The UK edtech sector is on track to reach £3.4bn by 2021, according to The Telegraph. The growth reflects a surge of recent investments in emerging technologies such as virtual reality, coding and augmented reality, to name just a few.
Edtech company investments stood at just £9.9m in 2013, according to research from Beauhurst. By 2017, this figure had swelled to £66.9m, soaring to £90.9m distributed over 50 investments in 2018. This number marked a 140% increase on the total amount invested in the market in 2016, highlighting that the UK edtech sector is booming and shows no signs of slowing down.
This trend extends to the global edtech market, with current forecasts standing at £128bn by next year, up from £45bn in 2015. While the US and China still dominate the field in terms of edtech research and development, the likes of the UK, France, Germany and other European nations are cementing their position as worthy competitors on the international stage.
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“What excites me most is that the market is still in its infancy – the education market has been valued at US$5tn, yet learning is still broadly delivered in the same way that it was in the Victorian era. Edtech can bring much needed disruption to the market in the same way that fintech has for financial services,” Gauthier Van Malderen, founder of Perlego, told The Telegraph.
But experts warn that the UK market requires continuous funding and support to maintain the same level of impact.
“We need a sector deal to nurture growing hubs all over the country and link and listen to educators,” said Ty Goddard of The Education Foundation. “Edtech businesses also face procurement and investment challenges – the education market is a long, slow burn.”