3 minute read
Education: Heartcore Consumer Technology Trends 2021
Covid-19 was a major tailwind for the EdTech industry.
A market that used to be strongly undercapitalized, has suddenly got an immense investor attention.
Global education venture capital funding ($B)
2010: $0.5B | 2011: $0.7B | 2012: $0.9B | 2013: $1.3B | 2014 $1.8B
2015: $4.2B | 2016: $3.2B | 2017: $4.4B | 2018: $8.2B | 2019 $7.0B
2020: $16.1B, 2.3x Increase YoY
Yet the education industry remains highly underdigitized.
Even in the future, the majority of money will be allocated to traditional forms of education.
Growth in global EdTech expenditure
2020| $227B | 3.6% digital spend
2025 | $404B | 5.2% digital spend | +12% CAGR
The market sees the biggest opportunity in consumer and corporate education.
Companies catering to consumers and corporates accounted for 75% of total education VC investments in 2019
Massive uptick in organic web traffic driven by Covid-19.
The winners are enablers of distance learning, platforms that offer access to content, marketplaces and community-driven platforms.
Change in web organic traffic of EdTech companies
K-12
Higher Education
Lifelong Learning
Education app downloads surged during the pandemic…
Education apps are essential for the lifelong learning experience of GenZ.
Growth in education app downloads during COVID Peak Week in 2020 vs. Weekly Average Q4 2019
Australia +190% | United Kingdom +150% | Brazil +140% | United States +135% | South Korea +135% | India +125% |Spain +120% | China +120% | France +95% | Germany +65% | Japan +65% | Italy +55%
Worldwide +90%
…and so did tools enabling online learning.
Yet in the long run the winning solution will have to fundamentally change the method of teaching, rather than just moving offline classes online.
The largest EdTech unicorns are all tutoring companies (and all Asian!).
Of the 19 EdTech unicorns globally at the top three contenders are all tutoring companies.
Increasing trust towards higher level education.
By 2050 there will be two billion more secondary and post secondary graduates in the world than today.
As more people look for higher education, universities will be forced to adapt.
Virtual learning is the solution.
2019 OECD average population with tertiary education (%)
25-34 year olds: 45% With Tertiary Education | 55% Without Tertiary Education
55-64 year olds: 28% With Tertiary Education | 72% Without Tertiary Education
Startups are introducing universities to this new reality.
Startups are working with universities to offer for-credit courses and help them build remote teaching solutions. However good the quality of coding bootcamps and a micro universities will be, they will never fully replace traditional universities.
• The world’s biggest provider of online courses
• 3,200 free and paid short courses and 310 specializations
• Partners with more than 200 universities and businesses
• 73m users
• Platform that helps colleges and universities add indemand tech skills
• Partnered with over 20 colleges and 1,000 students
• Aims to equip all students with digital competencies
• Courses are delivered within traditional university environment
Heartcore Portfolio
• The Learning Experience Platform (LXP) for higher education
• 6x user growth in 2020
• 4 out of 5 students reported feeling easily connected to their learning community with Aula
• 9 out of 10 students reported satisfaction with the quality of their learning experience when delivered on Aula
Job-mandated upskilling courses replace existing offerings.
Inevitably tuition for higher education will deflate as there will be cheaper digital alternatives,
Forecasted global education and training expenditure ($T)
Pre-COVID 4.8% CAGR | 6.8 Post-COVID 3.6% CAGR
K-12 will remain largely offline.
The results will be a combination of asynchronous and synchronous classes. For the youngest students COVID has demonstrated the importance of the childcare aspect offered through primary school.
• On average online course taking is still less effective than offline course taking for K-12 students
• For high performers the difference in results from online to offline learning are insignificant
• Struggling students perform notably worse with the online studying format
• Tools to help solve for parents disconnect between schools and at home learning will be important
After school there is more school.
Lifelong learning can help solve the skills gap. Learners are increasingly turning to platforms that teach more specific skills for the job. And consumers are loving it...
