High-quality education for all: why we invested in MyEdSpace

By Nick Stocks, General Partner, and Friederike Keitlinghaus​​​​, Associate

The way students learn is evolving, while the accessibility and quality of education remain deeply unequal.

According to the Nuffield Foundation and the Education Policy Institute, more than 40% of maths teachers in public schools in England lack relevant degrees. Problems are similarly acute across other subjects like sciences, and languages, where recruitment targets have been persistently missed over time, leading to only about 50% of teachers in these fields having relevant degrees.

These systemic gaps, combined with a broader shortage of qualified teachers, exacerbate the divide between public and private education. Globally, UNESCO projects we’ll need 44 million additional teachers by 2030, further highlighting the urgent need for scalable, high-quality educational solutions.

Enter MyEdSpace.

MyEdSpace is a platform pioneering a new category in education: the “Twitch for Education” model.

By combining world-class teachers with an engaging, live-streaming format and a comprehensive, tech-enabled online-learning platform, MyEdSpace delivers premium learning experiences to students at just £2–5 per hour — a fraction of the cost of traditional private tutoring.

Their model not only makes top-tier education accessible but also does so at scale, leveraging a one-to-many approach that improves affordability while managing to drive high engagement.

Building a Scalable, High-Impact Learning Ecosystem

At White Star Capital, we look for companies that are solving fundamental challenges with transformative technology and a clear path to scale. MyEdSpace checks all these boxes. Their core proposition is both compelling and validated: students attend live, twice-weekly classes led by exceptional educators from top universities, who have been transformed into education influencers.

This offering is complemented by MyEdSpace-curated professional workbooks, homework assignments including video solutions, and mentor support and covers the full UK curriculum from Key Stage 2 through to A-levels.

MyEdSpace has cracked the core challenges that have long plagued EdTech. Traditional one-on-one tutoring and marketplaces struggle with scalability. Cost constraints limit access, quality varies widely, and maintaining consistency across thousands of independent tutors is difficult.

On the other hand, pre-recorded courses, while scalable, lack engagement, real-time support, and student motivation, leading to poor learning outcomes.

MyEdSpace solves these issues with a live, one-to-many model that ensures high-quality, interactive lessons while being able to scale class sizes practically indefinitely.

By employing teachers full-time, MyEdSpace maintains standardized content and instructional quality, while offering industry-leading compensation to attract the best educators in the country who are also looking to amplify their impact via the platform.

The rise of GenAI has been incredibly beneficial for students who are able to use it for learning. We see a world where teachers remain at the centre of the students’ experience, and AI is harnessed to augment learning. Research increasingly indicates that AI can boost outcomes when it supports, rather than substitutes human instruction.

To this end, MES is extremely well positioned, with their star teachers being central to the offering while developing tools such as teacher co-pilots, AI mentors or data driven insights to personalise support — enhancing the effectiveness of educators while preserving the engagement and motivation only human interaction can provide.

This approach delivers the engagement of live teaching, the scalability and efficiency of digital education, and the affordability needed to make high-quality learning accessible to all.

A proven model with high growth potential

Globally, we have seen this model work at scale. Physics Wallah, an EdTech platform in India following a similar approach, recently raised $210m at a $2.8bn valuation from investors such as Lightspeed Venture Partners and Hornbill Capital.

MyEdSpace is well-positioned to capture the Western market, starting with the UK’s multi-billion-pound education sector before expanding into the US. In the UK alone, families spend an estimated £8bn per year on education-related expenses, according to the Office for National Statistics, and this number is growing every year.

However, the current market is largely divided between expensive one-on-one tutoring and lower-cost, pre-recorded content with limited engagement. With its approach, MyEdSpace can serve a much broader audience than traditional models have served, potentially expanding the TAM.

Since its launch in 2022, MyEdSpace has built significant momentum, having supported over 16,000 students across the UK as of December 2024, and a social media following of more than 3.5 million for its teachers across platforms.

The company has successfully launched a full curriculum across key subjects, including Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and English, and continues to add new courses to meet growing demand. In 2025, 51% of its GCSE Maths students achieved grades 7–9, more than triple the national average.

A visionary team

We could not imagine a better team to execute on the vision.

Co-founders Kharis Yanakidis and Sean Hirons both bring extensive professional experience and a deep personal motivation to address systemic inequities in education. Kharis spent over a decade at J.P. Morgan, where he rose to the position of Executive Director.

Having lived and worked in diverse environments, including Georgia, Greece, Russia, and the UK, Kharis was struck by the consistent challenges in education. He observed companies with similar models being successful in Russia and came to the conclusion that the model would make sense in the UK as well.

Sean began his career in investment banking at J.P. Morgan, where he gained experience working together with Kharis before transitioning to Prosus Group, where he focused on investing in growth-stage EdTech companies. Prior to founding MyEdSpace, Sean also co-founded Relaxgo, a B2C wellness platform.

Sean’s transition between schools with drastically different teaching quality during his GCSE and A-Level years showed him how impactful great educators could be. Growing up in a family of teachers (both of his parents are educators) he also experienced firsthand the challenges teachers often face in the traditional education system.

Looking ahead

We are thrilled to lead MyEdSpace’s $15m Series A alongside Educapital, Coalition Capital, and Active Partners.

This investment will fuel their expansion within the UK, advance their AI-driven learning tools, and lay the groundwork for a strategic U.S. market entry, leveraging the company’s proven UK playbook.

We believe that MyEdSpace represents a unique confluence of a mission-driven team and exceptional business fundamentals. By making top-tier education accessible at scale, they are not only transforming the way students learn but also leveling the playing field for millions worldwide.

We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Kharis, Sean, and the entire MyEdSpace team as they embark on this next phase of growth.

If you’re interested in learning more about our investment or how MyEdSpace is revolutionising education, reach out to us, or see for yourself at https://myedspace.co.uk/.