What are the current funding trends in AI in education?

All funding deals in the AI in education market over the last years

Below is the table listing all the deals. You can find our methodology at the end of this page.

If you want a deeper understanding of the market and its current dynamics, get our report covering the AI In Education Market.

Is AI in education funding actually down right now?

AI in education funding is down in dollars today, but the market itself is busier than it was last year.

We tracked 28 financings worth $147.4 million in the current comparable period, versus 22 deals and $201.9 million a year earlier. Deal activity is therefore up 27%, while disclosed capital is down by the same percentage.

The drop sits mostly in round size. The median financing has moved from $4.65 million to $4 million, which is noticeable but hardly a collapse. The average has fallen much faster, from $9.18 million to $5.46 million, because fewer companies are raising at the top end.

Compared with two years ago, today's market is still clearly larger: 23 deals became 28, total capital rose from $105.3 million to $147.4 million, and the median round increased from $2.8 million to $4 million.

Metric	2024 YTD	2025 YTD	2026 YTD	2026 vs 2025
Deals	23	22	28	+27.3%
Unique companies	22	22	28	+27.3%
Total capital	$105.3M	$201.9M	$147.4M	-27.0%
Median round	$2.80M	$4.65M	$4.00M	-14.0%
Average round	$4.79M	$9.18M	$5.46M	-40.5%
Largest round	$27.6M	$45.0M	$28.0M	-37.8%
First-financing share	39.1%	45.5%	42.9%	-2.6 pp
Early-stage deal share	91.3%	86.4%	78.6%	-7.8 pp

Are more AI education startups actually getting funded?

Yes. AI education funding is reaching more companies now than in either of the previous two comparable periods.

All 28 current-year deals went to different companies. A year ago we counted 22 funded companies, and two years ago there were also 22.

That gives us genuine breadth rather than an inflated deal count created by the same startups raising twice. The picture is similar among new entrants: our financing-history check identifies 12 first financings this year, compared with ten last year and nine two years ago.

We treat that first-financing field as directional because private-company funding histories are never perfectly observable. Even with that caveat, there is little evidence that investors have stopped backing new AI education companies.

The bigger change comes later, when those companies try to raise substantially more money.

Why are AI education deals rising while total funding is falling?

AI education deals are rising because small and mid-sized rounds remain active, while 2026 has produced fewer large checks than 2025.

Last year's market had an unusually heavy upper end. MagicSchool raised $45 million, Knowunity raised about $31.2 million and SchoolAI raised $25 million during the comparable period. Together, those three deals absorbed half of all capital.

This year, Subject raised $28 million and Gizmo raised $22 million, followed by a much lower second group that includes Nectir at $12.5 million, Vimi at $12 million and Coursemojo at roughly $10.3 million.

That is why the average financing has dropped far more than the median. Ordinary venture rounds are still happening. What is missing is the deeper cluster of $20 million-plus rounds that pushed last year's total so high.

Is one missing AI education megadeal making 2026 look weak?

No. AI education funding looks weaker in dollars even after the usual megadeal test, because there was no $50 million-plus round to remove in any of the three comparison periods.

The total stays at $147.4 million this year, $201.9 million last year and $105.3 million two years ago whether we exclude rounds above $50 million or above $100 million.

Capital concentration has actually eased as well. The biggest deal represents 19% of current funding, down from 22.3% last year, while the five largest financings account for 57.6% instead of 63.2%.

So today's lower total reflects a thinner upper tier across several deals. One absent blockbuster does not explain it.

Concentration measure	2024 YTD	2025 YTD	2026 YTD
Total capital	$105.3M	$201.9M	$147.4M
Capital excluding >$50M	$105.3M	$201.9M	$147.4M
Capital excluding >$100M	$105.3M	$201.9M	$147.4M
Largest round	$27.6M	$45.0M	$28.0M
Top-one capital share	26.2%	22.3%	19.0%
Top-three capital share	49.4%	50.1%	42.4%
Top-five capital share	63.1%	63.2%	57.6%
>$50M rounds	0	0	0
>$100M rounds	0	0	0

Was 2025 just an unusually big year for AI education funding?

Increasingly, yes. The 2025 AI education funding market looks unusually capital-heavy when we compare it with both 2024 and what is happening now.

Three financings between $20 million and $50 million captured 50.1% of last year's comparable-period capital. Two years ago, only one round landed in that bracket. This year there are two.

The companies involved were also already showing serious adoption. When MagicSchool announced its $45 million Series B, the company said millions of educators were using the platform monthly and that it had partnerships with more than 10,000 schools. SchoolAI's $25 million Series A similarly funded the expansion of a platform already selling AI tools to schools and teachers.

Brisk Teaching added another $15 million Series A after growing to more than one million educators across 100 countries, according to Bessemer Venture Partners.

That helps explain why 2025 became so capital-intensive. Several educator-facing platforms reached enough scale at roughly the same time to justify much bigger rounds.

Are $20 million AI education rounds getting harder to raise?

