The odds always favour the bookies

Most edtech companies either fail or deliver poor returns. Despite the intellectual sophistication involved, investing, especially at early stage  is just gambling: monetised risk assessment. Gambling, contrary to popular belief, is an everyday activity. Should you cross the road now? Drive or fly? All calculated risks. Corporate investors choose between listed and unlisted instruments. Everyone […]

5 months ago 1 Education More
 

AI and Edtech investing

For a year now the impact of AI has been moving more directly into the economy. As with all tech adoption, it has been uneven, with the focus on big companies cutting headcount, e.g. Amazon 14,000, Afterpay/Square 40% and UPS 20,000. While AI has been touted in edtech for many years, from an investor’s perspective […]

6 months ago Education More
 

BETT 2026

I’ve always been a BETT enthusiast, despite the usual litany of problems with big events such as the moving goalposts of corporate organisers, edu politics and the exhaustion that ensues after 3-4 days of traipsing to, from, and around Excel. My bet for this year relates to LEGO who will be launching their LE Computer […]

7 months ago Education More
 

Can Assessment Reverse Decline?

When my wife first began her career in educational publishing in 1980, the most successful authors in the field weren’t from England but from Scotland. She worked on projects like the Scottish Primary Maths Group (SPMG) and with outstanding educator/authors such as Jim Jardine in physics. At that time, Scotland’s schools were regarded as the […]

1 year ago Education More
 

Australian education changes: Efficiency or Effectiveness?

The Australian Federal Government funds 25% of education but the responsibility for education rests in the hands of State and Territory governments. Two decades ago, when I left Australia, there had already been significant debate and planning for a national curriculum. Few will remember the 1989 Hobart Declaration from the 60th meeting of the Australian […]

1 year ago Education More
 

They call it hardware because its bloody hard

When I first started using computers every day, I was working in the 50-story HQ of one of Australia’s big four banks. Hardware failed so often that each floor had a storeroom full of spare machines, and IT staff spent their days swapping out cereal-box-sized computers and flickering screens. Software and networks were prehistoric, and […]

1 year ago Education More
 

What make great edtech science?

Recent edtech news is Curriculum Associates acquisition of Australia’s Stile Education for an undisclosed sum. Stile is a great business with three amazing founders (Byron Scaf, Daniel Pikler and Dr Alan Finkel) as well as having a committed investor AquaAsia Growth Equity . So what does it say, if anything, about the world of edtech?. […]

1 year ago Education More
 

Poppycock puked by patronising poltroons

Edtech is a space that attracts grifters of all types. From the mundane who endlessly self-promote themselves and their failing businesses, through those whose entire careers seem to be as ‘experts’ with no real expertise, to fraudsters and criminals. I was pondering this wide field and thought I’d give a few anonymous examples from my […]

1 year ago Education More
 

When will tutoring businesses turn a profit? 

UK tutoring business MyTutor was recently taken over by, or in investor parlance, ‘made an exit to’, a mob called IXL. As an Australian kid who grew up eating IXL tinned fruit (like many working mothers, mine did not have the time or energy for ‘inspired cooking’) this headline kickstarted my dopamine reward system.  But […]

1 year ago 1 Education More
 

Why AI will replace a lot of teachers

Cue heads exploding in education circles…. Let me explain why this is a mathematical certainty and why salaries and pensions are the major factor. Many readers will know that I have long obsessed about the England and Wales Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS). In the 1990s I worked in funds management for two major Australian banks […]

1 year ago Education More