📣 Announcing the 2026 East Asia EdTech 150. 💂Reimagine Education: 5 Weeks to Go.
Inside the 2026 East Asia EdTech 150: learning follows students past K-12. 5 weeks to go for Reimagine Education!
Hello 👋
The 2026 East Asia EdTech 150 keeps school-age learning at its core, with K-12 accounting for half the cohort. The movement is with older learners: Post-secondary reached 19% of this year's cohort, its largest share in seven years. Models are expanding with nearly a third of companies selling directly to institutions and employers. South Korea remains the region’s largest ecosystem, and Japan’s share rose to a quarter. Some companies behind the shifts:
Gaxi (Japan) connects students with scholarships and the organisations that fund them, and raised $2.7M this year.
Turing Space (Taiwan) issues verifiable digital certificates and transcripts for universities and training providers.
vreach (Japan) matches visually impaired children with visually impaired tutors, teaching through screen readers and Braille.
Read the analysis →
Figure 1. 2026 East Asia EdTech 150, by sector and sub-sector
🪄 Reimagine Education is set for early December
Reimagine Education 6-8 December, InterContinental London - The O2 London, United Kingdom
Higher education's biggest questions land in London this December. QS Reimagine Education Awards & Conference brings university leaders, employers, and edtech innovators together across four tracks: Future University, Future of Skills & Work, Future of Learning, and Future of International Education. Expect debate on funding models, graduate outcomes, AI in the classroom, and student mobility.
📍 Upcoming Education Innovation Events
| Event | Date | Action |
|---|---|---|
| 🌱 Webinar: Innovating with Integrity: Sustainability, AI and the Responsible Institution | 25 Nov, 16:00 GMT | Register |
| 📅 QS Reimagine Education 2026, London ⏰ Early bird runs to 31 Oct. |
6–8 Dec | Register today → |
| 🗓️ 2026 Innovation Webinar Series | On-demand + live | Sign up to the series |
🤖 AI & Digital
AI is moving into the privacy rules, skills platforms and aid budgets that decide who gets access and on what terms.
🧭 New Mexico has proposed a student data privacy rule that would let edtech vendors use student information for some AI development with contractual authorisation.
🌍 Google launched Skilling Africa with Google, a free hub that brings more than 15 of its training programmes onto one platform with offline access, aiming to equip 3M Africans with digital and AI skills by 2030.
🌏 Foreign ministers from the US, India, Japan and Australia said they intend to provide over $85 million in technical and financial assistance to widen access to trusted AI across the Indo-Pacific.
🏛️ Policy & partnerships
Governments are setting firmer terms on tuition and classroom screens, with knock-on effects for university revenue and edtech procurement.
🇪🇺 The UK is considering spending up to £450 million a year so EU students can pay domestic tuition fees, on condition that British firms get access to the EU's
🇦🇺 Australia's education ministers agreed a digital detox package that sets or considers screen-time limits in schools and restricts generative AI in primary schools and secondary assessments.
🇲🇽 Mexico's restriction on phones and screens in primary and secondary schools took effect on 3 November in both public and private schools. States have 180 days to bring their own rules into line.
⚡ Power moves
Big tech, corporate coalitions and federal tax policy are opening new channels for learners and funding outside traditional systems.
🔎 Google made Guided Learning available in every Google Classroom worldwide and will pilot it in Search in select US schools this month. It is also switching AI tools off by default for K-12 accounts.
💼 RAISE US added Apple, AT&T, Google, Walmart and the Bezos family as backers, lifting its commitments above $735 million toward a $1 billion goal, which goes to retraining, apprenticeships and early-career pathways.
🏫 31 states have now opted into the first US federal scholarship tax credit, and Treasury's rules are open for comment until the end of November.