EdTech: what are the top startups now?
In our EdTech market deck, you will find everything you need to understand the market
SUMMARY
EdTech: the top startups now are MagicSchool, Preply, Multiverse, Campus, Gizmo, Brisk Teaching, Subject, SchoolAI, Speak, and GPTZero/Superhuman.
The sector is not broadly hot. The stronger pattern is selective heat: capital and attention are concentrating around AI-native school tools, language learning, workforce reskilling, lower-cost higher education, and distribution-heavy platforms.
The funding backdrop makes the winners more interesting. When EdTech venture funding is weak, a $150 million Preply round, a $70 million Multiverse round, or a $45 million MagicSchool round carries more meaning than it would have during the 2021 funding boom.
MagicSchool looks like the clearest K-12 AI leader because it has both funding and unusual educator adoption. The privacy pushback from school districts is not just a negative signal; it also shows the product has entered real institutional conversations.
Preply and Speak show that language learning remains one of the cleanest AI education categories. Preply proves the human-tutor marketplace model can still scale with AI, while Speak proves that AI-native speaking practice has a strong product logic.
Multiverse is probably the most important workforce learning company in the current set, but it is not a simple victory story. It has revenue, a higher valuation, and an AI reskilling narrative, but also losses and criticism around completion rates.
Campus is the strongest higher-ed challenger because it is not just adding software to universities. It is trying to become a cheaper accredited college pathway, and its acquisition of Sizzle AI makes that strategy more credible.
Gizmo is one of the most interesting consumer learning apps because it attacks the real problem in consumer EdTech: retention. The pitch is not only better study content, but making students return every day.
Distribution may matter more than model quality. Quizlet, ClassDojo, Handshake, MagicSchool, and Superhuman/Grammarly all show that owning the user relationship can be more defensible than launching another AI feature.
AI detection looks useful but fragile as a standalone category. GPTZero’s acquisition by Superhuman is a strong proof point for revenue and demand, but it also suggests detection may become a feature inside larger writing and authenticity platforms.
The weakest areas are generic MOOCs, vague AI tutors, weak standalone detectors, and old tutoring marketplaces without AI, outcomes, or liquidity. The market is no longer rewarding “education plus AI” as a slogan.
So the answer is fairly clear: the top EdTech startups are the ones with recent hard proof, not just a good story. Funding, adoption, distribution, revenue, and category timing matter more than old unicorn labels.
This market map, featured in our EdTech market deck, highlights top companies and startups in the EdTech market
Which EdTech startups are still getting funded when the sector is not exactly booming?
MagicSchool, Preply, Multiverse, Campus, Subject, Gizmo, SchoolAI, Brisk Teaching, and Speak stand out.
We would not describe EdTech as a broad funding party right now. Capital is flowing to AI-native education, language learning, workforce training, and cheaper alternatives to traditional higher education.
The market-level signal matters first. HolonIQ reported that EdTech venture funding reached only $512 million across 63 deals in Q1 2026, down 24% in value and 10% in volume versus Q1 2025. That means a company raising a meaningful round in this environment deserves more attention than it would have in 2021.
That is why Preply matters. In January 2026, it raised $150 million at a $1.2 billion valuation, becoming a new EdTech unicorn. This is not just “language learning is hot.” It shows that human-led learning marketplaces can still attract late-stage capital if they add AI and show global scale.
Multiverse also belongs in the first group. In May 2026, it raised $70 million at a $2.1 billion valuation, up from $1.7 billion in 2022, while pushing harder into AI workforce training. The important nuance is that Multiverse is not a clean hype story: it had £79.6 million revenue for the year ending March 2025, but also £62.4 million losses, and it has faced criticism around completion rates. Still, the round proves investors will back workforce training when there is revenue and a credible AI reskilling narrative.
