This newsletter covers the business side of the education industry - venture funding, M&A, other financial transactions. Whiteboard Advisors also publishes a daily newsletter - What We’re Reading - of curated, industry-focused news clips and a weekly newsletter - Whiteboard Notes - which covers policy, industry trends, and insights from W/A CEO Ben Wallerstein.

Hello! 

It was great seeing many of you at Stanford’s Accelerate EdTech Impact Summit this week, hosted by the Stanford Accelerator for Learning. 

The Summit, now in its third year, has become an annual breath of fresh air for me. The event’s research focus and forward-looking orientation generates a conversation that is civil and hopeful, without deluding itself that technology will fix everything. I ended several sessions yesterday locked into unexpectedly earnest conversation with folks I had not met before - a welcome treat.  

Onto the news!

Funding / M&A

Whiteboard Advisors not only provides policy and market-related diligence and advisory services, we track every financial transaction that happens in education — and keep a record of all deals that are publicly announced.

The following transactions caught our eye over the past few weeks. If you have a deal to announce, or would like access to the full transactions database, please reach out.

Venture Funding

• GradBridge raises $20M / US, Student Loan Financing / Acorn Investment Partners

• Edflex raises $18M / France, Corporate Training / Bpifrance Digital Venture, Educapital, Ternal, Wille Finance:  

• VideoTutor raises $11M / US, Tutoring / YZi Labs, JinQiu Fund, Baidu Ventures

• Magma Math raises $10M / Sweden, Publisher (Math) / Five Elms Capital:

  • For a deep dive into Magma Math, check out my conversation with CEO Henrik Appert (also linked below)

M&A

• Edmentum acquires MajorClarity / US, Publisher (Career Navigation)

• Imagine Learning acquires EarlyBird / US, Publisher (Literacy)

• Learning Pool acquires WorkRamp / Ireland (US), Corporate LMS

• OWNA acquires Juice Technologies / Australia, Early Childhood Software Provider

IPOs

• Babyshark creator Pinkfong files for $53M IPO:

Nominate a Startup for the 2026 GSV Cup

Nominations are open for the 2026 GSV Cup: spotlighting the top 50 pre-seed and seed-stage startups transforming digital learning and workforce skills.

The GSV Cup is a highlight of the annual ASU+GSV Summit—connecting early-stage founders with the investors, partners, and leaders they need to scale their impact. Past honorees have raised $300M+ and reach millions of PreK to Gray learners worldwide.

The GSV Cup 50 will gain:

• Global spotlight: Exclusive demo time at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit (April 12-15, San Diego) for 7,000+ "PreK to Gray" leaders

• Summit access: One complimentary registration

• Community & exposure: Join a powerful network of founders, investors, and education leaders across GSV’s expansive community

Submit your nominations by November 30, 2025. You can nominate yourself or be nominated by another company, user, partner, or investor!

What’s on your Whiteboard? CEO Perspectives

Announcing Knack’s Series B Fundraise with new CEO Megan Dusenbery

The Evolution of OpenClassrooms with CEO Pierre Dubuc

Magma Math’s $10M Fundraise with CEO Henrik Appert

News of Note

This section is intended to be more exploratory, a reflection of stories, ideas, and trends that I think are important for EdTech executives and investors to be aware of. 

K12

• Barely literate, yet earned a high school diploma. A tough but important read. “One in four young adults across the U.S. is functionally illiterate – yet more than half earned high school diplomas.”

• However, there are at least a few bright spots we can highlight. These schools are beating the odds teaching kids to read.

• Arne Duncan says “opt in” to the federal tax credit scholarship program.

• Pearl’s 2025 State of Tutoring report. Tutoring has been on a roller coaster ride since 2020. With ESSER funds having finally finished working their way through the system, we can now take stock of where it fits in the toolbox of intervention strategies available to school leaders. 

• Education Department ends Blue Ribbon Schools program.

• A fresh (UK) approach to helping children with special needs.

Higher Ed

• Cal State’s effort to become AI U.

• It sounds crass, but Gen Eds - big lecture classes - have long been major profit centers for universities. What happens to university economics when student-friendly options like credit for prior learning and dual enrollment lower the volume and/or reimbursement rate for these courses?

• Continued lobbying over expansion of student loan limits for professional degree programs.

• Students adding second majors to alleviate post-graduation job concerns. 

  • Related? Colleges are placing more counselors in residence halls and expanding the hours in which they provide support to students. When your therapist is just a dorm room away.

Workforce

• In 2016, Shopify started their Dev Degree program, which paired hands-on work experience with a college degree. This summer, Palantir started their own, more contrarian, version where they offer students 4-month internships in lieu of going to college.

• Related, Is a college degree really necessary? I still argue yes, a high school education is not sufficient for most people.

• However, that does not mean the construction of a college degree should remain the same. I hope more schools lean into the co-op model, which feels like a leading contender for climbing the new AI career ladder.

• Hopefully this leads to a stronger sense of career fulfillment from early-career professionals. The status quo is…bad. Employed Gen Zers are just as depressed as the unemployed.

Other

• Chegg cuts 45% of workforce, Dan Rosensweig returns as CEO

• When DIY means without AI. “Our cultural commitment to rugged individualism shapes when people do and don’t use AI and how they judge others for using it.” Spot on!

Looking for your next opportunity in education? Check out our W/A Jobs, which features 3,648 career opportunities from 304 organizations across the education industry. A few roles that we’re excited about from the past week:

• The Common App is hiring a Senior Director for Member Success to support state- and system-level member services initiatives 

• Coursera is hiring a remote Bot Strategist to build, enhance and expand the company’s bots’ ability to address and resolve user needs

• Newsela is hiring a remote Senior Manager for their Accounting team to research and evaluation of transactions, legal contracts, business practices, new and modified accounting guidance, and policies for compliance with accounting and reporting standards

Whiteboard Advisors is the leading policy-related diligence partner for education investors, advising on most major private equity transactions in education over the past 15 years. Our specialty is translating complex policy dynamics into insights that inform decision-making. Reply to this email to learn more.