2020 LATAM EdTech 100. Where are they now?

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

Education is one of LATAM’s most critical social and economic growth drivers. Even before COVID, Latin America’s children suffered from some of the world’s biggest gaps in literacy and numeracy and COVID has made this issue much worse. Meanwhile, adults and employers across the region have an overwhelming demand for stronger education to employment links and more impactful upskilling systems and platforms.

Early 2020, we set out to shine a light on the incredible work of LATAM EdTech teams on a mission to transform the way LATAM learns and to support learners, parents, schools, universities, employers and governments to unleash human potential across the region. When COVID hit, our scheduled LATAM Summits hit pause and in June 2020, HolonIQ announced the 2020 LATAM EdTech 100. Together with the EdLATAM Alliance, we celebrated the top 100 EdTech companies transforming the way LATAM, and the world learns. You can watch the announcement webinar and download the 2020 LATAM EdTech 100 in Spanish and Portuguese.

The Annual LATAM EdTech 100 recognizes the most promising EdTech startups based in the region and shines a light on the innovations occurring across the market. Governments and the media, institutions and investors, schools and educators, influencers and talented leaders from across LATAM and around the world look to HolonIQ’s LATAM EdTech 100 as the benchmark for education innovation in the region. ‍

HolonIQ's Scoring Fingerprint

In 2020, HolonIQ’s Education Intelligence Unit evaluated 1,500+ submissions from across LATAM, 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, 4 of the 2020 LATAM EdTech 100 have been acquired and 15 companies have disclosed significant fundraising rounds. Over the next four weeks, EdTech companies across LATAM will be sharing key growth and impact milestones with HolonIQ’s Intelligence Unit as part of our assessment process for 2021 and we will provide further updates on the 2020 cohort at the launch webinar.

Exits: 4 Acquisitions.

Since the release of the 2020 LATAM EdTech 100 list, 4 companies have been acquired. We are in the very early stages of EdTech’s growth in LATAM and as such this represents and strong start that will gain momentum over the next 12 months.

Two patterns emerged over the last year. The first pattern is large established players acquiring EdTech’s to boost capability, reach new learners and innovate. Arco (Nasdaq: ARCE) acquired Me Salva!, an online educational solution that prepares students to be admitted to the best universities in Brazil and Eleva acquired Agenda Edu, a platform that was created with the objective of being a digital agenda for early childhood education schools

The second pattern was EdTech’s across the region teaming up to combine forces such as Acamica’s acquisition by Digital House and Pencil’s acquisition by Colegium.

For HolonIQ’s Intelligence Unit, it was rewarding to hear that revealing the 2020 LATAM EdTech was the initial driver of a number of completed and near finalized acquisitions, bringing teams together that were otherwise unaware of each other’s work.

Funding. 15 companies raised over USD $180M in the last 12 months.

Since June 2020, 15 companies from the 2020 LATAM EdTech 100 have raised a combined $180M in equity funding from investors.

Of those 15 companies, 2 raised a $50M+ equity round.

Register for the 2021 LATAM EdTech 100 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 LATAM EdTech 100.