On the AI-in-school side, MagicSchool is the clearest leader. It raised a $45 million Series B and says it has reached more than 6 million educators in roughly two years. That is a rare adoption signal in K-12 EdTech. The risk is also visible: in June 2026, Broward paused a MagicSchool AI rollout over privacy and content concerns. We read that as a sign of real institutional penetration, not just consumer usage, because school boards do not pause products nobody is trying to buy.
Among emerging names, Subject and Gizmo are especially interesting. Subject raised $28 million in February 2026 for AI-powered K-12 curriculum. Gizmo raised $22 million in April 2026 and claimed 13 million learners worldwide. These are not unicorns yet, but in today’s EdTech funding market, $20 million-plus rounds are already breakout signals.
If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest EdTech market report.
Which AI teacher tools are actually spreading inside schools?
MagicSchool, Brisk Teaching, SchoolAI, and Subject are the leading pack.
We would put MagicSchool first because its distribution signal is much larger, but Brisk and SchoolAI look like serious challengers because they are built around the daily teacher workflow, not a vague “AI tutor for everyone” promise.
MagicSchool is the default name here. The company says it has more than 6 million educators signed up and raised a $45 million Series B. In EdTech, “teachers signed up” is not the same as paid district adoption, but the scale is too large to ignore. The more subtle point is that MagicSchool is now facing district-level scrutiny. Broward’s June 2026 pause over privacy and content concerns shows that the product is not only used by individual teachers; it is entering the procurement and governance layer.
Brisk Teaching looks smaller but very real. In March 2025, it raised a $15 million Series A led by Bessemer after reaching more than 1 million educators across 100 countries and partnering with more than 2,000 schools and districts. That is a strong product-led adoption signal because Brisk sits in the browser and attaches itself to the work teachers already do: feedback, lesson prep, reading levels, and content adaptation.
SchoolAI raised a $25 million Series A in April 2025, led by Insight Partners. We put it behind MagicSchool and Brisk only because the recent public adoption numbers are less crisp, not because the product category is weak. Its positioning is more “classroom experience” than pure teacher productivity, so the upside is bigger but the buying cycle may be harder.
Subject is different. It sells AI-powered curriculum and accredited online learning for grades 6-12. Its $28 million February 2026 investment is one of the strongest recent K-12 funding signals we found. The reason it belongs here is simple: schools usually pay for curriculum more clearly than they pay for experimental AI tools.
The teacher AI market is not dying. But the winners will probably be tools that reduce teacher workload inside existing school routines, not open-ended chatbots that ask schools to redesign learning from scratch.
As this chart shows, and as featured in our EdTech market deck, online search interest in online learning has grown significantly
Which AI learning apps are getting real consumer pull?
Gizmo, Speak, Quizlet, Preply, Alice.Tech, and Sizzle AI stand out. The interesting shift is that the best consumer EdTech products increasingly look like entertainment products: daily loops, streaks, short sessions, and AI-generated practice.
Gizmo is the clearest emerging signal. In April 2026, it raised a $22 million Series A and claimed 13 million learners across 120+ countries. The company’s pitch is not just “AI study assistant.” It is “make studying addictive.” That matters because the hardest problem in consumer EdTech is not content generation; it is getting students to come back tomorrow.
Speak is the strongest AI-native language-learning startup by valuation signal. It raised a $78 million Series C in December 2024 at a $1 billion valuation. The round is slightly older than our ideal 12-month window, but it still matters because Speak sits exactly where AI has a natural advantage: spoken practice, feedback, and repetition.
Preply is the strongest marketplace version of the same theme. Its January 2026 $150 million Series D at $1.2 billion says investors still believe language learning can be a big category when human tutors are combined with AI tooling. We would not group Preply with pure AI apps; its strength is that AI improves a marketplace that already has human supply and demand.
Quizlet is not new, but it remains one of the largest study platforms. Recent estimates put it around $139 million ARR in 2025, up from $80 million in 2024, with more than 50-60 million monthly active users depending on source. Because those are third-party estimates, we would not overstate the precision. But the direction is clear: simple study tools with massive habit loops are still powerful.
