Startup from small Spanish town raises €60m to build the “Netflix for Education”

Spanish digital education startup ODILO, founded in the southern Spanish town of Cartagena, has raised a €60m investment round, led by Bregal Milestone.

What does it do?

ODILO describes itself as the “Netflix of education”, and partners with other organisations wanting to build engaging e-learning courses. Its clients include Google, Vodaphone, Beijing University, and 19 different governmental organisations.

The investors:

• Bregal Milestone, a London-based growth capital firm, took the whole round.
• Swanlaab Venture Factory, a Madrid-based venture builder.
• CDTI, the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology, a public investment body connected to the Ministry of Science and Innovation.
• Early backers of the startup also include Madrid-based Kibo Ventures.

The market:

• Edtech startups have benefited from a big pandemic-fuelled boom, as learning was forced online around the world. In 2021, edtech startups raised €1.5bn in funding — double the figure for the previous year.
• Other exciting European companies in the space include Kahoot!, which became a unicorn in 2020 after raising $28m, GoStudent, which raised €300m in January 2022, and Labster, which raised $47m in April 2022.

Sifted’s take:

As we’ve seen with healthtech stock prices crashing, there’s a chance that edtech might have been getting over-inflated hype as a result of the pandemic. Now, as learning is starting to return to classrooms, we’ve seen consumer-facing edtech startups like Domestika laying off staff. Business-to-business edtechs like ODILO are likely to be more resilient though, as remote working remains popular even after lockdowns have ended.