EdTech in the UK: An Overview

There are 15,000+ companies headquartered in the UK operating in the education sphere, according to Crunchbase. This ranges from Universities like Imperial College London, to University-partnered venture arms like Oxford Sciences Enterprises, all the way down to both active and acquired startups. The list encompasses 23 sub-sectors within EdTech, from tutoring and edutainment apps to primary education and MOOCs.

 

A quick glance into the overarching ecosystem:

 

UK EdTech Unicorns:

Of the 13 EdTech unicorns globally (adjusted for current valuations, see Holon IQ’s rankings for more detail), 1 is in the UK: Multiverse, a company dedicated to closing the skills gap through apprenticeships, valued at $1.7Bn.

 

UK EdTech M&A:

There has also been a fair amount of M&A activity in the UK EdTech startup scene over the past few years, ranging from Wiley’s $129M acquisition of Tech/IT upskilling provider mthree to Chegg’s $436M acquisition of language learning app busuu. Even private equity has been fueling activity in the space, evidenced by Vitruvian taking a stake in educational resource provider Twinkl valuing the company at £500M in 2023. According to Grant Thornton, EdTech as a sector has even performed ahead of other software industry verticals in terms of investment and M&A activity.

 

To get a better picture of the startup ecosystem, we’ve narrowed down that list of 15,000 education companies to 518 active UK EdTech startups that have raised Pre-Seed to Series J funding, and then even further to 62 EdTech startups that raised capital in either 2023 or 2024 to create our market map of the space.

 

This market map is intended to serve as a guide for where money has been actively flowing into the ecosystem over the past 2 years, providing insight into emerging trends and players alike.

UK EdTech Market Map: Analysis and Trends

 

The above market map encompasses all 62 UK EdTech startups that have raised institutional capital in 2023/24, as well as startups exhibiting at Bett UK 2025 in January. And taking a more granular look at the capital being deployed, it’s almost entirely early stage with a high concentration of rounds done at seed (51%) and pre-seed (32%) – only 4 companies raised over $10M in a single round (HackTheBox, ZenEducate, Gemba, Oxford Medical Simulation).

 

Emerging Trends

Workforce is Winning: The majority of capital (1/3rd of funded companies) is being deployed into enterprise solutions, specifically workforce education and upskilling. This manifests across categories, ranging from VR training in technical disciplines to supporting employee growth/education through mentorship or coaching initiatives.

 

VR “still in style”: I was particularly interested to see the amount of companies (6% of funded companies) raising in VR post-metaverse boom, but training has always had the most practical use cases (and demonstrative ROI) across the broader VR sector – think Oxford Medical Simulation ($12.6M Series A in Jan 2024) offering clinical experience to training healthcare professionals at a fraction of the cost, or Gemba’s technology being used to standardize safety throughout Coca Cola’s manufacturing process.

 

Increasing Verticalization: We’re seeing more apps and companies tailoring to vertical-sector interest instead of widespread appeal… and seemingly getting more niche as well. 

 

• It’s no longer just upskilling for IT, cybersecurity, or data workers to fill the skills gap at large corporations (although there’s still a large appetite for that, as evidenced by the success of HackTheBox). Instead, we’re seeing funding for companies like InSport to fuel increasing interest in Sports Marketing or Sports Business careers, or even memberships/apps to companies like SecondWinery that offer a combination of products (blind wine tasting kits), courses (learn from their AI Master of Wine and the behind-the-scenes at wineries), and services (3D winery tours from the comfort of your home). 

• The personal development category has every niche imaginable of individuals wanting to improve their skills, be it for a hobby (cricket bowling with Dineticq, Formula1 driving simulations with Track Titan) or interest (master your curiosity in Greek Mythology, Fungi, or Dinosaurs on Kinnu).

• There’s also companies catering to specific demographics previously thought as niche, like people with neurodiversity. AutonoMe helps neurodiverse individuals to develop independent living skills and find employment, and Gaia Learning offers personalized learning support for neurodiverse children (think those with ADHD, Autism, etc.) ranging from live classes to content and community. The marketing on the website lasers is on neurodiversity.

 

Sustainability in Focus: Sustainability is becoming a bigger focus area for many businesses, and as a result, more sustainability jobs are coming to market (meeting an increase in interest for ESG roles among Gen Z!). In fact, the rise of sustainability-related job postings has surged by 116% between 2019 and 2024, and almost one-quarter of UK companies are increasing the number of green roles within their business. AimHiEarth trains employees at some of the world’s biggest companies on sustainability strategies to inspire change, and Greenworkx has built a database of 8,000+ jobseekers to help companies find the best green talent. xUnlocked also has an entire track dedicated to sustainability education, offering on-demand sustainability and ESG courses.

 

AI on TOP: 12 of the 62 companies (nearly 20%) have AI in their name or prominently featured in their description/website… AI Reading and Learning. AI-driven platforms. Enabled by AI. And we’re seeing AI implementation evenly across consumer and enterprise applications.

 

 

As AI becomes embedded across sectors, it makes sense we’re seeing more new startups emerge to tackle opportunities in the space – several of which are exhibiting at Bett  this January.

 

• Sphinx AI: AI-powered platform to make sense of data collected in the classroom, ranging from teacher observations to student reflections. Their chatbot, RileyBot, also supports with guiding students in the classroom.

• Switch4Schools: A better wellbeing platform for schools. Switch4Schools uses a simple, regular 30 second check-in, then matches realtime and intuitive data with insights (bolstered by AI) and proactive ‘things to do’ (or ‘switches') for better self regulation and wellbeing.

UK EdTech Market Map: Featured Players

 

Across all of the funding rounds in 2023 & 2024, I also thought it’d be interesting to see which firms were the most active in the space – doing 2 or more deals (aka, at least 1 EdTech deal per year).

 

Interestingly enough, there wasn’t any overlap across the 6 most active funds in the deals they participated in. The most active was coincidentally the UK's most active early-stage investment firm, SFC Capital, doing 6 EdTech deals. It’s also great to see government-sponsored entities like Innovate UK funding innovation in the space at the earliest stages.

 

It’s also great to see EdTech-focused funds thrive in the ecosystem:

 

• Ufi Ventures are the UK’s specialist investor in EdTech for adults, giving people and businesses the skills needed for work (now and in the future). The Government has reported that the digital skills gap is estimated to cost the UK economy £63 billion per year, and Ufi’s 17 investments are actively trying to close this gap.

• Brighteye Ventures is the most active Edtech-focused venture capital fund in Europe, and winning big with their UK EdTech investments (at least in terms of follow-on rounds…) – they are consistently picking great companies in the space, leading the seed round for Zen Educate in 2019 (just raised a $37M Series B), participating in the Series A for HackTheBox in 2021 (just raised a $55M Series B, the largest in our dataset), and participating in the pre-seed for Visibly (just raised a €7M Seed) .

 

The UK has a stronghold on EdTech investment, so it naturally makes sense to host the world’s biggest EdTech event right here in London: Bett UK 2025.

 

This will be the event’s 40th year, connecting 30,000+ educators, policymakers and industry changemakers with over 600 exhibitors from 130 countries. If you’re investing or building in EdTech and had any interest in the stats/themes shared above, this is just a preview for the incredible content and connections shared over three days at Bett UK 2025. Meagan will be interviewing founders in-person at the event and hopes to see you there! 

Let us know what trends we’re missing above, and what has you intrigued about EdTech in the UK!

 

Note: all data from the market map above, unless otherwise linked, is sourced from Crunchbase and is meant to be representative of the EdTech fundraising market and trends. It’s possible there are other EdTech funding rounds not found in the database, and thus not featured in the market map.