The Opportunity in Edtech
Nathaniel Harding
Managing Partner, Cortado Ventures | Kauffman Fellow | Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum
Even before COVID-19, education has been changing. Student outcomes improve with personalized instruction, and engaging with technology has only just begun. Cortado invests in companies changing how we live, learn and work for the better. Our investment in Boddle capitalizes on this conviction.
Tulsa-based Boddle is an edtech company with a math-based computer game for students, developing a curriculum agnostic and marketplace platform. They have reached several promising milestones, including growing to over 3,525 Daily Active Users on the platform. They now have more than 368,000 registered users. With this investment, Cortado is capitalizing on the global move to online education. We have been very impressed with the founding team's background in gaming and their ability to earn adoption within the education community.?
Cortado is poised to help with our team and network connections in the largest school districts in the state. Founders Edna Martinson and Clarence Tan have built an engaging platform for math students, transforming math with a 3D math game that makes learning fun and personalized. Boddle uses AI to adapt and tailor practice and learning content to the right level for each child.
With any learning process, it's essential to take it step by step. Boddle's algorithm tracks students' performance to identify which building-block skills still need reinforcement before they can branch out to more advanced skills. Then, Boddle's AI populates the game with just-right content for each student's individual learning needs. This helps ensure that students achieve mastery in vital foundational skills and learn at the right pace for them — because every child is different! — Boddle Learning
The Opportunity for Boddle's Solution
The U.S. spends over $739 billion annually on public elementary and secondary education (K-12), which amounts to $14,100 per public school student[1]. Compared to the average expenditures of other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, the U.S. spends approximately 37% more, yet American students continue to fall behind. As of 2018, the U.S. public education system's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores ranked 38th, 19th, and 14th for mathematics, science, and reading, respectively[2]. PISA scores evaluate member and non-member OECD educational systems by measuring 15-year-old students' academic performance in mathematics, science, and reading.
In addition to lackluster PISA scores, the National Center for Education Statistics estimates that 59% of elementary school students are below academic proficiency standards for reading and 65% are below for mathematics[3]. When asked the greatest hindrances to academic proficiency, teachers point to a lack of engagement with students and the ability to address individuals' gaps in understanding. It is challenging to get students to practice; they risk falling behind and not mastering a subject or topic.?
Once a student develops learning gaps, it's tough for educators to find and address them, given the large classes. The average class size for a public elementary school in the U.S. is approximately 21 students[4]. Younger students struggle with boredom and staying engaged due to the way learning is delivered and a mismatch between students' proficiency and the content offered. Unfortunately, research shows that once a student falls behind, they are less likely to catch up to their peers and learning gaps begin to compound[5]. The solution to this is more engaging and personalized learning for students. The Rand Corporation, a global think tank, has published extensive research on how personalized learning can improve educational outcomes for students[6].?
The U.S. educational system is at a pivotal moment where it can either use technology and embrace a new personalized and engaging approach or cling to the antiquated and flawed "one-size-fits-all" method. This is precisely what Boddle Learning (Boddle), a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based startup, is seeking to do.
Boddle Introduction
Boddle is the developer of a personalized online game-based learning platform for K-12 students. The platform delivers interactive practice and assessment materials in a fun, online gaming format that utilizes adaptive learning to provide a customized and engaging education for each user. The platform uses a proprietary adaptive learning algorithm to tailor a practice to where individual students' learning gaps are, and the platform can automatically generate homework and exams. This automatized approach helps save teachers four to five hours every week. In addition, Boddle works with any existing subject or topic, allowing content providers to pair their learning materials with the Boddle platform, which creates a more interactive learning experience for students.?
This is very important for many schools as funding is awarded based on standardized state and national test scores. This, in turn, drives purchasing decisions at the individual school and district levels. Once students begin using the platform, Boddle has seen student engagement double and learning gaps dissipate. Additionally, there has been an outpour of positive testimonials from educators and parents.
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Market and Trends
The U.S. education market was estimated to be approximately $1.41 trillion in 2018, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.7% through 2025[7]. The primary and secondary education market makes up about half of this at approximately $670 billion[8]. Out of this, the U.S. edtech market saw about $35 billion in annual revenue. The global market brought in around $227 billion annually with an estimated CAGR of 16.3% for 2019 to 2025[9]. The market has been a beneficiary of the switch to remote learning as adoption increased significantly because of the COVID-19 pandemic.?
Before the pandemic, the global market was expected to grow at a 13.1% CAGR and reach a value of $341 billion by 2025. COVID-19 helped to normalize education technology as a tool for students, teachers, and parents, and now the market is expected to reach $404 billion in the same period. While this is a sizable market, edtech currently only represents 3.1% of total K-12 education expenditures; thus, this market has considerable growth potential with ample room for growth as technology integration increases in schools. Additionally, this bump in demand is expected to continue as schools will likely use a blended (partially in-person and online) system as lockdowns recede. As of 2020, there were 130,930 K-12 schools with more than 50.8 million students in the U.S. alone[10].
Data from Holon IQ — Global EdTech Market Report
Besides increased demand from the switch to remote schooling, some of the other key industry growth drivers are the demand for digital solutions that increase student engagement and personalized learning. Large class sizes have made it difficult for teachers to provide one-on-one instruction for their students, and the "one-size-fits-all" education system has left many students with learning gaps[11]. This has created an opportunity for technology to supplement the role of teachers through tech platforms that alter content to make it more engaging and bespoke to students' learning styles.
#edtech #venturecapital #learningmanagementsystems
Sources
[2]?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_Student_Assessment#cite_note-B-S-J-Z-28
[7]?https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/01/06/2153920/0/en/U-S-Education-Market-Size-Share-Predicted-to-be-Worth-USD-1-949-99-Billion-By-2025-Facts-Factors.html