Learn Capital: Most Innovative Global EdTech Investor United States 2020

Learn Capital’s mission and purpose are neatly encapsulated in the company title. The US venture capital firm invests in dynamic entrepreneurs seeking to transform the global education sector. In 2010, Learn Capital’s founders hypothesized that the confluence of tech trends in mobility, broadband, and cloud computing could radically expand the scope and access of quality learning for the world’s population, and they created a venture firm to pursue this mission. Today Learn Capital has regional headquarters in San Francisco’s Bay Area, i.e. Silicon Valley and America’s West Coast, but its support is global, and the firm aims to bolster innovative learning experiences, platforms and services to individuals from every type of background, on nearly every continent. Its team has invested in 110 companies throughout the world, helped in part by a worldwide network of sourcing partners and a founding team of investing partners with extensive expertise in both learning science and hyper-growth startups. Learn Capital is known for companies that have achieved high scale like Coursera, the world’s largest network of premier higher education experiences, and Udemy, the world’s largest peer-to-peer network for sharing knowledge and skills Select examples of its work from dozens of other emerging companies include Armenia’s SoloLearn — the world’s largest mobile social platform for coders — and Croatia’s Photomath, where learners can take a picture of any math problem and it will be taught to them by the app, without any need for expensive tutors which are out of reach for most students in the world. Photomath has been downloaded more than 100 million times is one of the top educational apps on all smartphone platforms. In the technical skills realm, Learn Capital has invested in Andela, which has bases in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Egypt and Ghana. Andela has created the first software development cluster in Africa, building remote engineering teams and providing talented individuals with broad access to skill building experiences at no upfront cost to themselves. Learn Capital emphasizes value of sustainability and inclusion, and it is working towards a 50/50 gender balance among its founding teams. In the wake of the recent global dislocation from the 2020 pandemic, education technology is now accelerating at an unprecedented rate and the signs point to a potential for massive growth. The CFI.co judges were impressed, to say the least, and had no hesitation in conferring on Learn Capital the 2020 award for Most Innovative Global EdTech Investor (United States).