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New Markets Venture Partners Adds $30 Million, Former Gates Foundation Executive to Edtech Fund

Edsurge

New Markets has supported 43 companies since its launch in 2003; edtech startups make more than 90 percent of its deals in the past five years, Palmer adds. Investments in edtech companies in 2016 totalled $945 million, according to estimates from GSV Capital, less than half of the $2 billion tally last year.

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Varsity Tutors to Go Public at $1.7B Valuation Through SPAC Acquisition

Edsurge

TPG, the private equity firm behind the deal, is an investor in other edtech companies through its social-impact arm, The Rise Fund. TPG was also a backer of Lynda.com, an early pioneer in online video instruction, which was acquired by LinkedIn for $1.5 These include Adit EdTech Acquisition Corp. billion in 2017.

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Microsoft Takes a Bite Out of BrightBytes, Acquiring Its DataSense Platform and Team

Edsurge

That tool is data, and it marks the focus of Microsoft’s first edtech acquisition of 2019: DataSense , a data management platform developed by Brightbytes. It also offers a rostering solution that expedites how student and educator accounts for third-party edtech applications are created and managed.

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As Corporate World Moves Toward Curated ‘Microlearning,’ Higher Ed Must Adapt

Edsurge

Pluralsight—an online IT training provider—has scaled to become an edtech “unicorn,” with a valuation over $1 billion. billion acquisition of Lynda.com in 2015—and LinkedIn’s subsequent acquisition by Microsoft in 2016 for $26 billion—are connected to the new business models in the provision of corporate learning.

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?Blockchain, Bitcoin and the Tokenization of Learning

Edsurge

A handful of other universities (and even preschools ) now accept Bitcoin for tuition, but that’s hardly the extent of how blockchains and tokens are weaving their way into education: Educators and edtech entrepreneurs are now testing out everything from issuing degrees on blockchains to paying people in cryptocurrency for their teaching.

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SplashLearn Raises $18 Million in Series C Funding Round From Owl Ventures & Accel

eSchool News

San Francisco based Owl Ventures is the largest edtech sector-focused venture capital firm in the world. SplashLearn fits into our objective of supporting innovative companies in the edtech space, helping drive a paradigm shift in the way education is imparted, bringing it to scale” said Amit A. SplashLearn was incorporated in 2010.

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Forbes’ 2018 ‘30 Under 30’ Came Early This Year. Here’s Who Made the Education List.

Edsurge

Edtech investment professional Hilary Shirazi (29), now at LinkedIn , was a force behind her company’s acquisition of skill site Lynda.com.

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