According to a report by cbinsights, Pearson leads the list of education sector companies in acquiring and investing in technology companies, followed by Blackboard privately owned and the Group Macmillan.

With $ 1.1B in Tech Ed venture capital funding in 2012, we wanted to take a closer look at which of the largest education companies, both listed and private, have been most active in acquiring and investing in private and start-up companies in Tech Ed.

Based on M&A activity and financial data since 2010, the London-based publisher, Pearson tops the list with 15 acquisitions or investments in Ed Tech companies. Blackboard. The top 3 is completed by the Macmillan Group which acquires and invests in Ed Tech companies through two separate arms - Macmillan New Ventures and Macmillan Education Digital. Six of the 10 are listed education companies as can be seen below:

Private equity funds are also present in the sector.

"In addition to these large corporations, other private equity funds are also present in the sector. These tend to act at earlier stages of development and normally seek a return on their investment through the sale of the investee company to one of these large corporations," says Diego Gutierrez of the firm specialising in alternative financing. ABRA INVEST. "An example of this is the Rethink education fund, founded in early 2012, which has already invested in companies such as Hapara, EverFi and Smarterer," says Diego Gutierrez.