There has been a lot of discussion around this sector on SM of late. This site gives a good insight in to the sort of players globally
https://www.holoniq.com/edtech-unicorns/
“As of 10 Sep 2021, there are now 30 EdTech Unicorns around the world who have collectively raised over $20B of total funding in the last decade and are now collectively valued at $90B.”
8of these are in China which are obviously now under pressure.
They did an Au Nz edtech top 50 last year and this is an interesting update
https://www.holoniq.com/notes/2020-anz-edtech-50-now/
Not in the tutoring space is Education perfect who have a strong position in the schools I am associated with here in WA. They have moved from languages to full curriculum and as mentioned in the above link
“Leading Australian and New Zealand education technology (“edtech”) company Education Perfect (“EP” or the “Company”), global investment firm KKR, and Australia-based private equity firm Five V Capital today announced the signing of definitive agreements pursuant to which KKR will acquire a majority stake in the Company.
EP, a certified B Corporation, empowers students, teachers, parents, and school leaders by providing them with rich data insights and tools for automated marking, feedback, secure assessment, differentiation, and more. EP also offers tens of thousands of high-quality pre-built lessons. Founded in 2007, EP’s work is grounded in the belief that the provision of accessible edtech solutions fosters a more diverse and inclusive education ecosystem. EP is currently being used by more than 3,000 schools, 50,000 teachers and 1 million students in more than 50 countries worldwide.”
My investment concern with any of the tutoring businesses long term is the amount of data that companies like Education Perfect are collecting from all these students during school and at home will feed in to AI driven personalised that cuts out the tutor. Big data will provide insight into the individuals pattern of learning, areas of weakness and be able to tailor the feed of lessons and progress at a much lower capital cost.
Pearson did not win the PISA testing contract but have a big global presence and the capital to buy competitors
E2Language partnering with Pearson to launch the Global Online Test Preparation Platform (GOTP)
Certainly an interesting sector but fiercely competitive and ripe for disruption.