ImpactAlpha, April 17 – There has been a surge of education companies raising money for their solutions to re-skilling and up-skilling tomorrow’s workforce. Coding bootcamps in particular have been luring investors.
British education publisher Pearson is upping its game with a three-year, $50 million early-stage venture investing initiative called Pearson Ventures. The strategy is an extension of the publisher’s $20 million affordable learning fund, which launched in 2012 and returned $7 million to the company. Pearson Ventures will invest in startups focusing on lifelong learning, education tech, and democratizing access to skills and education.
“Education will look different in the future, so finding new business models, incorporating emerging technologies into our products and seeking new partners for collaboration is becoming more important than ever,” Pearson’s Jonathan Chocqueel-Mangan wrote on LinkedIn.
The company recently partnered with Unreasonable Group on a workforce-focused startup accelerator. Pearson’s decision to expand its venture investing arm comes amid a challenging time for Pearson’s K-12 publishing business, EdWeek Market Brief reports.
