K-12 Marketplace Sees Major Flow of Venture Capital

The flow of venture capital into the K-12 education market has exploded over the past year, reaching its highest transaction values in a decade in 2011, industry observers say.

They attribute that rise to such factors as a heightened interest in educational technology; the decreasing cost of electronic devices such as tablet computers, laptops, netbooks, and mobile devices; and the movement toward standardization of curriculum through the Common Core State Standards.

"Having been in this space, covering it for more than a decade, I've not seen this level of interest or supply of early-stage K-12 businesses in the last decade by any stretch of the imagination," said Adam J. Newman, a founding and managing partner of Education Growth Advisors, an education business advisory...