21 Fastest-Growing Edtech Startups (2021)
This is a list of growing startups in the education technology space.
Overall, VC funding in the edtech space grew by 94% last year, reaching $13 billion.
Big names like Udemy, MasterClass and Teachable might get all the attention.
(And we will cover many edtech unicorns on this list.)
But there are plenty of smaller, fast-growing Edtech startups to keep an eye on in 2021 and beyond.
Without further ado, let's dive into the list.
1. Cambly
5-year search growth: 518%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2012
Location: San Francisco, CA
Funding: Undisclosed amount (Series B)
What they do: Cambly is an on-demand video platform for finding English language tutors. Includes features for lesson recordings, chat translations, courses and certifications. Cambly has a plan specifically for organizations that want to learn English.
2. Outschool
5-year search growth: 3800%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2015
Location: San Francisco, CA
Funding: $240.2M (Series D)
What they do: Outschool has created an educational platform for small live classes designed for homeschooling. Specifically, students and parents can choose from over 1,000 live classes designed for children, including ballet, drawing, STEM skills and anthropology. To date the company has had 500,000 students take at least once class. And teachers have generated a reported $45 million from the platform.
3. Labster
5-year search growth: 983%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2011
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Funding: $103.5M (Series C)
What they do: Labster hosts several "virtual labs" for doing experiments in VR. Specifically, students use VR and AR software to practice lab techniques virtually. The major benefit is that students can practice in a safe environment. And prepare them for real-world lab work. Labster currently has over 150 virtual labs on its platform and boasts over 1,000 University clients.
4. Teachoo
5-year search growth: 9200%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2014
Location: Pune, India
Funding: None disclosed
What they do: Teachoo is an education platform that hosts a variety of online courses designed for English speaking students in India. Current course offering include tax preparation, Microsoft Excel and math.
5. Preply
5-year search growth: 1900%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2012
Location: Brookline, Massachusetts
Funding: $50.6M (Series B)
What they do: Preply is an online marketplace for finding tutors in a variety of different languages. The Preply platform also contains a "structured learning" option for those that want a tutor to help them take a more organized route. In addition to rankings, Preply also ranks tutors based on a machine learning model. The company reports that they have over 100,000 students on their platform.
6. Lessonly
5-year search growth: 212%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2012
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Funding: $29.1M (Series C)
What they do: Lessonly is software to help facilitate in-house staff training for companies. In other words, it's a learning platform for the B2B market. Their software comes with plug-and-play modules for training customer service reps and sales staff. Along with interactive tools that help employees practice scenarios they'll face in the real world.
7. Embrace
5-year search growth: 2100%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 1999
Location: Highland, Illinois
Funding: None disclosed
What they do: Embrace is a tool for helping teachers document student performance in the classroom. The tool is designed to save educator's time when creating lesson plans and documenting results. Embrace reports that their tool cuts down reporting time by about 50% compared to traditional methods.
8. GoPractice
5-year search growth: 0%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2013
Location: Simpsonville, South Carolina
Funding: None disclosed
What they do: GoPractice is an online training program for learning how to grow a customer base. Unlike some of the other edtech companies on this list, GoPractice doesn't offer a variety of courses in different areas. Instead, their 12-week course is designed to help startups find product market fit, launch, and scale their product. GoPractice includes lessons on product management, systems thinking, and data analytics.
9. BetterUp
5-year search growth: 200%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2013
Location: San Francisco, CA
Funding: $569.8M (Series E)
What they do: BetterUp is a coaching and training platform designed to boost employee engagement and productivity. Focused on enterprise companies, BetterUp is technically SaaS. But also delivers coaching services through its platform.
10. CuriosityStream
5-year search growth: 84%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2015
Location: Silver Spring, Maryland
Funding: $279.7M (Post-IPO Equity)
What they do: CuriosityStream is "Netflix for educational content", like documentaries and educational series. Plans range from $2.99/mo for HD video to $9.99 for 4K quality. CuriosityStream's advisory board includes notable names like Glenn Close, Don Henley, and Michio Kaku.
