$3.2b, or almost 50% of all VC investment in 2018 occurred in just 27 deals each valued at over USD $50m.
China dominates in both the number and size of investment deals, with 5 deals >$250m last year. While the US recorded seven deals over $50m, India is certainly a market to watch with three mega-deals valued at $666m (and plenty more coming through the ranks).
France and Vietnam scored one deal each over $50m with online skills operators OpenClassrooms and Topica raising $60m and $50m respectively.
China 🇨🇳 makes up 70% of that cohort by deal value, India 🇮🇳 17%, US 🇺🇸 13%, France 🇫🇷 and Vietnam 🇻🇳 with one deal each make up the remaining 3%.
Six Categories
There are six clear categories emerging from analysis of the 2018 mega-deals.
1. After-school, tutoring & language learning accounts for 11 transactions totalling $1848m.
2. Online learning related investments have five deals spread across India, France, China and the USA, totalling $846m
3. Q&A Content platforms with three transactions totalling $750m
4. Education Management and Financing transactions totalled $290m
5. Schools attracted two big deals totalling $150m from China and India
6. Upskilling providers out of China and Vietnam attracted venture capital of $100m
$8.2b of venture capital goes into education.
HolonIQ tracks all education related investment globally. In 2018, over 1000 education related transactions took place, with $8.2b of venture capital invested in the sector.
Source: HolonIQ
China. USA. India. Europe.
China, with the largest education market in the world, has led education VC investment growth over the past five years and now makes up over 50% of all Global VC investment in education, the USA 20%, India, 10% and Europe 8%.
Source: HolonIQ
Growing digital spend drives continued investment.
It is estimated that digital spend in education will be $342b by 2025. While this is still less than 5% of overall expenditure, expect to see an increased rate of technology integration into the existing sector and new models.
Source: HolonIQ
