EduGrowth. Taking Australian Education Technology and Innovation Global

Launching EduGrowth’s 2017 Annual Report

This week we launched EduGrowth’s 2017 Annual Report at the Universities Australia Annual Conference in Canberra. This note is an extract of my welcome letter in my role as Chairman of EduGrowth. Download a copy of the Annual Report for more.

The world invests over US$5 trillion each year in education. It is one of the largest and fastest growing parts of the global economy and critical to our future prosperity in increasingly uncertain times. Here in Australia, education is our largest service export and fourth largest export overall behind Iron Ore, Coal and Natural Gas. It is expected by many to be one of the future growth engines of the Australian economy, building on a longstanding leadership role in international education.

EduGrowth was founded to harness Australia’s potential for the future of education and 2017 was a fantastic start on that journey. 2017 was EduGrowth’s first full year of impact, led by a collaboration of forward-thinking institutions seeking to advance Australia’s prospects as a world leader in education innovation and technology. EdTech’s ascent as Australia’s fastest growing startup vertical, second only in size now to FinTech, is evidence that a collaborative, cross stakeholder network can rapidly achieve national impact and attract Australia’s leading innovators to help re-imagine one of our most important functions as a society, education.

Vision

When we launched EduGrowth in October 2016, it was based on a belief that Australia has the market expertise and collective ambition to become a world leader in the business of education technology and innovation. We sought out to build on Australia’s leadership position to accelerate scalable, borderless education towards an ambitious goal that would see Australian education reach over 100 million students each year by 2025. But to harness the full potential of the transformation underway in education — and scale to meet the demands of over one billion learners by 2025 — we needed to foster and accelerate growth within Australia’s vibrant education innovation community.

“EduGrowth is undertaking critical work which is central to the learning of Australian students and students around the world, in the years to come”. Senator the Hon Simon Birmingham, Minister for Education and Training

Strategy

Our ambitious goal of reaching 100 million learners by 2025 stems from the forecast that by 2025 there will be 1 billion formal learners in the world. This Big Hairy Audacious Goal, or BHAG as they say, demonstrates EduGrowth’s aspirations for Australia to be an important part of the global education market and that a ‘business-as-usual’ approach to the future of international education will not secure continued success for Australia over the long term.

In order to deliver on this vision we have set out three key focus areas.

• Connecting the Australian Education Ecosystem
• Developing New Products and Services
• Driving global awareness and adoption of Australian education innovation

Impact

A little over one year later, EduGrowth has delivered Australia’s second largest startup network, global connectivity for Australian teachers and entrepreneurs from Beijing to New York and Nairobi to Delhi, advanced over 300 teams through pilot and pre-accelerator programs and built a network of over 100 mentors from early childhood and K12 through to tertiary education and lifelong learning.

This incredible impact is made possible by EduGrowth’s foundation partners. Deakin University, Monash University, La Trobe University, Griffith University, Charles Sturt University and Navitas came together in 2016 to bring EduGrowth’s vision to life. 2017 saw those institutions lead Australia’s first EdTech Mission to the United States, set to become a long standing tradition with Austrade’s support for a bigger and broader mission in 2018. We owe our foundation partners enormous gratitude for their leadership and patience at building a movement and a legacy in education innovation in Australia.

Census

The inaugural Australian EdTech Market Census paints a picture of a diverse and thriving EdTech sector with strong potential to grow. Based on respondents’ stated monthly revenues and number of learners, the survey shows that the sector already has revenues of upwards of $1 billion per annum and significant traction with more than 3 million learners using their platforms and solutions. This is particularly heartening in light of the fact that EdTech is a critical enabler for Australia’s third biggest export, international education. Technology as a differentiator can give us the edge over global competitors to realise our international education growth aspirations and scale to meet the ensuing demand.

With the global EdTech market forecast to grow to $250 billion by 2020, it is also encouraging to see that 46% of respondents’ already have customers outside Australia and 22% of respondents’ have plans to expand overseas. In a global economy characterised by rapid economic restructuring and change, the Australian EdTech market has an important and significant role to play in job creation. The EduGrowth survey shows strong forecast jobs growth in the EdTech sector with 60% of organisations looking to hire in the next six months and 10% of those looking to hire six or more employees in the next six months.

Most of our EdTech startups are located in the populous ‘east coast’ primarily because, in the fast moving tech sector, proximity and density are critical to a thriving startup industry. Startup ecosystems typically need access to talent, funding, clients, technology research, incubators and other startup mentors. However, the survey also shows that 63% of Australian EdTech startups have no external capital investment and 29% see raising investment as one of their major challenges.

Thank you

Thank you to each and everyone of our 100+ mentors from across Australia for the time, expertise and guidance you shared with the EduGrowth community in 2017. You are an inspiration for the hundreds of teachers and entrepreneurs who participated in our pilot and pre-accelerator programs through the year.

Another big thank you to Riley Batchelor who started 2017 leading EduGrowth and finished the year, inspired by the hundreds of entrepreneurs he met on his travels no doubt, founding his own Australian EdTech startup. Riley took EduGrowth from a concept in 2016 and through 2017 built it into a globally recognised and nationally respected centre of gravity for education innovation and technology.

Over the next twelve months, we will continue to grow Australia’s EdTech community, build a national network across the K-12, vocational and tertiary education sectors, and advocate for innovation and transformation. Whilst our community should be proud to have achieved so much in such a short space of time, this really is just the beginning for EduGrowth.