It's with great excitement and gratitude that we announce that GSV Ventures has closed our second venture fund at $180 million.
Global education technology has been a story of acceleration and momentum. Almost overnight, the pandemic has forced 1.6 billion students and their instructors online, catalyzing innovation and tipping education into a new era. The world has leapt from B.C. ("Before COVID") into the new era, A.D. ("After Disease"). That is why they are calling GSV Fund II – B.C./A.D.
B.C. brought new opportunities for those on the spectrum of lifelong learning that we at GSV Ventures call "Pre-K to Grey." The accelerating change and adoption of technology brought on by COVID-19 has been unlike anything else, lifting barriers to entry, and there's no going back. In A.D. an entire population of instructors and students have been brought online.
To date, the $7 trillion global learning market has been growing at a steady 5% CAGR. The transition to digital learning that started with the rise of the internet has ballooned to a $160 billion market today. Before COVID, it was projected to become a $440 billion market by 2026, growing at an impressive 16% CAGR (5X global GDP growth).
GSV raised its first venture fund in 2016 with limited partner commitments of $97 million, investing in a number of leading EdTech companies including Coursera, Coursehero, ClassDojo, Degreed, MasterClass and Nearpod.
GSV Fund II is seeking investment opportunities and has already begun funding innovative companies including investments in Class Technologies, Inc., Guild Education, Outlier, Photomath and Valenture Institute. GSV portfolio companies collectively serve more than 400 million learners. Their recent investments back founders in India, Indonesia, South Africa and Jordan.
They are grateful for the confidence investors and entrepreneurs have placed in us and will work vigorously to seize the opportunity to build EdTech businesses on a mission to give all people equal access to the future.
With this as their purpose, we never have to worry about why we do what we do. Their business brings with it the promise of education equity and access for the world.