According to CBinsights analysis of 2012, VCs, angels and large corporations invested almost 1,100MM$ in educational technologies. During the first half of 2013 the number of deals has increased (10%) although with a lower volume of money invested. This is due to the increase in seed stage and early stage investments, which account for 50% of the deals and 30% of the amount invested.

26% decrease in invested volume

During the first half of 2012, 650M$ were invested, which compared to the 481MM$ invested in the second half of 2013 has meant a significant drop of 26% of the total invested.

"The big corporations are very active in educational technology investments. The most active have been Pearson, Backboard and McMIllan. They are the most frequent exit for startups in the sector," says Diego Gutierrez, corporate finance expert at ABRA INVEST.

The most active venture capitalists

As expected, the most active VCs in the sector consist of funds focused on early stage companies or with sector specialisation. The five most active VCs were: Newschools venture fund, 500 startups, Felicis Ventures, Y combinator and New Markets Venture partners.

"New specialised funds have also emerged. One example is the Rethink educationfounded in early 2012, which has already invested in companies such as Hapara, EverFi and Smarterer," says Diego Gutierrez.

The largest operations

In January 2013, a large operation in excess of 100MM$ took place in Lynda.com by Accel Partners and Spectrum Equity. It looked like a premonition of bigger deals in 2013, which have so far failed to materialise.