Press releases
Educapital announces its first closing at €45M
Educapital, the first European fund dedicated to Education and Training, announces its first closing at 45 M€, in partnership with Bpifrance and major corporate and family offices. The fund’s ambition is to finance the future leaders of Edtech in Europe.
The objective of Educapital is to invest in innovative companies with high potential that aim both to reinvent education at all levels, from K12 to corporate training and life-long learning , and to answer the needs of XXI century society.
For Marie-Christine Levet, founder of Educapital : "Schools have not historically embraced change. However, education systems must innovate in order to accommodate the reality that 65% of current primary school children will work in jobs that have not yet been invented. Learning how to learn, lifelong learning to enhance one’s employability are both challenges of the digital society and we believe learning by, and for, the digital is an answer.”
The first European fund to sustain Edtech
The Education and Training space is among the last to have lived its digital transformation : only 3 % of the sector is digitalised.
Like in other areas, innovation will come from young companies that disrupt the market. The objective of Educapital is to help the digital transformation of the education market and to finance the European leaders of tomorrow.
Modeled similarly to successful US funds Learn Capital and Rethink Education, Educapital’s investment strategy will be diversified:
- across the main segments of the Education market : corporate learning, lifelong learning, tutoring, higher education, secondary education , K12, edutainment ..
- throughout the value chain : contents and platforms, tools and technologies, hardware and software, innovative schools
- from seed to late-stage investments
The fund will finance fifteen European edtech companies in France , Europe, and Israel, with the intent of developing them into international leaders.
A market with huge potential
- The Edtech market is estimated at $180 Billion in 2017 and should attain $250 Billion by 2020.
- Of the 7 Billion € invested in Edtech since 2015, 90% have been in the US and China. Europe, the second largest market for education spending worldwide, only represents 8% of edtech investments.
- 3,000 edtech companies have been identified in Europe.
Prestigious Investors
Educapital has mobilized a strong coalition of investors, including Bpifrance, key corporations of the Education sector (Hachette Livre, the only corporate investor of the education publishing sector ; Econocom ; Bayard ; IdKids), and several private actors and family offices, among them « Education for the Many », an education investment structure of the LECLERCQ family , owners of the retail group Décathlon.
Says Arnaud NOURRY, Chairman and CEO of Hachette Livre, about the fund : “This investment brings together Hachette Livre and the digital “pure-players” that are instrumental in innovation ; therefore it enhances Hachette Livre’s ability to explore opportunities in digital teaching and learning, whether in education or supplemental markets. This move highlights the strategy we pursue in order to be at the vanguard of educational services and contents.”
Julien LECLERCQ, President of the Leclercq family structure, explains : “The world will experience major technological upheavals in the coming decades. To allow everyone to adapt to these changes, education of the largest number will be the stake N°1 to live better together. Our family of responsible investors, decided a few months ago to accompany entrepreneurs who are passionate about education.Like we are passionate for 40 years about making sport accessible for the many. We decided to participate in the Educapital adventure to allow Litzie and Marie-Christine to accelerate the best European Edtech. "
A fund created and managed by two women
Educapital was created on the initiative of Marie-Christine LEVET, renowned French personnality of the internet area , and joined by Litzie Maarek, experienced investor.
Marie-Christine Levet, Partner
Marie-Christine has 20 years of experience as a web entrepreneur and as an investor. She has served as CEO of Lycos (which she also founded), Club-Internet (T-Online France), and the media group Tests ; as Board member of Iliad, Maisons du Monde, AFP, FINP (Google fund for media) ; and as Partner at Jaina Capital (investor in made.com, Devialet, Peak..). Marie-Christine is a graduate of HEC Paris and of INSEAD.
Litzie Maarek, Partner
Litzie has 10 years of experience in leverage financing and venture capital investment. She is a graduate of Ecole Centrale Paris.
About EduCapital
EduCapital is the first pan-European venture capital fund dedicated to the digital transformation of Education, Training, and Human Capital. Created and managed by two women, Marie-Christine Levet and Litzie Maarek , the fund will invest in fifteen companies in France, Europe, and Israel. More information can be found at the website, www.educapital.fr.
About Bpifrance
Equity investment are operated by Bpifrance Investissement. Bpifrance, a subsidiary of the French state and the Caisse des Dépôts and the entrepreneurs’ trusted partner, finances businesses from the seed phase to IPO, through loans, guarantees and equity investments. Bpifrance also provides
operational services and strong support for innovation, export, and external growth in parnertship with Business France. Bpifrance offers to businesses a large range of financing opportunities at each key step of their development, including offers adapted to regional specificities. With its 48 regional offices (90% of decisions are made locally) Bpifrance represents a strategic tool for economic competitiveness dedicated to entrepreneurs. Bpifrance acts as a back-up for initiatives driven by the French State and the Regions to tackle 3 goals:
- Contributing to SME’s growth
- Preparing tomorrow’s competitiveness
- Contributing to the development of a positive entrepreneur ecosystem.
With Bpifrance, businesses benefit from a powerful, efficient and close representative, to answer all their needs in terms of financing, innovation and investment.
www.bpifrance.fr Twitter: @bpifrance / @bpifrancepresse
About Education for the Many
Education For The Many is an investment company owned by the LECLERCQ family, founder and main shareholder of DECATHLON . Its mission is to invest on a long-term basis alongside entrepreneurs who wish to change the world through education that is adapted to everyone and accessible to as many people as possible.
About Hachette Livre
Hachette Livre, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagardère SCA, is the world’s third-largest trade and educational publishing group with sales of € 2,264 million in 2016. It is # 1 in France, # 2 in the UK, 3 # in Spain and # 4 in the USA. It publishes around 17,000 new titles a year under more than one hundred different imprints in a dozen languages, but mainly in French, English and Spanish. It covers all segments of trade publishing: General fiction and non-fiction, mass market pocket books, books for young readers, illustrated books, travel guides, school books, as well as partworks. Its headquarters are in Vanves, France .