ETCH Weekend Reading 4/7/24
ECE AI, B school AI, Kitty Hawk updates, and Gen Z takes up the torch
Hello!
Looking forward to seeing many of you in San Diego next week. For those who won’t be there, please feel free to send questions/things to be on the lookout for.
Also, for those who may have missed my earlier notes about the ETCH Growth mini-series, Jeevan is putting on a clinic breaking down EdTech Ads. In 3 posts (so far), he has used 25 different advertisements from EdTech companies to show us how to leverage Texture, Emotional Resonance, and The Hero for growth.
Funding / M&A
Modal raises $25M / US, Corporate Upskilling / Left Lane Capital, Ensemble VC, Signalfire, Learn Capital
Goalsetter raises $9.6M / US, Content Provider / MM Catalyst Fund, Fiserv, Webster Bank, Seae Ventures, Astia Fund, Reseda Group, InTouchCU, Partnership Fund for NYC
Cloverleaf raises $7.3M / US, Corporate Upskilling / Advantage Capital, Conductive Ventures, Origin Ventures, ScOp Venture Capital, JobsOhio, Centrifuse Capital, 1809 Capital
Home From College raises $5.4M / US, Gig Marketplace / GV
Lirvana Labs raises $5.3M / US, Early Literacy / Kapor Capital, Transcend Capital Partners, Chingona Ventures
HAD raises $5M / Saudi Arabia, Language Learning / Dar Al Majed Investment
StepsConnect raises €1M / Italy, Recruitment Platform / 40Jems Ventures, Eden Ventures, Maggioli Ventures, Moffus Labs, Moonstone Fund, Generas Corporate, KF-Invest, Enzima12
Amplify acquires Math ANEX / US, Content Provider
IXL Learning acquires Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com / US, Language Learning
Axcel Learning acquires KMK Optometry / US, Test Prep (Certification)
Wonderschool acquires EarlyDay / US, Early Childhood Education Software
CareerArc acquires Lumina / US, Recruiting Software
Jobs For the Future (JFF) announces $15M first close of Fund II
To be a verified funding in this newsletter, a company must raise $1M+ from named, searchable institutional investors and disclose the amount raised, be part of an acquisition where the combined entity has > 50 employees, or raise a VC/PE fund of $10M+
Other Transactions
ETCH Funding Database
All of the above deals, and 1,000+ more can be found in the ETCH Funding Database, available in Beta to annual subscribers. Upgrade your subscription to learn more.
People Moves
Bijal Shah promoted to CEO of Guild / via Guild
Sorbrique Grant promoted to CEO of Climb Hire / via LinkedIn
John Kannapell joins Cypher Learning as President and COO / via PRNewswire
Andrew Rosen joins the board of Mentor Collective / via PRNewswire
Looking for a job or hiring in EdTech? Join the ETCH Jobs Community and/or subscribe to our Jobs of the Week (JOTW) newsletter!
ASU GSV AIR SHOW
ASU and GSV are hosting the inaugural AIR Show in San Diego on April 13-15, right before the 14th annual ASU GSV Summit. The AIR Show is a celebration of the AI Revolution (AIR) in Education showcasing 100+ AI startups, the latest AI products from EdTech giants, demos on how educators can use AI in the classroom, and insightful conversations with founders and users about how AI is accelerating the pace of learning for everyone. Attendance is free but space is limited!
