2019 with the US retaking their status as the top edtech investment destination. In 2019, China accounted for 'only' 21.4% of all funding on the planet while the US accounted for 42.9% of all global funding, double the investments made in China."
About Metaari
Metaari (formerly Ambient Insight) is an ethics-based quantitative market research firm that identifies revenue opportunities for advanced learning technology suppliers. We track the learning technology markets in 126 countries. We have the most complete view of the international learning technology market in the industry. Metaari focusses solely on advanced learning technology research on products that utilize psychometrics, neuroscience, location-based learning (location intelligence), game mechanics, robotics, cognitive computing, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and augmented reality.
SOURCE Metaari
Share this article