(2018-12-29) Watters Funding Edsurge And the Future Of Learning

Audrey Watters: Funding Edsurge and 'the Future of Learning'. Edsurge announced in July that it had received grants from the Gates Foundation and from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative totaling $1.45 million. And in December, the media company announced it had raised $2.5 million in venture capital. The latter brings the total of its venture funding to $8.2 million (according to Crunchbase); it’s taken in almost $7 million in grants from the Gates Foundation alone.

With its latest fundraise this month, Edsurge says that it is again changing its mission

The latest version has something to do with writing about “the future of learning. (And that is just perfect because the ed-tech industry continues to be so roundly ignorant of its history.

With the latest funding round, Edsurge added two Chinese investors:

It’s hardly a surprise that Edsurge has sought to tap into the rapidly growing Chinese education market

The “future of learning” as personalized learning – the narrative that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and others are paying Edsurge to spread – relies very much on a technological model of computer-based “tutoring.” That is to say, on test prep.