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The future wealth of nations lies in the potential of its citizens. National prosperity is created not inherited. Natural endowments such as great reserves of oil and gas may be helpful but over the long term the competitive advantages of nations lies with the effectiveness of its people.

Differences in culture, values and economic and social structures all contribute to the growth of a nation. However at the heart of the economic engine lies the knowledge, creativity, inventiveness, productivity and drive of humankind.

There are famous examples such as the rise of Singapore. When Singapore became independent in 1965 it was a small tropical island with few natural resources. At the time there was no compulsory education and only a small number of schools. Today the country has risen from undeveloped economy to a world economic and educational leader. Throughout its accelerated development, the shift to a skills-intensive labour force has been core. But not just skills, also a thirst for creativity and invention.

Today, our investment in knowledge and creativity is more important than at any other time in human history. We stand on the brink of massive change.

We all know that the use of technology and AI will become widespread and in a digital and mobile world it will reach every corner of the globe and touch every aspect of our lives . Technology itself will become a commodity that will seek to replace the mundane aspects of our working and domestic lives. The differentiating factor that is left, is the human factor and our ability to deploy learning, empathy and creativity; we have to learn to be human again.

Without a long term vision on how to create the right environment for 21st century learning, nations will gradually fade from the international leagues of competiveness. Natural resources or old world industry and technology will not save them. It is not the instruments of capital that will create wealth for future generation but the inventiveness of its custodians. Without learning we are nothing; learning is our new technology.

FutureLearn has recently announced a £50m investment from SEEK, the international online job seekers platform. This investment is the largest to date in European EdTech and marks a key development for EdTech investment in Europe, which lags a considerable way behind the US and China. FutureLearn’s purpose is to transform access to education and with this new investment we can expect a significant acceleration of its presence on the world’s education stage. Robot pointing Currently, FutureLearn has over nine million learners worldwide and partners with over a quarter of the world’stop universities, as well as organisations such as Accenture, the British Council, CIPD, Raspberry Pi and Health Education England (NHS). FutureLearn was formed in December 2012 by The Open University (OU) and has worked closely over the years with its founding shareholder to grow a successful business with a global footprint and viable commercial model. The partnership between the OU and SEEK will be interesting as it will allow FutureLearn to tackle some of the increasing skill gaps in the global workplace by combining the academic heritage of the OU with SEEK’s knowledge of the jobs market. Watch this space…
Note: IBIS Capital was the financial advisor to the Open University

2019 is off to a strong start as deal value for the first quarter is already more than half of the total deal value for the 2016 and 2017 years. EdTech deals, while making up less than 40% of M&A deal volume, contribute 85% of total deal value for Q1 2019. 3 deals in particular have driven this value – the acquisitions of the Ultimate Software Group ($11bn in February), Clarivate Analytics ($4bn in January) and Turnitin ($1.75bn in March). Refer to the Transaction Highlights section for more detail on these deals. Half of the first quarter’s M&A activity involved small deals (less than $30m). Interestingly, almost 60% of these deals occurred in the Asia / Pacific region. Large deals (greater than $150m), although only 21% of deal volume, accounted for 96% of deal value, the majority of which occurred in North America. Consistent with prior years, strategic buyers are responsible for a clear majority of acquisition volume (83%). However, two of the three largest EdTech deals (specifically, the acquisitions of Ultimate Software Group and Clarivate Analytics), were made by financial investors. This resulted in financial investors accounting for over 86% of total deal value for the quarter.

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GLOBAL ALL STARS

MARKET ROUND UP

VALUATION BENCHMARKS

M&A HIGHLIGHTS