ETCH Funding + M&A Update 11/17/23

Changes in the OPM world, new student financing options, and education-focused business process software

Hello!

The OPM sector, arguably the flag carrier of the EdTech market of the 2010s, is coming apart at the seams. Earlier this year, Pearson sold their OPM business to a private equity firm with no experience in education, who promptly gutted the workforce and started firing (unprofitable) clients. This week, Wiley sold their OPM unit for $110M ($150M with kickers), $330M less than the acquisitions they’ve made over the past 11 years to build the business. This morning, 2U replaced their founder and CEO, Chip Paucek, with CFO Paul Lalljie.

There will be some pithy tweets about all this. I have homework to do before trying to interpret what it all means. I’m all ears to anyone who has an opinion. You can reply to this email directly or fill out the 2023 End of Year Survey with your thoughts!

On a more tactical note, this week’s Weekend Reading will come out on Monday and there will be no Funding + M&A Update next week due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the US. Any funding announcements that happen during this period will be covered the subsequent week.

Both newsletters will then ramp down in mid-December so that I can focus on writing an end-of-year post and take a holiday break in a period where venture news is typically pretty light. The normal cadence will resume again in January.

With that, on to the update!