Ruslan Tymofieiev (Ruslan Timofeev) about investment potential of EdTech start-ups

EdTech is a way of using digital tools for learning and self-development purposes. Ruslan Tymofieiev (Ruslan Timofeev) says that he has been using EdTech apps in his student years for studying languages, oral counting, and training problem-solving. Today, he is the founder of venture capital fund Adventures Lab and a big fan of EdTech projects.

Ruslan Tymofieiev says that the EdTech market is very attractive for investors because it is highly scalable. During the pandemic, EdTech projects gained popularity: a lot of people assessed the benefits of digital learning platforms, proofreaders, translators, and other services that opened up new educational opportunities for them.

Several Ukrainian start-ups boosted productivity and market access during the Covid-19 period: Grammarly, a writing assistant, and Preply, a language learning app. Despite this, Ukrainian investors doubt to invest in EdTech, Tymofieiev says.

Adventures Lab has several successful cases of investment in educational projects. One of them is a Belarusian startup EduDo that allows its users to create short educational videos in the format of TikTok. Ruslan Tymofieiev says he іs very interested in the idea because he knows how effective and breathtaking education through video can be.

Analysts at McKinsey notice that zoomers willingly invest in education, but they are looking for a modern way to develop critical thinking and creativity, not for memorizing tons of information. Teenagers want to see life in all its diversity, ask inconvenient questions, and stay curious. “Today’s teenagers no longer want to bother with what will not be useful in adult life”, Tymofieiev adds.

EdTech tools are useful for teenagers that wish to study English that is critical for building a career in IT. For example, among TOP-100 Eastern European EdTech-startups 2020 there were 11 applications for learning English developed in Ukraine.

According to the Market Study Report, the global digital educational market will increase to more than $300 billion in the next six years. Ruslan Tymofieiev says that the total amount of investments in this sphere doubled twice from 2017 to 2020 from $9.5 billion to $16 billion accordingly. This is facilitated by the digitalization of schools and universities.

Speaking of perspective niches for the investment, Tymofieiev names a few.

Gamification of the educational process is promising because more and more teenagers and adults rediscover learning as a fun and exciting process, not a boring one. Suffice it to say, that Kahoot! (an educational start-up from Norway) attracted 70 million unique users.

Cybersecurity will be a trend as the threats of cyberattacks are growing. Online platforms in India, the USA, Italy, Australia are most vulnerable to various attacks.

VR and AR technologies will attract a lot of investments as forecast by HolonIQ: expenses on robotics would be more than $3 billion, and on Artificial Intelligence twice more.

Last but not least is an individual approach to each student. Some platforms based on Artificial Intelligence generate personal educational programs according to the abilities and educational goals of the students.

As the life-long learning principle becomes more popular the number of users willing to buy educational products is growing. People have to learn and relearn, and EdTech helps them to ride the crest of a wave. That`s why Ruslan Tymofieiev (Ruslan Timofeev) is convinced that investing in EdTech projects is a good strategy.