2020 Europe EdTech 100. Where are they now?

In December 2020, HolonIQ announced the annual Europe EdTech 100 — a list of the 100 most promising EdTech startups headquartered in Europe. As we open applications for our annual Europe EdTech 100, we take a look at where the 2020 cohort are now.

There are thousands of EdTech companies across Europe supporting learners, teachers, schools, institutions and companies to positively impact educational outcomes, support access to learning and increase the efficiency of educational processes and systems.

The HolonIQ Europe EdTech 100 recognises the most promising EdTech teams based across Europe excluding the Nordic-Baltic EdTech 50 and Russia and CIS EdTech 100. This annual list helps to surface the innovations occurring across this diverse set of markets, and the teams who are supporting institutions, teachers, parents and learners.

The Annual Europe EdTech 100 is focused on identifying young, fast growing and innovative learning and up-skilling start-ups based in the region. To be eligible, startups are generally less than 10 years old (though there are some exceptions), are either headquartered in Europe (see separate Russia & CIS EdTech 100, and Nordic-Baltic EdTech 50), or predominately focused on the market (e.g. > 80% revenue/customers, are pre exit (not acquired or listed) and not a subsidiary of a larger company or controlled by an investor group (e.g. via private equity buyout or controlling investment). Governments and the media, institutions and investors, schools and educators, influencers and talented leaders from across and around the world look to HolonIQ’s Europe EdTech 100 as the benchmark for education innovation in the region.

HolonIQ's Scoring Fingerprint

In 2020, HolonIQ’s Education Intelligence Unit evaluated over one thousand submissions from across Europe, powered by data and insights from our Global Intelligence Platform and local experts. Each organization was assessed using our proprietary scoring engine and following HolonIQ’s startup scoring rubric. Our normalization algorithm ensures that individual scoring bias is eliminated to create an equitable baseline and allows experts to review their own ‘scoring fingerprint’ relative to other experts. HolonIQ’s startup scoring rubric covers the following dimensions:

Market. The quality and relative attractiveness of the specific market in which the company competes.
Product. The quality and uniqueness of the product itself.
Team. The expertise and diversity of the team.
Capital. The financial health of the company and in particular its ability to generate or secure sufficient funding.
Momentum. Positive changes in the size and velocity of the company over time.

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Where are they now?

Since announcing the list nine months ago, organizations in the 2020 Europe EdTech 100 have collectively raised over $1.2B with significant funding round announced each week on average. At the end of the first half of 2021, Europe was the fastest-growing market globally and has delivered a whole new level of funding, not seen before across its entire history.

GoStudent (Austria) has been the stand-out so far, becoming Europe’s first EdTech Unicorn, raising over $320M in a Series B in March followed by a Series C at a $1.7B valuation in June 2021. Just this week, GoStudent announced its first acquisition in SchoolFox, in its mission to build the number 1 global school. Ornikar (France) which prepares people for driving tests by providing online driver education courses, raised a $120M Series C in April and was founded in 2013 in the founder’s words, “to disrupt driving education.” Multiverse (UK) closed their own Series B and growth round in the last 9 months totaling $110M of funding on their mission to build an outstanding alternative to college and corporate training. Brainly, CoachHub and OpenClassrooms each raised $80M, Immersive Labs $75M and Lingoda $68M in a never seen before cohort of European EdTechs closing $50M+ rounds in rapid succession.

IPOs, Acquisitions, Products, Partnerships & Growth Activities

Europe will see its first EdTech exit via IPO in some time by the end of 2021. German online language learning company Babbel announced this week it would list on the Frankfurt stock exchange this year and raise more than $200 million.

The 2020 Europe EdTech 100 cohort was underweight compared to other regions on exit via acquisition in the prior 9 months with the relatively younger cohort predominately raising large late-stage funding and priming for exits over the next few years. A number of notable acquisitions that did occur included Renaissance Learnings acquisition of Lalilo and READY Educations acquisition of StuComm.

Beyond fundraising, organizations from the 2020 Europe EdTech 100 are active in products, partnerships and growth activities in Europe and around the world, with teams such as LeWagon announcing a partnership with Honoris United Universities to open a range of bootcamps across Africa. The London Interdisciplinary School was granted degree awarding powers, the first institution since the 1960s to receive this status as it pioneers a new way of approaching post secondary learning.

Register for the 2021 Europe EdTech 100 Launch Webinar to learn more about the 2020 cohort and of course, be the first to know the 100 companies selected as part of the 2021 Europe EdTech 100.