- Owl Ventures — the largest venture capital fund in education technology — recently announced that it closed $585 million across two new funds
Owl Ventures — the largest venture capital fund in education technology — recently announced that it closed $585 million across two new funds. The firm had closed $415 million for its fourth fund and $170 million for its first Opportunity Fund. The new funds will be used for helping fuel its strategy of making early, growth, and later-stage investments in the world’s leading education technology companies across the education spectrum including PreK-12, higher education, and future of work (career mobility/professional learning).
Since being founded in 2014, Owl Ventures has been a major investor in many of the fastest-growing companies in the global education-tech market including U.S. companies Accelerate Learning (acquired by Carlyle Group), Degreed, DreamBox Learning (acquired by TPG Rise), Hazel Health, MasterClass, Newsela, Noodle Partners, Quizlet, Remind and international companies like BYJU’s, Labster, Lele Ketang, Sanjieke and WhiteHat Jr. (acquired by BYJU’s).
The success of Owl Ventures global investment strategy was recently highlighted by two of its portfolio companies in India when BYJU’s — the most valuable privately held EdTech company in the world — acquired 18-month-old startup WhiteHat Jr for $300 million. Owl Ventures was the only fund that was an investor in both companies.
Owl Ventures is the lead investor in the vast majority of its deals and typically joins the board of each of its companies. And this hands-on approach helps companies across numerous functions including distribution, partnerships, talent, fundraising, and outcomes measurement.
The firm has also helped foster a robust community within the portfolio companies through CEO Summits and industry-specific events that allow fellow EdTech entrepreneurs to share best practices, insights, and explore partnership opportunities. And as an education sector specialist, the fund has successfully partnered with leading diversified venture capital and private equity funds to help accelerate the growth of its portfolio companies.
Owl Ventures is backed by top global Limited Partners consisting of prestigious college & university endowments, foundations, strategic education institutions, sovereign wealth funds, and family offices from across the U.S., Asia, Europe, Middle East, and South America.
KEY QUOTES:
“Since we began the firm, we have seen the digital revolution rapidly unfold in education and workforce development. Due to the shift to remote learning and work, we find ourselves in a watershed moment for the over $6 trillion education and training market as the rising digital penetration in the sector that had already been taking place has surged.”
— Tory Patterson, Managing Director at Owl Ventures
“We are finding that our portfolio companies based in the U.S., China, Europe and India are mission-critical elements to continued learning. Inbound inquiries, user growth/engagement, and customer pipelines have dramatically spiked across our portfolio with our platforms being leveraged globally.”
— Ian Chiu, Managing Director at Owl Ventures
“The meteoric growth of both Whitehat Jr and BYJU’s is illustrative of the rapidly growing and maturing EdTech market in India and throughout the world. We seek to partner with visionary entrepreneurs who are tackling large problems in education as well as training and help them build transformative category leading companies.”
— Amit Patel, Managing Director at Owl Ventures
“Our global LP base and network of education institutions and leaders is a major competitive advantage as we have valuable partners throughout the world that can uniquely help change the trajectory of our portfolio companies.”
— Tom Costin, Managing Director at Owl Ventures
