Learning for the over 50s: Untapped opportunity in Europe?

Disrupting the way older people learn and socialise is an overlooked and truly exciting market opportunity in Europe.

By David Guérin, Principal at Brighteye Ventures

Photo by Kampus Production from Pexels

At Brighteye, we believe that “disrupting the way older people learn and socialise” is an overlooked and truly exciting market opportunity in Europe. We recently published a market map (15+ companies) and an investment thesis on this space, which you can read and access here. Today, we would like to share with you a more digestible version of that research. Let’s dive in.

I) Five market tailwinds for senior people in Europe

From a macro perspective, this market opportunity is pushed by five macro drivers:

1. Ageing European population:
   Today ~30% of the population (~90m people) is >55 years-old and by 2050, this age class will represent ~42% of the total population (140m people).
2. “New generation” of older adults is digitally connected:
   The elderly population is clearly increasing its digital skills and online presence. Their online behaviours changed considerably in terms of online communications between 2009 and 2020.
3. Spending behaviours and increased income:
   The median equivalised net income for European older adults grew by 18% between 2012 (€14.1k/year) and 2020 (€16.7k/year).
4. New online habits and COVID effect:
   Lockdowns were a forcing function and according to Google in the UK, “a majority of online seniors spend at least six hours a day online and own an average of five devices.”
5. Increasing age of retirement:
   The normal age of retirement in Europe is being pushed up by most countries to 65 years old, which is forcing workers to stay in the workforce longer.

II) Who are the players in this nascent market

We have found 15+ companies in Europe that are trying to serve and disrupt this overlooked population. These European companies collectively represent less than €15m raised from VCs and as indicated on the market map below, they can be categorised into two major groups: (1) learning for purpose and (2) learning for leisure.

Interestingly, we found that these solutions are primarily built on five attributes:

• Social (i.e. making meaningful connections, sense of belonging and connecting with other people)
• Trust (i.e. safety, quality and human interaction)
• Ease of use (i.e. simplified UX/UI to get straight to the core value of the solution)
• Flexibility (i.e. the notion of freedom seems to be key for retired people)
• Embracing being an “older adult” (i.e. people in later life don’t want to be made to feel old by brands. Quite the opposite in fact, they want to feel seen and heard by the brand)

III) Where to invest: six [potential] themes

Based on this high level analysis and on interactions with a number of founders who are trying to disrupt this space, we found several themes that could unlock the market opportunity for senior people.

• Theme 1: Unlocking and accessing the wisdom, insights and hard-to-access knowledge of older adults for younger generations
• Theme 2: Allowing retired people to increase their monthly income by making extra money
• Theme 3: Navigating the pre-retirement phase
• Theme 4: Building edutainment platforms with a strong focus on human connection
• Theme 5: Finding new hobbies and/or learning new skills with their peers: “By Seniors, For Seniors”
• Theme 6: Allowing seniors to raise their profiles and be seen as “cool”

The whole Brighteye team would like to congratulate and encourage all the passionate entrepreneurs who are building companies in this exciting and nascent space. You can access the full piece here.

Also, if you are or know someone who is building a learning/edutainment platform for the 50+, feel free to reference them in the comments. Thank you to all the founders who have contributed to this piece!