Alice.Tech is much earlier but worth watching. It raised $4.8 million in May 2025 from investors including Cherry Ventures and Y Combinator, positioning itself as a “Duolingo for exams.” The funding is small, but the wedge is smart: students already have high intent before exams, so the product does not need to create motivation from zero.
Sizzle AI is no longer standalone after Campus acquired it in October 2025, but it is a useful signal. It reportedly had more than 1.7 million users before acquisition. That suggests consumer AI learning products can build usage quickly, but also that standalone monetization may be hard enough that acquisition by a larger education platform becomes the exit path.
If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest EdTech market report.
Which EdTech startups look strongest in workforce learning and AI reskilling?
Multiverse, Guild, Sana, Handshake, and Coursera-adjacent players dominate the workforce angle.
If we restrict ourselves to private startups, Multiverse is the strongest current signal. If we include mature private EdTech companies, Guild and Handshake still matter, but their freshest signals are less clean.
Multiverse is the most important company here because it combines three things investors currently care about: workforce upskilling, AI disruption, and measurable revenue. In May 2026, it raised $70 million at a $2.1 billion valuation. The FT reported revenue of £79.6 million for the year ending March 2025 and losses of £62.4 million. So this is not a lightweight startup story; it is a scale-up trying to justify a large valuation in a market where buyers are desperate to retrain workers.
The catch is that Multiverse also shows the danger of this category. The Times reported criticism around course fit and completion rates, including a reported 52.6% completion rate for 2024/25, below sector average. We would still include Multiverse as a leader, but not as a clean winner. It is a “watch closely” company, not a “nothing can go wrong” company.
Guild remains one of the biggest workforce education companies, but its signal is more mixed. Its peak valuation was $4.4 billion in 2022, while secondary-market indicators in 2024 implied a much lower $1.46 billion to $1.98 billion valuation range according to Sacra. That does not mean Guild is dead. It means 2026 investors should treat old unicorn labels carefully.
Sana is a strong AI workplace learning name. It raised $55 million at a $500 million valuation in late 2024 and still appears frequently in AI learning discussions. The issue is freshness: we found less recent hard data than for Multiverse.
Handshake is also interesting because it is moving from early-career recruiting into AI data and expert work. Its older $3.5 billion valuation is not a current proof point by itself. The fresher signal is strategic: Handshake AI turns its student and expert network into a way to source expert data and model-validation labor. That is not classic EdTech, but it may be one of the more monetizable education-adjacent pivots.
Workforce EdTech is healthier than K-12 consumer EdTech because buyers have budgets and urgent AI-reskilling pressure. But the category punishes weak outcomes. Revenue matters, completion rates matter, and employers will not pay forever for vague “future of work” messaging.
This chart, featured in our EdTech market deck, shows annual VC investment in EdTech startups
Which startups are strongest in language learning right now?
Preply and Speak are the two cleanest startup winners, with SpeakX as an emerging India-focused name.
Duolingo is still the public benchmark, but among startups, the category is now splitting into two models: AI conversation apps and human-tutor marketplaces enhanced by AI.
Preply is the strongest recent financing signal. In January 2026, it raised $150 million at a $1.2 billion valuation. That matters because late-stage EdTech rounds are rare right now. Preply is not trying to replace humans with AI completely. Instead, it is using AI to make human-led learning more scalable and efficient. That may be why investors were willing to fund it at unicorn scale.
Speak is the cleaner AI-native product story. It raised a $78 million Series C at a $1 billion valuation in December 2024. The timing is older, but the product-market logic is still current: spoken language learning is one of the few education categories where AI can create a meaningfully better experience than static content. You can practice speaking repeatedly without embarrassment, scheduling, or tutor availability.