Yes. $20 million-plus AI education rounds are noticeably scarcer now than they were last year.

The $20 million-to-$50 million bracket has fallen from 50.1% of capital to 33.9%. Meanwhile, the $5 million-to-$20 million bracket has jumped from 36.6% to 51.5%.

Ten current financings sit in that middle range, including Nectir, Vimi and Coursemojo. Investors are clearly still willing to fund companies beyond seed, but many of those rounds are stopping in the low double-digit millions.

The slowdown is fairly specific. Funding has not disappeared from the middle of the market. The harder jump is from a solid venture round into the $20 million-plus tier.

Which AI education products are investors putting more money into now?

AI education funding is currently moving toward learning software, practice tools and grading, while educator copilots have lost much of their unusually strong 2025 funding share.

AI Learning Software now represents 38.6% of capital, up from 27.3% last year. AI Practice Tools have moved from just 1.2% to 15.9%, and AI Grading Tools from 0.9% to 8.6%.

Educator Copilots went the other way, falling from 34.7% of capital to 3.7%.

AI Tutor Platforms remain the largest category by number of deals, with 11 financings, so investors have certainly not abandoned tutoring. Their 31.2% capital share is lower than their roughly 39% share of deals, which tells us those rounds are relatively modest.

The rotation is spread across several product types rather than one new category swallowing the market.

Category	2024 deals	2025 deals	2026 deals	2026 capital share
AI Tutor Platforms	8	9	11	31.2%
AI Learning Software	8	6	9	38.6%
AI Practice Tools	0	1	3	15.9%
AI Grading Tools	2	1	2	8.6%
Educator Copilots	4	4	2	3.7%
AI Assessment Platforms	1	1	1	2.0%
Total	23	22	28	100%

Is AI practice suddenly becoming a serious funding category?

Yes, although AI practice funding is still heavily influenced by one company.

Two years ago we found no qualifying AI Practice Tool financing. Last year there was one small deal. Today the category has three financings and 15.9% of total capital.

Gizmo explains a large part of that jump. The company raised a $22 million Series A after reaching more than 13 million learners across more than 120 countries. Its announcement said Shine Capital led the round, with Ada Ventures, Seek Investments, GSV and NFX also participating.

That is stronger evidence than investors simply betting on another AI education idea. Gizmo had already built a large consumer audience before receiving the larger check.

Still, three deals are three deals. For now, AI practice looks like an emerging funding category rather than one we can confidently call a permanent pillar of the market.

Are educator AI copilots losing momentum?

Educator AI copilot funding has cooled sharply in 2026, but the comparison is being made against an exceptional year.

The category's deal share has fallen from 18.2% to 7.1%, while capital share dropped from 34.7% to 3.7%.

MagicSchool and Brisk Teaching explain much of the difference. Their $45 million and $15 million financings gave educator copilots a huge boost last year. Both companies had already reached substantial teacher adoption before raising those rounds.

As seen above, 2026 has fewer large scale-up checks overall. The copilot category is feeling that especially strongly because so much of its 2025 capital came from those two companies.

Nothing in the funding data gives us a good basis for saying teachers are abandoning AI copilots. Fresh venture dollars are simply going elsewhere right now.

Are AI education investors demanding proof that people actually use the product?

For the bigger AI education rounds, demonstrated usage looks increasingly important.

Subject's $28 million growth investment came after the company had built relationships with more than 200 U.S. school districts, according to Vistara Growth. Gizmo reached more than 13 million learners before its $22 million Series A. Nectir says its AI infrastructure is already used across more than 100 campuses and reaches more than two million students.

Ed.ai gives us another version of the same pattern. The company says usage went from roughly 100 papers graded per week to around 2,500 per day before its €5 million seed round. Bpifrance also reported that Ed.ai had expanded from 120 to 500 French educational institutions.

Four companies do not establish a universal investor rule. They do show what many of the stronger 2026 financings have in common: investors can point to actual users, actual schools or actual workflows before putting in larger amounts.

A compelling AI story can still get a company started. Moving into a bigger round seems to require much more evidence.

Can new AI education startups still get funded?

Yes. New AI education startups are still getting funded, but their first checks are much smaller right now.

We identified 12 first financings in the current period, the highest count across the three years we compared. Their median size, however, is only about $520,000.

Last year's median first financing was $2.15 million. Follow-on companies today receive a median $5.8 million, more than eleven times the current first-financing median.

The dollar split is just as stark: roughly $25 million went into first financings, compared with $122.4 million into follow-ons.

New companies therefore continue to enter the market at a healthy pace. The real squeeze is on how much capital they receive before proving themselves.

Financing measure	2024 YTD	2025 YTD	2026 YTD
First financings	9	10	12
First-financing share	39.1%	45.5%	42.9%
First-financing capital	$20.3M	$40.5M	$25.0M
Median first financing	$1.09M	$2.15M	$0.52M
Follow-ons	13	12	16
Follow-on share	56.5%	54.5%	57.1%
Follow-on capital	$81.5M	$161.5M	$122.4M
Median follow-on	$4.50M	$9.95M	$5.80M

Is AI education funding moving back to seed?

