Report: Brighteye European Edtech Funding 2025

BRIGHTEYE VENTURES

Brighteye is excited to have just published their annual European Edtech Funding Report. Below is an introduction to how the data now covers their evolved approach to edtech, some headlines, and comments from their leadership.

Brighteye is the most active edtech-focused venture capital fund in Europe, investing in Seed and Series A stage companies that help people learn and grow.

Hege Tollerud is Head of Community at Brighteye. “Edtech has endured a rocky few years since the dizzy highs (and hype) of 2021,” she says. “The sector, like others that end in ‘tech’, remains a dynamic and evolving space, full of new adjacencies and iterations that align with macro tech trends – indeed, we have seen multiple funds expand their public understanding of what the sector represents to them in 2024, including Brighteye.

For ease of comparison, the first section of the report looks at edtech as it has been commonly understood: technology underpinning formal education (the early years, K12, Higher Education and Further Education), corporate education and lifelong learning.

Per this definition, global edtech funding increased from 2023 to 2024, from $5.6B to $6.3B and deal count grew from 915 to 1153. “Growth was largely driven by US activity. Just as the US was the downwards trendsetter from 2022-2023 (reflecting the wider tech and investment ecosystem), we see America’s re-emergence in 2024 as a leading indicator for markets with slower activity last year,” says Tollerud. “This includes Europe, in which funding fell from $1.2B to $0.8B last year, but with a sharp uptick in Q4 2024 and early Q1 2025 setting the stage for a rebound.

“At the same time, the boundaries between learning and working have become increasingly fluid. As the pace of innovation increased in a tight labor market, platforms have extended across training, job placement, and productivity to augment talent on a ‘just-in-time’ basis. The rise of co-pilots and agent solutions, among other changes, saw the advent of a broader ‘Edtech 2.0’ spanning learning and future of work with ~3x more funding in 2024 than traditional Edtech alone,” she notes.

“Our view at Brighteye is that this transition is likely to accelerate and yield dividends in helping people to learn, work and thrive. Having witnessed the evolution in our own portfolio we remain excited about the prospects for Edtech in Europe and are determined to help Europe lead the way. This report takes a deep dive into venture funding in the last 12 months across global and European Edtech. We would love to have your feedback and are always keen to connect with inspiring founders and investors, looking to help our world learn, work and thrive.

Some of the headlines helping to tell the story:

• Global Edtech funding and deal count rises in 2024, relative to 2023
Global Edtech investment rose from $5.6B in 2023 to $6.3B in 2024 – yet more promising, however, is that deal count rose significantly, from 915 transactions in 2023 to 1153 in 2024.

• A sharp rise in the number and portion of deals done under $15M, reflecting a strengthening early ecosystem
Rounds between $1-4M grew from 186 in 2023 to 335 in 2024 – similarly, the number of deals in the $4-15M range grew from 120 to 215 in the same period.

• European funding and deal count slows, but a sharp uptick in Q4 suggests this is temporary
European Edtech funding fell from $1.2B in 2023 to $0.8B in 2024, with the resilience shown in 2023 cracking in the first half of the year, before a resurgence in Q4 which we expect to be maintained into 2025.

• Sweden and Italy enter the top 5 European markets for the first time
A promising new entry into the top 5 for Sweden and Italy, in both conventional Edtech and under our broader, new umbrella which incorporates more productivity-related solutions, described in Part 2 of this report. 7 countries are represented in the top 10 most active cities in Europe.

• A wave of productivity and ‘just-in-time’ learning solutions is coming!
  As Edtech evolves, we walk through Edtech 2.0, tech that supports people to learn, work and thrive across our ‘value chain of learning’, with the three core pillars of Train, Place and Enhance.

Rhys Spence, Head of Platform and Research at Brighteye, who put together the report, says: “We are delighted to launch the 2025 funding report, in its 6th edition, introducing data covering our evolving thesis. Perceptions of edtech in 2024 were generally of a sector with reduced momentum, with lethargic adoption trends and reduced generalist interest, but the data paints a different story. Naturally, there are some bright and less bright spots – global funding increased, as did deal count, largely driven by accelerating activity in North America, but European funding slowed. We expect a resurgence in European activity in 2025 – we expect the strong performance seen in Q4 to continue into early 2025 but more structurally, we expect to continue seeing exciting companies that are blending learning and working cropping up across the continent, tackling a range of industries and sub-sectors. We will be diving into this trend and others in the months to come.”

Learn more.

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