July/August Edition of the X Report
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This month's X Report discusses the role of EdTech in solving the tech gender crisis. We share highlights of the 2022 EdTechX Summit, and look at Q2 performance in the sector. Each month we share a snapshot of key trends, showcase the stars of today and tomorrow, offer our insight on mergers, acquisitions and fundraising, as well as providing some further food for thought.

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How EdTech is Solving the Tech Gender Crisis
Anna Brailsford, CEO of Code First Girls

Women currently make up just 21% of the tech industry, black women make up just 3%, and only 5% of leadership positions in the UK’s tech industry are held by women. These statistics are startling and, discouragingly, progress to tackle this tech gender crisis has been painfully slow, both in the UK and around the world.

The crisis is being matched by an ever-growing gap in tech skills. Today, there are already more tech roles being advertised than there are candidates, and the UK’s tech job market is projected to be worth £30bn by 2025 - six times larger than it is now. It’s estimated there will be 3 million jobs in the UK by 2025 in software, data and cyber, but UCAS data shows that by then there will only be 150k qualified graduates - and only 17% of these will be women. Big growth, of course, means big opportunities. But, unless serious effort is made, there won’t be enough candidates to fill the jobs needed. What’s more, there will only be one qualified woman for every 115 roles.

Why is the tech gender gap a crisis?

A primary concern is that women find themselves unable to access the opportunities the tech industry offers, which entrenches economic and professional inequality. Tech jobs have higher starting salaries than most other industries, and independent analysis suggests professions in tech offer more social mobility than professions like medicine and law.

But closing the gender gap and taking pains to secure opportunities in tech for women isn’t just the right thing to do for women, it’s also the right thing to do for the industry. Businesses around the world are increasingly recognising this fact.

The tech industry is critical for the UK’s economic competitiveness, national infrastructure, and security. To ensure the industry is as strong as it can be, we need to draw on the widest possible range of voices and insights. Less groupthink and more diversity of thought means tech can be more innovative and less predictable.

At Code First Girls, we believe EdTech has a fundamental role to play in solving the tech gender crisis and we’re on a mission to close the gender gap in the tech industry by improving employment prospects through free education

Whether it’s the failure to spark interest in tech amongst girls at school age, the financial barriers to entry of later educational routes into tech, or the unique challenges facing female career switchers who often need more flexibility and autonomy, there are barriers at multiple points in the pipeline for women.

EdTech can help solve this specific supply and demand problem for the tech industry by providing free access to education and creating virtual learning environments which enable women to learn flexibly, regardless of location, caregiving responsibilities or other commitments. It can also help connect women with mentors and peers, providing direct access to a whole community of support and inspiration.

Through EdTech, we can address the skills and gender gap in tech head-on, ensuring this immensely influential industry is as strong as it can be by providing the skills, space, and inspiration across a diverse spectrum of gender, class, race and culture.
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2022 EdTechX Summit Highlights
Celebrating ideas, inspiration and collaboration

On 23rd June, at the heart of London EdTech Week, the EdTechX Summit went ‘back-to-live’ for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and once again united the movers and shakers from across the EdTech sector for a day of impactful networking and inspirational talks and discussions.

Over 640 attendees from 51 countries battled with one of the UK’s largest ever train strikes to join us at the historic Tobacco Dock in London, and to connect with old and new colleagues, learn from insightful thought-leaders, and discover new products from cutting-edge brands.

Inspired by the theme ‘The Experience of Learning’, this ninth live edition presented a leading line-up of over 100 high quality keynote speakers and panellists across 4 diverse programme tracks, an exhibition hall including Country Pavilions, a vast central atrium ideal for generating organic networking opportunities and, new for this year, a dedicated space for thematic, 1:1 or group peer-to-peer learning sessions.

EdTechX founders, Charles McIntyre and Benjamin Vedrenne-Cloquet led the way in customary fashion with an insightful opening keynote on the trends across the industry and the bright and dark sides of EdTech as they explored EdTech on a Learning Curve.

