#98 – Demystifying Investment in Edtech. Plus, Gratitude…

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This week’s intro…

Hello everyone and welcome to The Edtech Podcast. My name is Sophie Bailey and this is one of the last podcasts from us until 2018. 

The theme of this week’s podcast is gratitude. First of all and as ever I’m grateful to you all for your amazing support! 

This year has been an incredible feat: we’ve ramped up our downloads to around 1600 a week, we’ve commissioned two new podcast series, we’ve become more international than ever with listeners from up to 141 countries checking in, we launched our website with book club and events pages, we’re about to go over 100,000 downloads with this episode and, as we prepare for our first ever festival in 2018 (under the radar tickets available) we are now on Spotify. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank our sponsors and patrons in 2017 who helped us achieve all of the above and grow The Edtech Podcast. A big shout out to 

Lego, Pearson, Maplesoft, ASU GSV Summit,QFI, Michelson Runway and 20MM Foundation, Class Central, Ed Academy,iClassics Collection, Unio by Harness, Cooley LLP, Full Fabric, Innovate Edtech, Japan Prize 2017, Glisser Edu, Wibbu, Disney Circle, Kubo Robot, Microsoft, and Primo Toys go and check them all out on our website.

Next up, our individual patrons who donate everything from a coffee a month or so upwards to keep us going. Thank you too! 

First up, newest patron Joanne Zhang who is building Funky Mandarin a digital language learning platform for children aged 2+ whilst continuing her academic career at the University of Cambridge and beyond. Joanne wrote  “Hi Sophie, Really enjoyed your podcast and appreciate the energy you put in it!”

Next up, one of project-based modular laptop company, Pi-Top’s earliest core team Chantal Schoenbaechler, who keeps the good ship Pi-Top on the straight and narrow as it expands and develops. 

Also, Mooc wizard, Class-Central’s Dhawal Shah of class-central.com/report/ fame and finally one of our earliest and most modest patron’s Director at Crazy Fig Marketing, Rachel Doyle 

Help support The Edtech Podcast mission in 2018!

To everyone who’s supported The Edtech Podcast this year – thank you -and that includes listeners, media partners, sponsors, patrons and of course our amazing guests. If you’re interested in how you can help support the podcast in 2018 or to find out more detail on 2017 please do go to our blog post or contact us via the website. 

What’s in this episode?

(A quick update from me with some sad news…then…)

This week we’ve got a throw back to a meet up in October of this year where we looked at demystifying investment in edtech. This episode is one for the start ups listening in, though educators may find it interesting to hear about where money is being spent and how start ups are going about building their innovations around the world. First up you will hear a quick word from Richard Male at the UFI Charitable Fund for Vocational Technology on what funding is out there for post-16 edtech, next a quick word from Jo Sayers at ELTJam with word on investment from publishers SAGE and then into a brilliant speech from Ben Drury, Co-Founder and CEO at Yoto, on “What have I learnt about fundraising and investment in the past 10 years” replete with anecdotes and advice on when to act like a politician and ps. KNOW YOUR NUMBERS!

After that, Jan Matern, CEO and Co-Founder, Emerge Education on who’s investing and how investing in edtech is going down and where the gaps are. Then onto the final bit – a Panel on Demystifying the investment/funding practice for Edtech Start-ups with Jan, plus Vanessa Gstettenbauer, Senior Investment Manager, Founders Factory Ltd, Jessica Stacey, Partner, Bethnal Green Ventures and Daisy Hill, Former, Head, CrowdFest, AD, ZZISH

During this podcast we ask the following questions

• What funding is out there?

• Who is funding what in edtech?

• How to get started?

• How can we make the investment process less intimidating?

• What options are there for raising money?

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Episode quotes: 

“The cliches about timing and luck are very true. But be aware of timing and luck because I do believe you can make your own luck. And timing is looking at macroeconomics, look around at what’s going on.”

“The total number of investment in edtech in the US and EU are going down.”

“The supply of capital changes and goes through cycles and those cycles might not overlap in every geography. If it’s difficult to raise money in the UK, it might not necessarily mean that it’s also difficult to raise in the US or China if you’ve got a product that interesting to those kind of investors. In any case, you should be cultivating relationships with investors outside of the UK for that reason.”

References:

• Join the meet up
• Richard Male, UFI Vocational Charity
• Jo Sayers, ELT Jam
• SANDS fundraiser: https://www.sands.org.uk/ 

• • Crunchbase
  • 360Giving

Thank you to this week’s sponsors:

UFI (https://www.ufi.co.uk/)Charitable Trust

UFI looks to fund projects that have the potential to catalyse change in the UK vocational learning landscape. We anticipate that these will be both practical and innovative, with the potential for scale. Applicants may benefit from working in collaboration with employers or other learning providers to make sure that the idea is grounded and deliverable in this market. The VocTech Showcase is Ufi’s annual technology exhibition and networking event in central London and takes place on the 2nd November 2017 atThe IET. More at: https://www.ufi.co.uk

* Ufi is an independent, grant-funding charity which supports the widespread development and adoption of digital technology in adult vocational learning across the UK.
* We invest in the growth of scalable vocational technology to increase skills for work.
* We are strong advocates for the importance and value of vocational technology, and believe in demonstrating possibilities through doing.
* Our approach is different to other grant-funding charities. We add support to projects beyond the financial value of the grant.
* We provide funding at many stages; for innovative solutions at early seed stage, to those that are market testing, through to large scale, near market partnerships.

Innovate Edtech (https://iedtech17.innovateevents.com/)

InnovateEdTech Conference 2017 is a one-day event focused on the most effective and innovative uses of technology in education. The day is made up of engaging and impactful talks and workshops, mixed in with plenty of opportunities to try things out, connect with people from all over the education space, make new friends, share experiences and be inspired.

Messages from The Edtech Podcast:

• Under the radar “stealth” tickets to our 2018 festival now open.
• TES’ Global Comms Director has left and is looking for his next challenge. Contact us if you have interesting work that you think might be of interest!
• Emerge Education are pulling together an Airbnb house for UK orgs attending SXSWedu. Contact us if you want to find out more.
• Tell someone close to you, you love them
• Check out our 2017 edtech trends and 2017 end of year reviews
• Do you love The Edtech Podcast? Share the love by checking out our Patreon Campaign and joining our list of awesome Patrons!
• Don’t forget to subscribe to The Edtech Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher 

Subscribe to The Edtech Podcast: 

Never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Edtech Podcast via iTunes, TuneIN Radio, Stitcher, Pocket Cast and many more. You can also subscribe to The Edtech Podcast weekly for news, events updates and episode links: Sign up to The EdTech Podcast Weekly  🎧 – Latest Episode Links & News 📢

Thank you for your podcast reviews!:

Thanks to Duncan Frith for his feedback this week!

“Very much enjoyed the last series of EDtech Podcast Sophie. I found each episode so useful, reflecting precisely the education trends and user expectations I am finding in my own work. Congratulations! Here’s to the next series.”

Your written iTunes reviews encourage me and they help other people find the podcast. If you appreciate the edtech conversations I share, please write your own review on iTunes or Stitcher!

Feedback:

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