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The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic accelerated the transformation of businesses, but also of entire sectors. Education is one of them, as it became a severe difficulty for some and, at the same time, an opportunity for edtech startups.
Around 100 million children in Latin America and the Caribbean were forced study at home, UNESCO noted.
But in the region, 69% of the population uses the Internet and 58% have access to it from their homes, according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
Although the same agency says the region has 96% broadband coverage and 84% of people have a smartphone, it still wasn’t a guarantee for children to be able to study at home.
Investors are looking into edtech startups
This situation has been noted by investment funds.
During the first half of 2021, they invested around $299 million in edtech startups in Latin America and the Caribbean. That’s 3.6 times more than last year, according to HOLON IQ on its 2021 Latin America EdTech 100 ranking.
This amount broke the investment record from the last 10 years. The previous record was $127 million in 2015, followed by $83 million in 2020.
One has to look at just two edtech startups that recently raised significant sums. Coderhouse, a live cohort-based platform from Argentina, raised $13.5 million in a Series A round. On the other hand, Peruvian-born online course service Crehana raised $70 million in a Series B, just a few months after raising $13 million.
These investments will further boost the startup to create a new business line called Crehana for Business.
Some other edtech startups that stand out in the HOLON IQ ranking are Dev.f and Thincrs from Mexico, Crack the Code and Laboratoria from Peru, as well as Programa Valentina from Guatemala.
So far, the Latin American and Caribbean countries with the most edtech startups are Brazil (39%), Mexico (16%), Argentina (13%), Colombia (11%), Chile (8%), and Peru (6%).
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