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Edtech investment organizations are shaping the future of education through a mix of predictive technoeconomic valuations and imaginative visions. This post was basis for my short talk on education technology and data futures @UoE_EFI today https://codeactsineducation.wordpress.com/2021/04/20/valuing-futures/
Edtech investing is super significant since it's funding certain futures of education into existence. It starts with seed investing in startups, like those expecting to be "the Netflix of teaching" https://www.uktechnews.info/category/industry/edtech/
Education seed investment is growing. These funds get startup visions of education operating. Expectations of future value accompany ideas about how education should be. https://signal.nfx.com/investor-lists/top-education-seed-investors
Once edtech companies get into series A funding, the figures can get big. Startups start scaling up. Imaginaries of education start materializing. https://yourstory.com/2021/05/funding-edtech-startup-teachmint-raises-165-million/amp
Series B edtech investment takes us to the multiple tens of millions, and increasing venture capital funding coalitions enticed by high prospective exit valuations. https://startupsmagazine.co.uk/article-edtech-startup-announces-35m-series-b-funding-round
Edtech investing at series C gets up to "unicorn" status and billion dollar-plus valuations. At this stage, the vision of the investor is being realized at scale - selected value-generating futures of education funded into actual reality. https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/14/outschool-series-c-unicorn/
Lots of edtech unicorns have appeared due to huge investor expectations of Covid-based and post-Covid market growth. Multi-billion $ global companies with influence to shape future of education https://www.holoniq.com/edtech-unicorns/
And finally there are the edtech exits, huge valuation edtech companies going for IPOs and generating returns to that chain of investors. The imaginary of education has been realized. https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/edtech-startups-investors-exits-IPOs-venture-capital
Along the edtech investment chain, edtech-specific SPACs are a new thing that exist purely to raise funds to take private edtech companies public and generate returns on exit. https://twitter.com/EdSurge/status/1356283505584570369?s=19
And then there are edtech exchange traded funds, mixed baskets of shares in edtech companies for investors to fund a trend. https://etfdb.com/esg-investing/social-issues/education/
"And there seems no end in sight ... we believe the growing emergence of ed tech as a new asset class in the public equity markets, not to mention the federal stimulus ... are likely to supercharge this already elevated pace." https://tytonpartners.com/library/the-new-gold-standard-in-edtech-investing/
Mustn't believe in finance determinism any more than tech determinism or solutionism of course, but finance does have peculiar power to produce valuations and imaginaries of education, and to fund them into existence.
The edtech investors producing fictional expectations and valuations of the future of education https://mercebent.medium.com/edtech-vcs-77d484bf7788
