HolonIQ unveils Europe’s top 100 edtech companies

Published 30/12/2020

Holon IQ has released its first annual list of the Europe EdTech 100, highlighting key players and companies in a sector that saw dramatic growth this year as learning went online.

The list includes well known-names such as language learning software Busuu, Memrise and Babbel; tutoring platforms like Superprof and Tutorful; management solutions company Unibuddy; and jobs and internships platforms including The Intern Group and Virtual Internships.

“We think the future of Europe is hot and we see six engines of opportunity as having the most future potential for Europe to create billion euro companies,” said Nic Newman, partner at venture capital fund Emerge Education.

“We see disruptors and we see enablers… You’ve got online vocational schools challenging universities… You’ve got operating systems for teaching at scale.”

“There’s a big call for more founders and crazy ideas to come into the market”

“There’s a big call for more founders and crazy ideas to come into the market,” he continued.

“Edtech is the new fintech for top talent. Europe and the Nordics is the right place to work on your dream. The support network is fantastic.”

Among the other edtech-related lists HolonIQ have released this year include ones covering North America, India and South Asia, Nordic-Baltic, Russia and CIS, Australia and New Zealand, Africa, Latin America and, late last year, one on Chinese companies.

North America represents one of the most longstanding and mature edtech markets globally and at the same time, continues to be a powerhouse of innovation both in technology, market and business model,” noted the company.

“Around one third of the 2020 North America EdTech 100 operates in the workforce sector, with teams focusing on K12 and higher education also well represented. There is a solid mix of B2C and B2B models, with the latter gaining prominence in 2020 as Covid-19 sparks significant demand from institutions and companies seeking technology-led solutions.”

Upskilling and the workforce was equally a key sector in Europe.

“[It’s] everything from Amazon training through to new forms of MBAs coaching, all sorts of different upskilling areas… Around 50% of these EdTech 100 in Europe are in the workforce sector, followed by K12 and higher education,” said HolonIQ CEO and co-founder Maria Spies.

“Around 50% of these EdTech 100 in Europe are in the workforce sector, followed by K12 and higher education”

“We do see that quite a lot in different parts of the world as the focus on jobs and skills becomes ever more urgent.”

Latin America is super strong also in upskilling, language learning in particular, and very dominated by K12 teams. Moving forward through to Nordic-Baltic, [it has a] very strong sense of teacher and student support and technology integration.

“And then moving forward through to Russia and CIS, a lot of upskilling and deep tech cybersecurity machine learning and quite a lot of big tech companies there,” Spies added.

“[In] Australia and New Zealand, [it’s] relatively mixed but lots of support for institutions in the education, management and analytics.”

The company additionally listed 20 global edtech unicorns (a startup or company valued at over $1 billion), of which nine come from China, two from India, eight from the US and one from Canada.

The top three unicorns were all tutoring companies, with Chinese platform Yuanfudao coming first followed by Byju’s from India, and China’s Zuoyebang. Rounding out the top five were Chinese language platform VIPKid and the US MOOC Udemy.

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