South Korea’s strong technology companies and reputation for early technology adoption – in combination with one of the highest proportions of teenagers entering higher education and massive household spending on after-school classes – have made it an important market for education technology startups.
With the global edtech market expected to reach $404 billion by 2025, the domestic market is also projected to follow a comparable growth phase. The Korean edtech market had increased consistently to reach 3.96 trillion won by 2019 and is expected to grow with an even faster growth rate in the future.
“KSGC” is an inbound program designed to attract promising foreign startups to Korea within the “Global Accelerating Activation Program” under the Ministry of SMEs and Startups of the Republic of Korea. This three-month mission is a huge opportunity for the participating entities to build a strong local network, establishing mutually beneficial partnerships and ultimately making their mark in the region.
East Asia and South Korea in particular is a huge market with significant demand for the latest products of the best educational technology innovations.
We are very committed to the Korean market and significantly invested in it. Our long-term plan is to open an office in Seoul as a gate to the region. We’ve hired our first colleague there who oversees the local implementation, aiding us with cultural background and language awareness.
– explains the state of the expansion Dorka Horváth, CEO and CO-founder of BOOKR Kids.
Over the years, BOOKR has nurtured a strong know-how in innovative and interactive ESL content creation and in the global education industry. To ensure that best practices are carried on, Fanni Koncsik – lead project manager at BOOKR – has been relocated as Head of Team throughout the program.
The results have been significant even the first two months into the program: BOOKR Class counts with 20 000 users in Seoul and plans to increase this number to 100 000 by this time next year. It is actively raising Series A, and potentially will partner with a co-investor from the region in the near future to ensure the new branch’s long term success in the Korean market.
The program itself brings a great deal of potential to companies with the right assets, since Korean families are spending the biggest amount for education globally. The English teaching and learning application collects its own data about the users, that show promising statistics with Korean learners being the most active students with an activation rate well above 90%.