The best businesses are often born in the depths of gloom. Those who build quietly, frugally, passionately, and address deep customer pain will grow, Pai, partner, and Reddy, cofounder and partner at Blume Ventures write
In the first half of 2022, edtech funding hit $1.87 billion, according to Tracxn. This was a jump of 35 percent from the previous year, which itself had seen a 70 percent jump over the previous year.
In short, 2021 and 2022 saw a record rise in funding, audience numbers, engagement, hiring and growth. In Blume’s 2020 Edtech report titled ‘It is EdTech’s Moment’, we quoted an edtech founder saying, “The ecommerce of India is education” and that India’s Amazon would be an edtech company. We had indeed hit peak edtech.
Cut to July 2023. The first half of 2023 saw edtech funding drop dramatically to half the size of the previous year, at just under $900 million. Many edtech companies founded in 2020 and 2021, and which raised record rounds are now floundering. Some have shut shop and returned money to investors. Some of the sector’s leading lights with unicorn status have had to let go of people, and re-engineer their operations. From online, there has been a sharp push to offline, as many have set up physical centres.