SpeakX is worth watching because it targets English learning in India, a market where the job-outcome link is obvious. It raised $16 million in October 2025 led by WestBridge after pivoting fully to an English-learning app. The round is much smaller than Preply or Speak, but the category logic is strong: English fluency is not a hobby in India; it is tied to employability.
If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest EdTech market report.
Which higher-ed challengers are actually trying to replace the expensive college model?
Campus is the standout, with Sizzle AI as a strategic acquisition signal.
We do not see a huge leading pack here yet. The evidence points more to one aggressive challenger than to a deep category.
Campus raised a $46 million Series B in March 2025, led by General Catalyst, bringing total funding to more than $100 million. The product is an accredited online two-year college designed around affordability, associate degrees, certificates, laptops, hotspots, and support. That matters because it is not just selling software to universities: Campus is trying to become a cheaper college pathway.
The Sizzle AI acquisition in October 2025 makes the strategy more interesting. Sizzle was founded by former Meta AI chief Jerome Pesenti and reportedly had more than 1.7 million users. Campus said the acquisition would accelerate its AI roadmap by two to three years, and Pesenti joined as CTO. That is a very concrete signal: Campus is buying AI talent and usage to rebuild the learning experience.
The reason we do not add many more names here is that the category is hard.
Replacing college requires accreditation, student support, outcomes, financing, and employer trust. Many EdTech startups can make a slick learning app; very few can credibly say they are a lower-cost college alternative.
This chart, featured in our EdTech market deck, shows why Duolingo is winning in EdTech
Which EdTech startups are winning because they own distribution, not just AI features?
Quizlet, ClassDojo, Handshake, MagicSchool, and Grammarly/Superhuman are the strongest distribution stories.
Some of these are not pure young startups anymore, but they matter because EdTech distribution is brutally hard. A startup with distribution can add AI. A startup with AI but no distribution has to fight for attention.
Quizlet has one of the most valuable learner graphs in EdTech. It reportedly has more than 50-60 million monthly active users and hundreds of millions of study sets. Even if exact revenue estimates vary, the key point is obvious: Quizlet owns repeated study behavior. That gives it a better AI wedge than a brand-new “AI flashcard” app with no data and no habit.
ClassDojo is similar in K-12. It is old by startup standards, but its distribution in schools and families remains unusually strong. Recent third-party profiles still list it as a unicorn with roughly $221 million raised and a $1.25 billion valuation. The question is not whether teachers know ClassDojo — they do. The question is whether it can turn school-home communication into monetizable learning products.
Handshake owns early-career distribution: universities, students, alumni, and employers. One recent EdTech profile says it works with more than 1,500 universities and more than 20 million students and alumni. That network can now be pointed at recruiting, career services, and AI expert-work opportunities.
MagicSchool is the newer distribution story. More than 6 million educators signed up in about two years is a serious wedge. We do not know how much of that is paid, but teacher adoption at that scale can become district procurement later.
Grammarly/Superhuman is not pure EdTech anymore, but it remains education-relevant because writing support is used across schools, universities, and work. The company announced $1 billion growth financing from General Catalyst in 2025, reported more than 40 million daily users, and in June 2026 agreed to acquire GPTZero, which reportedly had 19 million users and $30 million ARR. That is a distribution-plus-consolidation move in writing, authenticity, and AI detection.
In EdTech, distribution is often more defensible than the AI model. The companies to watch are the ones that already have the learner, teacher, school, or employer relationship.
If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest EdTech market report.
Which startups are riding the AI-authenticity and assessment backlash?
GPTZero is the clearest recent winner, but the standalone AI-detection category is already consolidating. We would not build a broad “top AI detector startups” list because the evidence does not support a deep leading pack.
GPTZero is the obvious name. In June 2026, Superhuman, formerly Grammarly, agreed to acquire the company. Business Insider reported that GPTZero had more than 19 million users, $30 million in annual recurring revenue, and a valuation above $88 million. That is one of the strongest recent revenue signals in education-adjacent AI.
