Aceable Scores $47M, As Startups Look To The Future Of Education (And Work)

Let’s talk about school.

Earlier this week, an education startup called Aceable announced that it raised a $47 million Series B led by Sageview Capital. The round brings the company’s total known funding up to $55.7 million, per Crunchbase. That total is inclusive of the company’s last funding round, a $4 million Series A announced in September 2016.

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The Austin-based startup, which participated in the Capital Factory accelerator program, has focused on drivers education and defensive driving courses facilitated through an online website and mobile. If you’re curious, that driver’s ed portion is an online course which qualifies as the classroom portion of driver’s education for the states that the company is operating in (that includes Texas, California, and others).

Aceable isn’t the only EdTech startup that has scored funding this year. Crunchbase News explored the rise of the China-based online education scene, where startups like VIPKID and 17zuoye have raised hundreds of millions to hone in on primary and middle-school education, particularly with an ESL focus.

And U.S. companies have scored too. In September, Masterclass picked up an $80 million round to fund its online courses taught by experts and celebrities. Other U.S.-based edtech companies have tacked everything from coding to platforms for preschool teachers and parents, to executive training. Take a look:

It’s safe to say that “educational technology” has moved beyond giving a bunch of kids iPads and hoping for the best. College is more expensive these days, the way that we think about work and training is shifting, and existing positions are requiring more tech skills than ever before. All of these changes are giving way to differentiated approaches to education, whether that be supplying an alternative way to go to school or offering courses to improve upon the skills people already have. If our path toward automation continues to accelerate, innovative edtech startups may be in a good position to fundraise.

Illustration Credit: Li Anne Dias