The eagerly anticipated European edtech top 20 was published yesterday, and it makes interesting reading to see who is on the list in the UK, and from the rest of Europe.
There are some very familiar names from UK e-learning companies we know well, Brightwave, Epic learning and Virtual College, but no Kineo – well no surprises as they are now part of City and Guilds, no Webanywhere despite some stellar growth over recent years? and no LINE, maybe they are too busy…who knows.
Benjamin Vedrenne-Cloquet, Edxus Group’s CEO and co-founder and instrumental in the list explains a little more:
“We have been impressed by the range of innovation from right across Europe in both the academic and corporate learning sectors. While the 3 year revenue growth rates delivered show that the ed tech boom in Europe is a reality, the huge number of applications received and the modest size of these businesses also demonstrate just how fragmented the European market is. Consolidation in the sector is both necessary and inevitable to foster the emergence of a handful of European ed tech champions able to compete pan-regionally and globally,”
“UK and Northern European ed tech companies seem to lead the ranking. This is due to factors such as proactive government attitudes, the widespread use of English language in academic and corporate learning sectors, the encouragement of educators to be technology early adopters and access to risk capital. Moreover, the relative lack of entries in the top 20 from France, one of the biggest education markets in Europe, is an example of how large and centralized education markets can slow the development of a fertile ecosystem for innovative e-learning businesses to scale,” continued Vedrenne-Cloquet.
Here at Learning Light we believe well over 100 companies entered the listing process, and we are impressed with the list and the innovation exhibited.
Learning Light has tracked the UK e-learning market since 2007, and the wider European market since 2010, and has seen the emergence of a rich and vibrant eco-system of e-learning/edTech developers in both the education and corporate markets.
The full list is here:
Listed in alphabetical order, the EdTech 20 are:
ALISON, Ireland
Brightwave, UK
Classroom Monitor, UK
Coursio, Sweden
Dnevnick, Russia
EPIC Learning, UK
FindCourses, Sweden
GCSEPod, UK
InfoMentor, Iceland
ITycom, Switzerland
Labster, Denmark
Languagelab, UK
Languagenut, UK
Mangahigh, UK
Mendeley, UK
Serious Games Interactive, Denmark
Siveco, Romania
Sofatutor, Germany
Twig World, UK
Virtual College, UK
About the edTech list
The EdTech 20 forms part of a wider strategy by Edxus Group and IBIS Capital to bring investment, scale and consolidation to the European e-learning market which has been fragmented and under-invested to date.
Learning Light has worked with IBIS Capital in researching the e-learning and edtech markets since mid 2012. We are delighted that the investment industry is now taking edTech and e-learning seriously, after so many false dawns, at last the UK’s European and world leading expertise is being recognised, and we congratulate all the companies on this list.
“By helping to identify high-performing companies in the European e-learning field, we hope to attract both business expertise and capital investment to help the industry thrive and compete at a global level,” said Charles McIntyre, IBIS Capital co-founder and CEO. “If this can be combined with consolidation and the creation of economies of scale then we believe that Europe can field education champions that can rival major US players in the field.”
Winners
The top 3 companies from the EdTech 20 will be named at EdTech Europe, an exclusive one day summit on June 14th in London addressing the current industry and investment trends in education technology and e-learning. A selection of the top 20 will be showcased in the upcoming IBIS European Ed Tech Report, a special report on the European e-Learning market, as well as being exposed to senior executives from high profile education and media companies and private equity investors attending EdTech Europe.
The event on June 14th is sold out…..interest is very real indeed.
