Where is EdTech at in 2022?
EdTech is seeing rising interest in the MEAPT region. We look at the position of EdTech startups in emerging markets in 2022, top investors in the industry and latest exits.
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As technology is taking the upper hand over most industries, its implementation in education was inescapable. EdTech tools are impacting and changing the classroom organization in a multiple of ways as the inclusion of robotics, virtual classrooms and gamified activities is placing education at its appealable end and making learning more fun.
EdTech startups are not new to the region as data reveals that the industry has been growing in the MEAPT region for a while now with 2021 being its best year so far in deals and funding. Funding in 2022 was close to the previous year, however, with 40% coming from a single deal. Turkey, which had the biggest number of EdTech startups registered in MAGNiTT’s startup directory in the region, closed the biggest number of deals in 2022. The majority of deals closed by startups like Fundomundo, Kodris, Perculus, Arkerobox and Saksı Kampüs were of round sizes less than $1M. Turkey’s MEAPT runner up was Egypt, which topped MENA and Africa, closed eight EdTech deals in 2022. With E-learning being EdTech’s star in Egypt in 2022, 5 Quarters, Emonovo, OBM Education, Sprints, Orcas, Kouncel and AI Proctor captured all the capital deployed in the industry last year. In funding, top players were different, EdTech startups headquartered in Saudi Arabia raised $47M in 2022, 24x its capital deployed in 2021. The rise was driven by E-learning platform Classera’s $40M deal. The eight remaining EdTech deals closed in KSA were all of round sizes of less than $5M. South Africa landed second in EdTech funding in MEAPT with $8M across 4 deals. Enko Education’s $5.8M deal was the biggest contributor to the country’s capital deployed in 2022.
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*Data obtained from the Startups tab of MAGNiTT's Directories
From an investor perspective, EdTech is gaining investor interest as time goes by. Over the past five years, investors in EdTech in the MEAPT region have improved remarkably from 29 in 2018 to 84 in 2022, while peaking at 88 in 2021, the industry’s all-time best year yet. In 2022, the top five were as follows. US-Headquartered 500 Global, Egypt’s Flat6Labs and KSA’s OQAL Angel Investors contributed to four EdTech deals each. Turkish ecosystem supporter Ankara Development Agency (Ankara Kalkınma Ajansı) and France’s Proparco took part in three. With 61 out of the 65 deals closed for EdTech in the region headed towards E-learning startups, the aforementioned investors participated in deals closed by KSA’s Stuck, Classera, Noon Academy, Gaga, AlGooru, iStoria, Bahrain’s Playbook, UAE’s Geek Express, Knack, Egypt’s Emonovo, AI Proctor, Turkey’s Fundomundo, Arkerobox, Saksı Kampüs, Bilişim School, Kenya’s Moringa School, Tunisia’s GoMyCode and South Africa’s Enko Education.
*Data obtained from the Investors tab of MAGNiTT's Directories
M&A transactions peaked at eight in 2021 before dropping back to 1 in 2022. The exits reported by the industry in the last two years saw three cross border acquisitions of which are the acquisition of Turkey’s English Ninjas by US-based Open English, Lebanon’s Ostaz by UK’s Inspired Education Group and Kuwait’s Dawrat by US-headquartered SBX Capital.
*Data obtained from the Exits tab of MAGNiTT's Directories
This piece was developed using information from our MAGNiTT Directories.
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