This contribution focuses on the influence of new investment actors in higher education transformation (Williamson & Komljenovic, 2022). Historically, investors were hesitant to invest in the education sector due to low returns, long investment cycles, fragmented markets, heavy regulation, and public hesitancy towards privatisation. This has changed with the emergence and growth of educational technology (Edtech) akin to other sectors in the digital economy, further accelerated by the pandemic (Teräs et al., 2020). Education via Edtech is seen to have an enormous opportunity for growth among investors as one of the last sectors that have not yet been digitalised. Digital education technology is rapidly expanding in higher education and profoundly changing teaching and learning processes, management of higher education institutions, and subjectivities of staff and students (Decuypere et al., 2021). We argue that investors are crucial actors in digitalising higher education by deciding which products and services will be developed and influencing the business models behind those products. Their influence goes beyond allocating capital for innovation. They also conduct studies, issue reports, educate entrepreneurs and other actors, organise networking, work with policymakers, and more (Williamson and Komljenovic 2022). Therefore, investment and consequent actions are as much political decisions about the future as they are financial decisions about funding startup companies. What can and cannot exist is determined by an investment decision (Feher, 2018), and investors seek to materialise particular visions of futures through very laborious actions that follow investment (Muniesa et al., 2017). In this contribution, I empirically focus on Emerge Education, a UK-based seed investor. It has already penetrated the higher education sector by investing in a portfolio of digital products and services, partnering with key organisations and stakeholders, creating guidelines targeted at university leaders, and offering advice to education startup entrepreneurs. By mobilising theoretical and methodological resources from the sociology of markets and critical data studies, I present an analysis of Emerge Education as an exemplar of how new education technology investors are seeking to transform higher education via digitalisation.

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