After a bright start to the year, venture funding in the global edtech community dropped back for most of the second quarter, according to HolonIQ.
Then, said the impact intelligence platform, “June closed the half with another burst of mega rounds”.
The sector enjoyed £1.17 billion funding last month, compared to April and May’s moderate figures of around £420 million each.
Overall, the first half of the year saw £9.6 bn venture funding in edtech, compared to £17.5 bn for the whole of last year. Nevertheless, HolonIQ, estimates that overall edtech investment in 2022 will be lower, at around £14.6 bn.
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The drop is in line with the World Bank’s predictions for the world economy as a whole. Noting that “spillovers from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are hastening the deceleration of global economic activity,” it forecasts that’s global growth will fall from 5.7% in 2021 to 2.9% this year.
The world-aggregating figures on edtech funding mask some significant regional variations. China is beginning what HolonIQ terms a “long reboot”, with only £340 million venture investment for the first half of the year, compared to £2.3 bn for the whole of 2021 and £8.6 bn in 2020.
Part of that “reboot” is accounted for by the Chinese government’s 2021 limiting of online learning and ban on for-profit tutoring. The year saw 25 online education companies cease trading.
By contrast, the first half of 2022 saw the EU already two-thirds of the way to matching the 2021 total edtech investment of £2.5 bn, while India has already almost matched its total 2021 investment level of £3.2 bn.