While there’s been plenty of attention paid to startups like 2U (formerly 2Tor), and Coursera that are changing the nature of higher education by making courses and even degrees from some of the best universities available online, another group of online education companies focusing on a different set of students is picking up steam.
Ron Leuty of the San Francisco Business Times reports there’s been a huge surge in venture cash flowing to tech companies focused on elementary and secondary education. Here’s Leuty:
At least 16 Bay Area ed-tech startups focusing on the K-12 market have won funding this year, and a number of higher-education apps also have enrolled, thanks to a nearly $1.4 billion surge in ed-tech funding nationally in the 12 months ended in June, according to venture capital and angel investment data base CB Insights.
Ed-tech investors range from tried-and-true venture capitalists such as Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers to Google Inc. executive chairman Eric Schmidt and actor Ashton Kutcher. What they have in common, however, is a belief that education is primed for change, and poised for profit.
If the VCs and the upstarts they’re funding have it right, education could become radically different, and, hopefully, better.
- Kent Bernhard, Jr
- Money & Finance Editor – Upstart Business Journal
Since coming aboard with Upstart’s parent company, Kent has covered sustainability and business, entrepreneurs, technology, and venture capital. Now, he covers all the ways upstart businesses get their money.
Source:
http://wangjun666.com/vcs-bet-big-on-online-education-upstart-blog/