๐ Our December Update: Happy Holidays
Hi all,
2023 is almost over ๐. We closed our Fund 2 at โฌ100M, made 5 new investments, hosted our in-person Portfolio Summit and our second online Edtech Startup Festival, met many of you ๐๐ฝ at different events, published reports and market maps, launched a jobs board of portco opportunities and a portfolio mentor network, got 2 new team members and went up north to Lofoten, Norway, for our team retreat. To recap a little.
๐ฎ For 2024 we are excited about exploring new initiatives and activities, alongside more of what we have enjoyed so much this year. As a start, weโre hiring! The team is looking ๐ for an Investor Relations Manager to join us. Could it be you? Find out here!
And as always, weโre looking forward to publishing the annual European Edtech Funding Report ๐ถ again towards the end of January.
Now weโll take a little break, after a few updates, including:
Investment Update โ Five for 2023
Selected News from the Portfolio โ Hansi Flick co-invests in coachbetter
Insights โ Addressing the Sustainability Skills Gap and an Anonymous Exit
Events โ a big rest and getting ready for side events during Bett
Thank you for subscribing and supporting our work in 2023 ๐๐ป. We wish you all a beautiful Festive Season, full of joy and rest โ see you in 2024!
Best,
๐The Brighteye Team
๐ฐ INVESTMENT UPDATE
Recapping our investment activities for the full year, we are extremely happy to have announced 5 ๐ members of the Brighteye family โ coachbetter, Liceo de Farmacia, Lifted, Shakers and Ucademy. Welcome, all!!
Raising in 2024? We are always looking for promising Edtech companies ๐ฅ๐ at Seed and Series A stages, across Europe, to invest in - please get in touch for a chat!!
๐ฃ SELECTED NEWS FROM THE PORTFOLIO
โฝ๏ธ Famous co-investor at coachbetter
Having welcomedย coachbetter.deย to our Brighteye family earlier this year after leading their $2.9M Seed round, we were pleased to officially annpunce some prominent names from international football as angel investors and brand ambassadors. Weโre happy to have co-invested with, among others, former Bayern Munich and Germany head coach Hansi Flick, World Cup championย Steven Nzonziย and Swiss Cup championย Uli Forte. ๐๏ธ The news was quickly picked up by German media, like this story in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung(in ๐ฉ๐ช).
๐ Impact Prize for La Solive
Congrats to La Solive, who are part of the FARE project (for "Training Energy Renovation Workers") that received the Impact prize at the Skills and Jobs of the Future program for France 2030. The project is a consortium bringing together guidance, training and employer representatives, with the ambition to train 150,000 new professionals by 2030 ๐ง ๐๐จ ๐. Well done!!
๐ INSIGHTS
๐ณ Sustainability Skills Gap Report & Video
In our latest report and market map, we are โAddressing the Sustainability Skills Gap,โ exploring:
1. Drivers for the increase in demand for sustainability skills
2. How Edtech solutions can improve efficiencies in the matching process between supply and demand for workers
3. Opportunities for new Edtech solutions to contribute towards addressing the skills gap
๐ฌ We also broke the content down in a little video:
๐ Anonymous Exits Interviews
In a new series, we are diving into some recent Exits ๐ in the Edtech world โ from the Founder perspective. To secure complete honesty and disclosure of the details, we have made the interviews anonymous. The first one is out now, with a few more lined up for the new year.
Top 7๏ธโฃ takeaways:
1. Keep your options open - run a dual track option if appropriate
2. Confirm you and your co-founders are on the same page
3. Define your clear red lines before you kick off your process
4. Appoint advisors in your process to guide you and your co-founders
5. Optimise for deliverability as well as other sexier details like valuation
6. Explore progression opportunities for your team when negotiating
7. Consider how the exit process would work from early on
๐๏ธ EdTech Garage podcast with 360 Learning
This week, our partner project The EdTech Garage published its latest podcast episode, a conversation with 360 Learning Founder and CEO Nick Hernandez. Get advice from a unicorn Edtech founder addressing questions such as: Do you articulate your differentiation? Do you create momentum for your funding round? Are you building for GPT-6?
๐ช EVENTS
๐ Busy year (almost) over - busy year ahead
In 2023 we have hosted and co-hosted about 20 events, done presentations and been on panels at more than 40, and attended even more. Weโll take a break now, until 2024 ๐, returning in January with the launch of our European Edtech Funding Report. We also have some activities brewing in London during Bett, so keep an eye out for more details!!