Australia’s EU growth will explore opportunities outside of the higher education sector and begin to turn its focus towards the Asian region, according to its 2017 annual report.

The plans see the edtech startup accelerator, which is currently in its second year of operation after launching in October 2016, realign its work to better meet its original objectives on higher education, K-12 and skills, lifelong learning and vocational education, which were to facilitate growth across all education sectors.

“EduGrowth was established to represent all sectors of the education technology and innovation community,” chief executive David Linke said.

“Connecting all segments and fostering collaboration is a key component of EduGrowth’s mission and operating plan. This is simply the natural evolution of the organization as we expand our initial focus.”

In 2018 the company, which is backed by six Australian education institutions, will also begin focusing its attention on opportunities in Asia.

It will also begin expanding upon its edtech missions to the US, to include missions to South East Asia and China later in the year.

Speaking with The PIE News, recently appointed Linke said the region was a potentially lucrative market for edtech to take advantage of Australia’s strong education reputation.

“Many Asian families seek to send their children to Australian schools and universities, so it’s a natural extension as we move towards borderless digital education, that Australia will continue to play a large part across Asia,” he said.

“Additionally, Asia is a closed market, with large volumes of commercial opportunities and access to capital markets that can support Australian edtech companies quickly scale.”

While there will be a slight realignment in focus, Edugrowth also plans to continue its activities from 2017, including a new intake of startups into its full-time accelerator program.

Such activities saw BEcoME, which develops career and aspiration services for students, continue onto pre-seed capital raising.

The 2017ed tech mission found Australia was well placed to become a world leader in the sector.