11. Udemy
5-year search growth: 165%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2009
Location: San Francisco, CA
Funding: $311.4M
What they do: Udemy is a platform with 130,00 courses on dozens of different topics, from marketing to singing. In addition to à la carte course offerings, Udemy also has a "Udemy for Business" plan. This a subscription service that allows unlimited access to 5,000 courses.
12. Lingoda
5-year search growth: 225%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2013
Location: Berlin, Germany
Funding: $80.8M (Private Equity)
What they do: Lingoda is an online language school. The startup’s platform offers group or 1-to-1 classes in English, German, French, or Spanish. Also, Lingoda develops its own learning material in-house, which helps standardize the methodology. The company reports that they have 70,000 students and 1,400 teachers.
13. GoStudent
5-year search growth: 4500%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2016
Location: Vienna, Austria
Funding: $345.4M (Series C)
What they do: GoStudent is an online tutoring platform. The website helps find tutors across 14 different school subjects, from math to English. The site claims to have more than 10,000 students.
14. Brainly
5-year search growth: 1150%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2009
Location: Kraków, Poland
Funding: $148.5M (Series D)
What they do: Brainly is a social learning network. Users can ask questions about a range of different school subjects. And help their peers in order to receive points. The number of Brainly users grew from 150 million users in 2019 to 350 million a year later.
15. Cuemath
5-year search growth: 191%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2013
Location: Bengaluru, India
Funding: $64.5M (Series C)
What they do: Cuemath operates a live-class platform for learning math and coding. Classes are held on Cuemath’s own platform with access to video calls and personalized worksheets. Parents can track the progress of their child on the app, which updates after each class.
16. Quizizz
5-year search growth: 492%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2015
Location: Bangalore, India
Funding: $47M (Series B)
What they do: Quizizz is a gamified learning platform for children and employees. Teachers can create quizzes or use a library of existing content for student assignments. Employers can create polls or quizzes to support employee training (during presentations, onboarding, etc.). Reports are available in the product with instant feedback on class performance.
17. Photomath
5-year search growth: 150%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2014
Location: San Mateo, CA
Funding: $29M (Series B)
What they do: Photomath is a mobile application for solving mathematical equations instantly. The app uses the smartphone's camera to scan math problems and provide solutions with step-by-step explanations. Photomath has more than 220 million downloads from App Store and Google Play.
18. Mursion
5-year search growth: 6100%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2014
Location: San Francisco, CA
Funding: $35.1M (Series B)
What they do: Mursion is a VR training platform for workplace training. Specifically, developing "emotional quotient" (EQ) skills. Their product delivers personalized simulations with the use of AI and human specialists. The company has offers training programs for leadership training, healthcare, and more.
19. SplashLearn
5-year search growth: 4300%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2010
Location: Gurugram, India
Funding: $25M
What they do: SplashLearn is a gamified math learning product for elementary school children. Their content library includes more than 4,000 games designed to explain math concepts.
20. RangeForce
5-year search growth: 172%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2015
Location: Manassas, VA
Funding: $19.1M (Series A)
What they do: RangeForce operates a cloud-based learning platform for cybersecurity training. The startup's product offers a cyber attack simulator for employees to improve their skills. Managers can track the team's performance with reporting features.
21. CoachHub
5-year search growth: 0%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2018
Location: Berlin, Germany
Funding: $133M (Series B)
What they do: CoachHub is a B2B digital coaching provider. This startup creates personalized talent development programs for employees to hone their skills and delivers them remotely via video. Employees and HR teams can measure performance within the application. CoachHub has more than 2,500 business coaches in its network.
Conclusion
That completes this list of 21 Edtech startups with significant growth in 2021.
What stands out about many of these companies is the fact that they cater to completely different markets, from schoolchildren all the way up to executives that spend most of their time in B2B boardrooms.