The interesting point is that the buyer was Superhuman/Grammarly. That tells us AI detection may not remain a standalone EdTech category. It may become a feature inside larger writing, productivity, assessment, and authenticity platforms.
We would be careful with this segment. AI detection is useful, but it is also technically and socially fragile: false accusations, model changes, and student privacy concerns can damage trust. The winners may not be the pure detector companies but rather platforms that combine authorship history, writing process, citations, teacher workflow, and enterprise distribution.
This chart, featured in our EdTech market deck, shows annual funding in EdTech startups
Which EdTech startups have the strongest “AI tutor” story, and which signals are weak?
MagicSchool, SchoolAI, Sizzle AI/Campus, Gizmo, Khanmigo, and Subject are relevant, but we should be skeptical of pure AI tutor hype.
The strongest companies are the ones showing usage, school adoption, or curriculum integration.
The caution signal is important. In June 2026, The Atlantic reported that Khanmigo access had expanded from about 40,000 students in 2023 to nearly 1 million, but student uptake had stagnated. A separate education report in June 2026 highlighted the same issue: giving students access to AI tutors does not mean they will actually use them.
That is why we prefer teacher-first or workflow-first AI over pure student chatbot models. MagicSchool and Brisk help teachers do existing work faster. Subject integrates into curriculum. Gizmo focuses on habit loops and retrieval practice. Campus bought Sizzle to embed AI into an actual college pathway.
The research signal is also still early. A 2025 BEA shared task on AI tutor pedagogical ability found that best results across key tutor-response dimensions were promising but imperfect, with macro F1 scores ranging roughly from the high 50s to low 70s depending on the task.
AI tutors are improving, but the evidence does not yet justify assuming they replace human instruction at scale.
Which EdTech areas look cold or risky right now?
Standalone generic MOOCs, vague AI tutors, old tutoring marketplaces, and weak AI detectors look risky.
Generic online courses are under pressure because AI can summarize, personalize, and generate practice around content. Public market data from Coursera shows a mature company still growing, with $757 million full-year 2025 revenue, up 9%, and 2026 guidance of $805 million to $815 million. That is solid, but not explosive. It suggests the category is becoming more mature and operational rather than startup-hot.
Pure AI tutors are risky because access does not equal usage. If nearly one million students can access a tutor and uptake still disappoints, we should be careful about startups claiming that availability alone proves demand.
AI detection is useful but likely to consolidate. GPTZero’s acquisition by Superhuman is a great outcome for GPTZero, but it also suggests standalone detectors may become features inside larger platforms.
Old-school tutoring marketplaces without AI, outcomes, or liquidity advantages also look less exciting. Preply is hot because it combines marketplace depth with AI and a large language-learning market. A generic tutoring marketplace without that edge would not make our current list.
If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest EdTech market report.
This chart, featured in our EdTech market deck, compares the main business model options for online course platforms
So, who are the top EdTech startups right now?
The current leaders are MagicSchool, Preply, Multiverse, Campus, Gizmo, Brisk Teaching, Subject, SchoolAI, Speak, and GPTZero/Superhuman.
If we allow more mature private companies and education-adjacent platforms, we would also keep Quizlet, ClassDojo, Guild, Handshake, and Sana on the watchlist.
Our highest-conviction conclusion is that EdTech is not broadly hot but selectively hot. The companies that stand out have one of four proofs: a large recent funding round in a weak market, unusually fast adoption, strong distribution, or a clear connection to AI-driven workforce change.
MagicSchool is the clearest K-12 AI platform leader because it combines a large Series B with huge educator adoption.
Preply is the clearest recent unicorn signal because its $150 million January 2026 round is rare in EdTech right now.
Multiverse is the most important workforce EdTech scale-up because it raised at a higher valuation in 2026 while pushing AI training, although its losses and completion-rate criticism make it a more complex story.
Campus is the strongest higher-ed challenger because it is attacking the cost structure of college, not just selling software to colleges.
