Global edtech market to hit $252bn by 2020

The global education technology (edtech) market is forecast to grow by 17% year-on-year to reach $252bn by 2020, a report from EdTechXGlobal has suggested.

The report, which identified edtech trends for 2016, found that only 2% of the education market is currently digitised – despite the market now being worth more than $5 trillion worldwide.

Edtech is an evolving sector as illustrated by Startups.co.uk’s recent Startups 100 2016 index which highlighted four edtech start-ups that are set for explosive growth over the coming months.

These four businesses included global literacy database Pobble, online referencing tool RefME, parent to teacher communication tool Schoop, and student conversion platform Uniquest.

Benjamin Vedrenne-Cloquette, co-founder of EdTechXGlobal, commented on the report: “We expect a long rising tide rather than an avalanche, and as such, we need to manage our expectations accordingly.

“We estimate that the speed of digitisation in education will be up to five times slower than has been seen in other sectors, due primarily to the increased number of gate keepers involved in digital transition decisions, teachers, institutions, governing bodies, districts and policy makers amongst a few”.

Find out more about starting an edtech business in our business ideas for 2016 guide.