ETCH Weekend Reading 6/16/24
New York's social media bill, Roc Nation backs vouchers, FAFSA's impact on Fall enrollments, EdTech funding continues to trend down
Hello!
A few quick announcements before we get to the news:
NYC folks: The Future of Higher Ed (FOHE) group and Samvid Ventures are hosting a free(!), in-person(!) event on Thursday (6/20) called “What’s your revenue model? Learn with non-profit and for-profit ventures creating post-secondary pathways.”
For those headed to Denver next week: Whiteboard Advisors and ISTE are teaming up to host the Solutions Summit on Sunday (6/23). Use code ISTE24SS50 for $50 off your registration
On a personal note, I usually take a short break from the newsletter around the 4th of July holiday here in the US. I’ll have an update next Sunday on what this year’s break will look like
With that, on to the news!
Funding / M&A
Learn to Win raises $30M / US, Content Platform / Westly Group, Bull City Venture Partners
GPTZero raises $10M / US, Cheating Detection / Footwork, Reach Capital, Alt Capital, Uncork Capital, Neo
Rising Team raises $8M / US, Talent Management / Zeal Capital, Peterson Ventures, Roble Ventures, Female Founders Fund
Visibly raises €7M / UK, Training Provider (Certification) / Creandum, Seedcamp, Brighteye Ventures, Triple Point
Amira Learning and iStation merge / US, Early Literacy
ClearCompany acquires Brainier Solutions / US, Talent Management (LMS)
Kaplan acquires Azurlingua / US (France), Language Learning
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
CampusAI raises €9.2M / via EU-Startups
Tahdir raises $270K / via Zawya
Clapingo raises ~$250K / via Inc42
Francisco Partners invests in Teachers’ Curriculum Institute / via Berkery Noyes
Eduport raises undisclosed amount of angel funding / via EdTechReview
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
No major moves landed in my inbox this week; Summer must have started!
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Links
Early Childhood
Four years after pandemic, a check-in on childcare providers’ journey to rebuild. / via Hechinger Report
K12
New York’s new social media bill makes it illegal for companies to offer an algorithmic feed and/or to send notifications between 12-6AM to users under the age of 18 without explicit parental consent. State-by-state rules on social media would be a nightmare for social media companies to comply with, I’m curious how quickly we’ll see national legislation develop. / via New York Times
Jay Z(‘s creative agency’s philanthropic arm, Roc Nation Philanthropy) puts support behind Pennsylvania’s school voucher initiative. / via Education Week
A new, tougher bar of entry for EdTech companies. / via EdWeek Market Brief
NYC high school reimagines career and technical education for the 21st century. / via 74Million
Higher Ed
FAFSA fiasco die is cast. Phil Hill becomes the first industry analyst or publication I’ve seen estimate the enrollment impact of the new FAFSA rollout. Phil forecasts an enrollment drop of 5-10%, which would be a more substantial drop in enrollments than was triggered by COVID (and without a federal stimulus package to backstop university revenue declines). / via OnEdTech
Tyton Partners’ 2024 update to their annual Time for Class survey. / via Globe Newswire
The impossible college presidency. It feels like we are approaching the end of an era, where the longtime company CEO or college president is harder and harder to find. It gives me some pause that the leaders of institutions that are supposed to have hundred-year+ outlooks have an average tenure of 5.9 years.1 / via Chronicle of Higher Education
That is not to say that multi-decade tenures are inherently better. There is something simple and compelling to Bill Walsh’s theory that organizational leadership should turn over every ~10 years. / via Babson University
And, there are some real quirks to organizations that hang around for 100+ years. Dozens of colleges award scholarships based on little other than a common last name. / via Wall Street Journal
Grad programs have been a cash cow; now universities are starting to fret over enrollment. / via Hechinger Report
Related, foreign students are coming in droves, but there’s reasons to be cautious. / via Chronicle of Higher Education
Workforce
The business golf outing is back in a big way. “I know a guy that literally flies around the world in a private jet loaded with French wine, and he golfs and lands hundred-million-dollar deals.” We always knew AI would create demand for new skills, we just didn’t know what skills would be. / via Wall Street Journal
How Ikea turned around a poor employee retention streak. / via Bloomberg
EdTech
EdTech funding has not hit rock bottom. A continuation of the trend HolonIQ identified at the end of Q1, it is pretty hard to argue with the data here (though I wish I could). / via Crunchbase
Inside Barnard’s pyramid approach to AI literacy. Simple but thoughtful. / via Inside Higher Ed
Coursera launches AI plagiarism detector. Honestly, probably easier to sell to universities than degree programs right now. / via Inside Higher Ed
Court halts Byju’s second rights issue as $200M fundraise falters. A reminder to be very careful about what you read in the press about Byju’s. That said, one does wonder how the company is financing daily operations, which, historically, operated at a substantial loss. / via Techcrunch
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!
Tweet of the Week
As a counterpoint to myself, I will point out that almost every Big Tech company is led by someone who has been at the company for multiple decades - Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, NVIDIA, Meta, TSMC, and Tesla, among others.