Gizmo is the most interesting emerging consumer learning app because 13 million learners and a $22 million Series A are strong early signals.
Brisk Teaching, Subject, and SchoolAI form the serious K-12 challenger group.
Speak remains one of the strongest AI-native language-learning companies. GPTZero is the best recent proof that AI-authenticity tools can monetize, even if the category is likely to consolidate.
| Category | Startups selected and why |
|---|---|
| Selective funding winners | MagicSchool, Preply, Multiverse, Campus, Subject, Gizmo, SchoolAI, Brisk, Speak: all have recent or still-relevant funding signals in a tighter EdTech market |
| AI teacher tools | MagicSchool leads on educator scale; Brisk has 1M+ educators and 2,000+ schools/districts; SchoolAI and Subject are serious challengers |
| Consumer AI learning apps | Gizmo leads emerging apps with 13M learners; Speak leads AI-native language; Quizlet has massive study distribution; Alice.Tech is early but sharp |
| Workforce learning | Multiverse leads current momentum; Guild and Handshake remain major mature private players; Sana is a strong AI workplace learning name |
| Language learning | Preply leads on 2026 funding; Speak leads on AI-native speaking practice; SpeakX is an India-focused emerging bet |
| Higher-ed disruption | Campus is the standout because it is building a cheaper accredited college pathway and acquired Sizzle AI |
| Distribution-led EdTech | Quizlet, ClassDojo, Handshake, MagicSchool, and Superhuman/Grammarly matter because they already own users or institutions |
| AI authenticity and assessment | GPTZero is the clearest winner, but its acquisition suggests detection becomes a platform feature |
| AI tutor reality check | MagicSchool, SchoolAI, Sizzle/Campus, Gizmo, Khanmigo, and Subject matter, but pure AI tutor hype is weaker than workflow-based adoption |
| Cold or risky areas | Generic MOOCs, vague AI tutors, weak standalone AI detectors, and old tutoring marketplaces without AI or outcomes look less exciting |
OUR METHODOLOGY
The question “which EdTech startups are on top right now?” is not obvious, because “top” can mean funding, adoption, distribution, revenue momentum, category leadership, or strategic relevance. So instead of relying on reputation or market vibes, we broke the sector into clearer analytical dimensions: AI teacher tools, consumer learning apps, workforce training, language learning, higher-ed alternatives, distribution-led platforms, AI authenticity, and AI tutors.
For each dimension, we looked at recent signals first: fresh funding rounds, user or educator adoption, district or employer traction, acquisitions, valuation changes, revenue data, and signs of category risk. We gave more weight to concrete evidence than to broad AI positioning, old unicorn status, or generic product claims.
The final list is therefore not a simple ranking by size. It is a structured aggregation of the strongest recent signals across the parts of EdTech that still look active, investable, or strategically important today.
Key sources used for this analysis include: HolonIQ for EdTech funding context, Preply for the language-learning unicorn signal, Financial Times on Multiverse funding, valuation, revenue, losses, and AI workforce training, The Times on Multiverse completion-rate and course-quality criticism, The Guardian on MagicSchool AI school adoption and K-12 AI concern context, Brisk Teaching for teacher-workflow positioning, SchoolAI for classroom AI positioning, Gizmo for consumer learning app positioning, Business Insider on Alice.Tech funding and “Duolingo for exams” positioning, The Economic Times on Campus acquiring Sizzle AI, Campus AI learning-rate research, Business Insider on Superhuman acquiring GPTZero, The Verge on Grammarly/Superhuman’s rebrand and platform strategy, San Francisco Chronicle on Handshake’s AI pivot and distribution scale, Quizlet for study-platform distribution, ClassDojo for school-family distribution, and Coursera investor relations for the mature MOOC benchmark.
This chart, featured in our EdTech market deck, shows how revenue is distributed across customer segments in the EdTech market
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