Something to Educate Yourself On for New Opportunity!
Hello AAR Agency Partners,
I hope everyone is gearing up for a successful fourth quarter… and thrilled to creep closer to saying sayonara to 2020!
As you know, AAR Partners is constantly and consciously keeping an ear out for smAARt leads to help you to help brands. And now with the kick off to the new school year, here’s something educate yourself on for potential new biz opportunities!
Pre-pandemic, education was barely digitized. Less than 3% of global education spending went toward technology.
Most schools are operating at least partially online this fall, posing big challenges and opportunities.
But school budgets are tight, which gives entrepreneurs a chance to get creative with the deals they offer K-12 districts and universities.
In fact, investors are flocking to companies that offer online courses, student support services, and new tools to help parents.
And there’s been an edtech unicorn baby boom. New investors are spending large sums on companies that offer online courses and student support services.
Get Schooled on Edtech
The COVID-19 pandemic has rocked each sector of the economy, but few realms have felt the effects more than education. With campuses closed across the US, preschoolers and PhD candidates alike are cooped up at home, trying to keep learning in the midst of the crisis.
Most students, teachers, and institutions are new to or relatively inexperienced with remote education. Before the pandemic, according to the latest available data, only 15% of US college students enrolled exclusively in online courses and fewer than 1% of K-12 students enrolled full-time in online schools — but suddenly, almost all students are taking classes entirely online.
Some lack the devices and internet connections they need to learn from home, while many teachers are struggling with digital systems they don’t fully understand.
All this spells o-p-p-o-r-t-u-n-i-t-y for edtech entrepreneurs who can offer solid solutions for improving remote education. At least, investors certainly think so. After a financing lull in March, they’ve started pouring money into companies that offer online courses and student support services, catapulting several past the $1B valuation mark.
“I can’t believe the number of unicorns we’ve seen,” says Patrick Brothers, co-founder and co-CEO at HolonIQ, which tracks education investment internationally.
Many of these investors are new to edtech, Brothers says.
“For general investors, edtech wasn’t sexy and it wasn’t mainstream. Coronavirus really changed that. Everyone’s had their kids at home studying,” he explains. “There’s a lot of private capital around the world that has a new appreciation for this industry.”
There’s a lot of potential in the edtech market right now; here’s more detail on three opportunities where you might step in to help this online learning boom:
- Online Tutoring Services
It’s been a hot few years for companies that connect students with tutors who teach online. Between 2016 and 2019, online tutoring services raised more than $1.2B in venture capital, according to EdSurge data. The pandemic seems to have turned the heat up even higher for online tutoring.
The Opportunity:
Even though the market is crowded, investment keeps pouring into online tutoring services, especially those serving students in other countries, so it’s not too late to jump in.
Plus, pandemic-era travel restrictions and health concerns may prevent students from studying internationally over the next few years, meaning that those hoping to improve their English skills may look to online tutoring platforms instead.
-
Aides and Apps for Education — and “Edutainment”
Interest and investment has been strong in tools and services designed to help students of all ages, and their families, learn at home, both for assignments and for fun.“Edutainment” is on the rise, and edtech companies cite the pandemic as the cause. MasterClass, which recruits celebrities to share expertise in non-credit-bearing online classes, raised $100m in May, and the CEO says revenue has increased 10x in the past https://medium.com/gsv-ventures/dawn-of-the-age-of-digital-learning-4c4e38784226couple months over the same period last year. Language-learning app Duolingo, which became a unicorn in 2019, got 101% more new users during the month of March, which a spokesperson said adds up to millions of people.
Downloads for education apps like Google Classroom, Seesaw, and Classdojo shot up when remote learning started.
The Opportunity:
With so many kids involved with home or hybrid-home-schooling, apps and aides that help with required schooling are in high demand. Schools and teachers have selected some of them for classes to use, but others catch on more organically as people search for new ways to get help with their assignments.
But not all new use of consumer-facing edtech comes out of formal classes. Some people are turning to learning as a source of entertainment because they’re bored, or as a way to gain some new skills while out of work.
- Tools That Connect Schools With Students and Families
It’s always hard for schools to communicate with students and families, and the ongoing pandemic has compounded that problem. Systems that help educators, learners and parents stay in touch are needed.
A chatbot company that enables college leaders to text with students raised $1.6m in seed funding, while a family outreach and attendance tracking tool recently attracted $3.5m.
Collaboration systems like ClassDojo, Remind, Google Classroom and Seesaw have seen spikes in downloads since the pandemic.
The Opportunity:
Schools need tools that facilitate communication in multiple tongues, says Aaron Walker, founder and CEO of Camelback Ventures: “If we are going to integrate parents and families into the learning experience, it’s going to force us to embrace the true diversity of this country, and that includes the languages people speak at home.” For example, parent-teacher communication platform ClassTag, which supports more than 60 languages, raised $5m in seed funding.
What can you do?
Don’t fail to learn more about this opportunity. There are many edtech companies who need your help with generating awareness as they continuing raising capital and more are exploding onto the online ed scene every day.
- Look for white space in the consumer edtech market, which sells online tutoring services and apps.
- The emerging audience for edtech tools and services? Parents. And that won’t just be true during the pandemic — experts say this trend is here to stay.
Remember, don’t stalk! Don’t hound. Don’t sent a myriad of messages about yourself. What do you do?
Build trust fast by offering ideas to help with their operations, manufacturing and distribution dilemmas. Share your expertise and show how it’s relevant. Just… don’t… sell!
Prospect smAARt, pitch with passion and most importantly, with purpose.
Finally, have a successful final quarter of what was one helluva year!
And always remember to pitch with passion.