AI education funding has become more barbelled: lots of seed deals, very little Series B activity and a small group of mature companies raising growth capital.

Seed accounts for 71.4% of deals and 40.7% of capital today. Series A has dropped to 7.1% of deals, while Series B contributes only 3.4% of current capital compared with 37.7% last year.

At the other end, Growth Equity has jumped to 23% of funding.

Subject shows why the stage mix cannot be reduced to a simple early-stage shift. Vistara describes the company as an established education platform serving hundreds of districts, and its $28 million investment is clearly growth capital rather than startup formation money.

Company age is moving in the same direction. The median funded company was one year old in the 2024 comparable period, two years old last year and around 2.5 years old now.

So we currently have plenty of young seed companies alongside a few much older businesses. The conventional Series A-to-Series B middle has become noticeably thinner.

Is Europe catching up with North America in AI education funding?

Europe is now producing as many AI education deals as any major region in our dataset, but North America still gets much bigger checks.

Europe generated ten current-period financings and 36.3% of global capital. That compares with six deals and only 7.7% of funding two years ago.

Gizmo's $22 million round contributes a meaningful part of the increase, so Europe's progress is not evenly spread across every company.

North America currently has eight deals but captures 46.2% of all capital. In other words, the region produces less than 30% of the transactions and almost half the dollars.

Asia-Pacific shows the opposite pattern. Seven deals represent 25% of all activity, but only 6.7% of capital, with a median financing of roughly $500,000.

The geographic market is clearly becoming broader. Large-round funding remains much less evenly distributed.

Are the same VC firms dominating AI education funding?

No. AI education funding currently has an unusually fragmented group of lead investors.

We found disclosed leads or co-leads on 19 of the 28 current deals, involving 22 different investors. None led more than one financing.

The same pattern appeared in the previous comparable periods, and we found no overlap between the disclosed 2025 and 2026 lead-investor sets.

That sounds more dramatic than it probably is. Lead disclosure has fallen to about 68% this year, and many firms invest without leading a round, so the absence of a name from the lead table tells us very little about whether that investor has lost interest in AI education.

What the data does show is a market without one small group repeatedly controlling the visible lead positions. Current deals range from Vistara Growth backing Subject to Shine Capital leading Gizmo and Rethink Impact leading Nectir.

Are corporate investors pulling back from AI education?

Corporate participation in AI education funding is clearly lower today, although the sample is still too small to call it a durable retreat.

We found six financings involving strategic investors in the 2024 comparable period, four last year and two this year. Their share of deals has therefore moved from 26.1% to 18.2% and now 7.1%.

Earlier examples included Alibaba, Adobe Ventures, the OpenAI Startup Fund, Klett and Obunsha.

Current strategic participation includes Jo Academy in AILA and La Poste Ventures in Ed.ai. The Ed.ai financing is especially clear: Bpifrance describes La Poste Ventures as the corporate venture fund created by La Poste and managed by XAnge.

A progression from six deals to four and then two is worth watching. With numbers this small, though, a couple of additional financings could move the percentage quickly.

How close is 2026 to becoming another record year for AI education funding?

AI education deal activity is already close to last year's full-year level, while capital would still need a strong finish to catch up.

We counted 30 qualifying deals across the whole of 2025 after resolving our StudyFetch audit issue conservatively. The current year already has 28.

Capital tells a very different story. The $147.4 million raised so far represents only about 57% of last year's full-year $256.6 million total.

At the same time, current funding has already exceeded the roughly $130.5 million raised during all of 2024.

That leaves 2026 in an unusual position. Deal activity is already historically high, while dollars remain well below the exceptional 2025 level.

We would avoid annualizing the current number because venture financings are too lumpy for that to be useful. A few $20 million-plus deals could still change the year quickly.

What is actually changing in AI education funding?

The biggest change in AI education funding is breadth. More companies are receiving financing today, and the market has already produced almost as many deals as the whole of last year.

The second change is the size of the checks. The upper end has thinned considerably, pulling the average financing down much faster than the median. As pointed out above, there is no missing $100 million round hiding behind the comparison.

Capital is also rotating between products. Learning Software, Practice Tools and Grading are taking a larger share, while fresh funding for Educator Copilots has cooled after an unusually strong 2025.

New startups are still entering the market, so this is not a closed funding environment. Their first rounds are simply much smaller, while follow-on companies continue to capture most of the money.

The maturity mix has also become more unusual. Seed remains very active, classic Series B funding has almost vanished from the current sample, and selected established platforms are raising growth capital instead.

Finally, the clearest qualitative pattern among the larger 2026 deals is demonstrated adoption. Subject, Gizmo, Nectir and Ed.ai all had concrete usage or distribution evidence before raising. Four examples do not make a universal law, but right now larger AI education checks seem much easier to justify when investors can already see the product working in the real world.