Links
Early Childhood
Is early childhood education ready for AI? For the past ~10 years, software for early childhood education (ECE) has focused on back-office operations. In this article, the question at hand is whether advances in hardware (cameras, microphones, etc.) and software (AI) will start enabling more in-the-classroom technology without forcing students onto screens. / via Hechinger Report
K12
America has legislated itself into competing red, blue versions of education. Sigh... / via Washington Post
To complement last week’s discussion of rising student absenteeism, Hechinger dives into the pivot away from student suspensions, especially among younger children. / via New York Times and Hechinger Report
Higher Ed
Business schools going all in on AI. Wharton professor Ethan Mollick says, “You haven’t used AI until you’ve had an existential crisis [about your professional skills compared to the AI’s]. You need three sleepless nights.” Tell me about your AI nightmares is the new how many golf balls can you fit in a 747 interview question. / via Wall Street Journal
Middle Eastern universities hedge bets between China and the US. “The Chinese science system is moving up fast and gaining increasingly more space from the US science system. This situation does not deny that the US national science system is still strong, but it shows that the global balance is changing.” / via University World News
The US and Europe have been at the center of the university-led R&D world for a long time. It may remain so for a long time too. But this status is not a right; it is a function of government-led investment in these institutions. As more countries transition from agricultural/industrial/resource extraction economies to knowledge economies, it makes sense that new coalitions would form, and some won’t involve US/European participants. This is not inherently good or bad, but bears watching. / via PIE News
Not unrelated to the topic of a globalizing university market, one of the topics I return to frequently is, “What is a modern university?” In short, I believe universities need a differentiated vision to survive. That vision could be, among other things, “Elite” or “Mega” or “Luxury” or “Niche.”
However, “Growth” is a strategy, not a vision. As is “Build/Renovate.” This is the lesson an unfortunate number of rural colleges in the Midwest and Southeast are learning as the bills come due on a federal loan program meant to help rural colleges that may be hurting them. / via Chronicle of Higher Education
“DIY” is also a strategy, not a vision. It sounds great to own your own online program operations, but why should students care?1 This is the problem with North Carolina’s $100M investment in Project Kitty Hawk, which has dramatically pulled back expectations after 2 years of operations. / via OpenCampus
Not covered in any of the Kitty Hawk news? 2U continues to run UNC’s online MBA, the state’s flagship online degree programs. In other 2U news, going direct was a good decision to start resetting the company narrative - Setting the Record Straight. / via 2U
To finish this with some less-sour grapes, I enjoyed EdSurge’s write-up of Outer Coast, a fledgling almost-college in Alaska with an “intense” point of view on what college can look like. / via EdSurge
Workforce
How Gen Z is becoming the toolbelt generation. It is an election year in the US, which means it is high season for tales of the six-figure income welder. Is this because welding is actually high-earning profession? It is not! A 90th-percentile income welder earns only marginally more ($72,970) than the average college graduate ($69,381). The oil field welder making $140K? There are ~600 of them in the entire United States, and most make closer to $88K. / via Wall Street Journal
I am happy to see more of a conversation around trades and will not argue that a college degree is the right path for everyone. But it often feels like the headlines and narratives surrounding training in the trades are needlessly divisive and/or hyperbolic.
There are now 7.3M American “app-based workers”, constituting 4.3% of the national labor force. This number rises as high as 9% of the labor force in Washington DC and 6% in Florida, Nevada, and Georgia. That feels like a lot! / via Axios Boston
EdTech
Analysis of Coursera’s 2023 Annual Report. As noted by On EdTech’s Glenda Morgan, the number to remember from this analysis is that 32% of Coursera’s revenues come from 5 content partners. One of whom (Google) strong-armed the company into paying higher content fees just last year. / via ClassCentral
LearnLaunch’s 2023 annual impact report. / via LearnLaunch
Caitlin Clark
How did Caitlin Clark get so good at basketball? By playing other sports. A reminder that while repetition and specialization can be good, learning can come from all sorts of unexpected places! / via HawkCentral
This email, ETCH Weekend Reading, is ETCH’s free newsletter providing links to the week’s EdTech Funding, M&A, People moves, and a curated list of Links to relevant industry news. If you enjoyed this edition, I hope you will subscribe and/or forward to your friends!
I am not accepting “cost” as an argument. '“Price” is a vision, but it requires a full commitment to the bit - a la University of the People. Reducing cost from astronomical to expensive is not the same thing.