Episode description

Tony Wan is no stranger to the Voices of e-Learning podcast. This episode marked Wan’s third appearance. People may know Wan from his days as Managing Editor at EdSurge, but Wan has a new role as Head of Investor Content at Reach Capital. And that role shares competition with some other self-identifiers as Wan considers himself a runner, a gamer, a writer, and a first-time father as of five months ago.

Wan loves that he gets to write about what’s going on in the EdTech space. And Wan’s latest report, U.S. Edtech’s Roaring 20’s Begin with $8.2 Billion Invested in 2021, was a great starting point for his latest conversation with JW Marshall.

When Wan began writing about EdTech, he remembers the excitement when the market hit $1 billion in investments. And 2020’s reach of $2 billion now seems like a distant memory. “When I looked at the numbers last year, in 2021, It quadrupled to $8.2 billion,” Wan said. “This is just U.S. EdTech, and this is primarily for companies serving pre-k, k-12, higher education, and the workforce.”

While $8.2 billion is nothing to sneeze at, Wan said that number still represents only a small percentage of investment capital raised in the U.S. each year. And the lion’s share, roughly 70% of the EdTech investments, went to the top 20-21 deals. “And when you take a look at the 21 biggest deals of 2021, they pretty much span across the board from k-12 to higher ed, and the workforce and consumer,” Wan said. “And in corporate training, the biggest deal went to a company called Articulate.”

The good news for the k-12 space, which Wan said does not always see its fair share of investment opportunities, is that the pandemic may have spurred more interest and activity in this sector. And Wan believes interest in technology investments into this area should continue beyond the pandemic.