Following the unveiling of the 2022 EdTechX All Stars Award winners, the speaker schedule went on to deliver a series of informative and thought-provoking sessions covering a variety of topics on current and future trends in education, the future of work, strategies for growth and ESG & Impact in education. The programme culminated with an inspirational closing keynote on ‘Educating for the Future’ by Anne Marie Imafidon MBE, presenter, and co-founder of the award-winning social enterprise, Stemettes.

The EdTechX team was absolutely thrilled to be back in-person and to witness the ideas, inspiration and collaboration happening throughout the entire event. We invite you to take a look at some of the event highlights from this year's EdTechX summit and would like to thank our community, sponsors and partners for continuing to make EdTechX what it is today - Europe's premier event focused on the future of learning & work!

 Join us for EdTechX’s 10 year anniversary in 2023 – register early for a 50% discount on tickets.

If you wish to partner with us on our 10th year or get involved in London EdTech Week 2023, please email maureen@edtechxglobal.com

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Market Roundup Logos1-1
Education market round up
HigherEd & EdTech - THE
EdTech Promises - World Economic Forum
Online Education - McKinsey
Work market round up
Web3 - World Economic Forum
Digital Skills - Forbes
Remote work - Bloomberg
investment market round up
Funding Report - Brighteye Ventures
India - The Wall Street Journal
Corp Training - The Financial Times
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M&A Highlights
M&A Activity >
M&A - SumTotal M&A - TIME Institute
M&A Concorde-1

 

 

Source: S&P Capital IQ


Significant Fundraising Activity >
Fundraising  - Multiverse Fundraising  - UpGrad
Fundraising  - CoachHub

 

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Valuation Benchmarks

Industry Analysis – Q2 2022 Mergers, Acquisitions and Fundraising

Key Points

Graph 1-Aug-01-2022-08-30-48-09-AM

Global education deal making had a slower second quarter of 2022, with Q2 M&A being noticeably lower than the previous year. In fact, M&A deal value decreased by 76% from the second quarter of 2021, and remained below pre-pandemic levels. Whilst Q2-21 activity was boosted by a strong M&A appetite after a pandemic-induced slowdown, Q2-22 deal activity has been negatively impacted by elevated uncertainty surrounding a weakening global economy. Fundraising has followed a similar trend to M&A in Q2-22, with the $5.0bn of capital raised in Q2-22 being a $2.5bn decrease when compared to the same period a year ago. However, the fundraising value did surpass amounts raised in the second quarters of 2019, 2017 and 2016, which bodes well for EdTech fundraising going forward.

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Strategic buyers continue to be responsible for the majority of M&A transactions, and accounted for 85% of deal volume. America’s Bright Horizons Family was a notable strategic acquirer this quarter, acquiring Australian preschool services provider Only About Children for $320m. From a geographic perspective, North America continues to be the dominant geography, accounting for just over 50% of transactions. Europe and Asia Pacific were jointly responsible for 35% of deals this quarter.

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Unsurprisingly, small deals (defined as transactions with size less than $50m) accounted for the vast majority of deal value. Aside from the Bright Horizon’s Family and Only About Children deal mentioned above, another notable large deal was TPG Capital and Hong Leong Group’s $306m acquisition of IMU Health, an international medical university based in Malaysia. On the fundraising side, notable transactions include a $1.1bn investment by Stonepeak Partners into UK independent school group Inspired as well as Temasek Holding’s (along with Bharti Airtel, ArcelorMittal, Educational Testing Service & Lupa Systems) $225m investment into UpGrad Education.
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With the current global economic uncertainties at play, it is unlikely that there will be a boom in education M&A and Fundraising activity for the remainder of 2022. However, we can expect deal making activity to remain above pre-pandemic levels.

1Relates only to deals with disclosed transaction amounts. Small deals are considered to be <50m; Medium deals are considered to be ≥50m<150m; Large deals are considered to be >150m

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