Dubai, UAE - Global Ventures, the international venture capital firm, presents its inaugural research report on Education Technology (“EdTech”).

The report is a fascinating insight into trends driving global EdTech, the challenges the education sector faces and the solutions EdTech can provide. The data suggests education needs a reconceptualization. As the industry digitizes, becomes disrupted, and attracts significant amounts of new capital - technology will play a key role.

The full report can be accessed at: https://www.global.vc/perspectives/2021 -mea-edtech-report

Our top findings are:

  • Between now and 2050, the world will have 2 billion more learners
  • 2 billion more secondary students / 970 million more post-secondary students
  • To cope, 1.5 million new teachers will be needed annually
  • Access to and quality of education remains an immense challenge in certain geographies - impacting livelihoods
  • 50% of the world’s out-of-school children (150 million children) are in the Middle East & Africa
  • 29% of MENA’s population is unemployed – the highest rate in the world
  • 80% of future global demand for education will come from China, India, the U.S., Nigeria, Brazil and Indonesia
  • Skills have an increasingly shorter shelf life
  • 75 million jobs will be displaced in the next decade
  • 133 million unique jobs will be created by digitization
  • 65% of today’s primary school children will work in jobs that don’t exist yet
  • University graduates are changing careers five times in their first 10 years of employment
  • Covid has accelerated EdTech adoption, but also highlighted its shortcomings
  • For EdTech adoption, connectivity is required – but the ‘connected’ / ‘disconnected’ divide is clearer than ever
  • 53% of global households are connected to the Internet
  • ‘Disconnected’ rates are 80% in Sub-Saharan Africa, but below 15% in North America & Western Europe
  • The question is: to what extent can technology bridge access gaps?
  • In Sub-Saharan Africa - universal access remains elusive
  • One in five of 6-11 year olds are out of school
  • In Nigeria, 2 million applicants compete for 800,000 university places annually
  • In North Africa and the Levant – infrastructure challenges are driving demand in the supplemental learning market
  • 69% of Egypt’s state school students rely on private tutoring; and
  • 2% of Jordan’s youth is unemployed, largely due to disconnects between education/labour market needs
  • In the GCC, widespread digitization means tomorrow’s workforce must be agile digital natives
  • 86% of UAE companies plan to re-train employees
  • Global EdTech VC investment in MEA is steadily ramping up from a low base
  • Of the $8.3 billion since Q3 2020, 90% has been in China, the U.S., and India
  • Only $30 million was invested in EdTech in MENA in 2020, but that number is increasing rapidly year-on-year

Noor Sweid, Founder and General Partner of Global Ventures, said:

“EdTech is set to grow consistently in the next decade. From early childhood to lifelong learning, opportunities to improve access, quality and affordability of education, and redefine them, are many and immensely exciting. EdTech's potential lies in the many ways it can enhance and complement a physical education, without ever replacing it Supportive governments and available technology may even mean emerging markets may meaningfully leapfrog the developed world.”

-Ends-

Further information
Contacts:
Hector Butler
Thoburns
h.butler@thoburns.com

About Global Ventures

Global Ventures is a UAE-based venture capital firm, investing in founders and ideas scaling across emerging markets. Global Ventures backs global-minded founders that are leading growth-stage companies and using technology to transform emerging markets.

Global Ventures’ portfolio companies include Arrow Labs, Buseet, Elmenus, Floranow, Helium Health, Holiday Me, Kitopi, Lean, Mamo Pay, Mumzworld, Much:on, Ogram, Paymob, Spider Silk, Tabby, Tribal and Zension.

Noor Sweid and Basil Moftah are the General Partners of Global Ventures. More information can be found at https://www.global.vc/ 

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