Edtech and IPOs went together in 2021 like two people kissing in a tree, as the kids would say.
The boom in successful edtech IPOs and other exit moves in the sector via SPACs or mergers and acquisitions were pushed forward primarily by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Then the pandemic hit and the entire country rushed to solve the second part of the U.S.’ connectivity infrastructure hangup: Laptops or personal computers and hotspots that some people simply couldn’t afford or didn’t have for one reason or another.
Edtech adoption “had been happening a bit more steadily at the beginning, and then COVID accelerated a lot of that,” Chiu said.
The new government oversight seems to have cooled off sector investment in China, where edtech startups had been leading the industry for years.
In March, it was valued at $4.3 billion as it prepared to go public on the New York Stock Exchange, but the market was even more bullish on the company—at first.
Zhangmen: Chinese online tutoring platform Zhangmen completed an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange in June, closing its first day of trading up nearly 44 percent from its offer price and raising almost $42 million.
Unlike most other edtech companies on this list, Instructure’s shares have gained value since its IPO, when shares went for nearly $21 at the market’s close.
Duolingo: In July, Duolingo arrived on the Nasdaq with a $6.5 billion valuation, raising $521 million through its IPO and closing out its first day of trading at about $140 a share, up nearly 40 percent.
That meant the company, which develops cloud-based software for K-12 education, was valued at about $3.5 billion following the public offering.
Nerdy: Nerdy, which owns the popular Varsity Tutors, went public via SPAC in a deal valued at about $1.7 billion in September.
It started the day selling shares at $29 apiece, but closed the day at $27.50 per share, still valuing the company at around $3.8 billion.
Anthology and Blackboard: Boca Raton, Florida-based Anthology and Reston, Virginia-based Blackboard announced in September their plans to merge in an effort to “create the most comprehensive and modern edtech ecosystem at a global scale for education.” In other words, they were to become an edtech software behemoth for higher education.
BYJU’S: India-based BYJU’S had a busy year, acquiring Singapore-based Great Learning for $600 million, then Redwood City, California-based Epic for $500 million and finally India-based Aakash Educational Services for around $1 billion, tech marketplace G2 outlined in its recent report on the edtech boom.