NYCEDC’s new Edutech.NYC.2020 report investigates New York City’s Edutech industry, an emerging sector that applies innovative technology to deliver learner-centric, personalized educational methods with the potential to be more effective, efficient, and scalable than traditional approaches.

Conducted in partnership with the Bridgespan Group, and aided by discussions with industry leaders, our research study presents Edutech’s vast global growth opportunities and New York City’s local competitive advantages.

Edutech can provide students with greater and easier access to educational material; more effective instruction methods; individualized curricula based on student progress; and data-driven interventions based more closely on objective evaluations of student progress, allowing teachers and school administrators to gain a more granular and evidence-based perspective of their students.

Edutech is a fast-growing market both nationally and globally:

• Educational spending. Accounting for 7.6% of US GDP, educational spending is an important US growth industry. Though still a nascent sector, Edutech accounts for 2.5% of spending by US educational institutions.
• Higher education. The US is a leader in higher education with 40% of the top 50 universities located in the US.
• Growing US market. The total US Edutech market was $38.2 billion in 2008: 
• Adult and continuous learning, at $13.1 billion, is estimated to grow at a rate of 9%. 
• The K-12 Edutech market is estimated at $5.5 billion. 
• Early childhood education currently represents the smallest market share at $1.6 billion.
• English language learning. With two billion people worldwide learning English, there are significant global opportunities in education, particularly around supplemental education and language acquisition in East Asia.

Locally, New York City’s key competitive advantages include:

• Proximity to a large customer base of educational institutions and a large student population. New York City has the largest public school system, with 1.1 million students in nearly 1,700 schools. It is also home to the largest post-secondary population, with 626,000 students in 100 higher education institutions in the metropolitan area.
• An industry ecosystem that includes established educational publishing companies supplemented by a growing technology corridor.
• A supportive policy and programmatic environment, given the New York City Department of Education’s pioneering in innovation and measurement-based progress in schools.

Given the market opportunity and New York City’s attractiveness as a productive Edutech center, investing in the sector at this early stage is crucial to securing New York City’s leadership. The City’s Edutech sector already has a significant presence, employing 5,000 people in New York City. With specific supports to reduce barriers to growth, New York City is poised to become a test market for K-12 products, an investment hub, and an Edutech capital.

Find out much more about NYC’s Edutech opportunity and this emerging sector by downloading our report.