From Good Ideas to Real Impact: What Effective Edtech Ventures Need to Scale

Around the world, education systems face a profound learning crisis. More than 600 million children and adolescents do not achieve minimum proficiency in reading and mathematics, and in low and middle income countries around 70% of ten-year-olds cannot read and understand a simple text. Behind every statistic is a child whose opportunities are being limited by our failure in supporting them to learn even the basics.

These figures force us to think differently about innovation in education. While the pedagogical basics are universal, new ideas for delivery help. However, experience has taught me that successful education ventures are rarely defined by the strength of an idea alone. When reviewing ventures for investment, partnership, or support, I often look through the lens of five factors that I call the 5Ps.

First, the Problem: is the challenge important, clearly defined, and genuinely unmet? Second, the People: does the team have the credibility, capability, and resilience to address it? Third, Product and Pedagogy: is the solution grounded in evidence and designed around how people actually learn and how teachers teach? Fourth, Proof: is there credible evidence that learners benefit and that outcomes improve? Finally, Potential and Scale: can the solution realistically grow while sustaining impact?

These five factors remain essential. Yet after reviewing hundreds of education ventures from around the world, I know that even strong performance across all five does not guarantee success. Many promising solutions stall not because the idea is weak, but because they lack the sixth P: a Platform, i.e., the ecosystem around them is not strong enough to help them scale.

Founders often have deep insight into the challenges they are trying to solve. What they frequently lack is access to the networks, expertise, funding, policy environments, and partnerships that enable solutions to grow. And too often, those closest to the problem are furthest from the resources and decision-making structures that determine whether innovations reach scale.

This is why platforms matter. Effective innovation requires more than talented entrepreneurs. It requires researchers who help strengthen evidence, educators who test and refine solutions, mentors who challenge assumptions, policymakers who create enabling environments, and investors willing to support long-term impact. It also requires the regulatory, digital, and financial infrastructure that allows effective solutions to reach all learners at scale, particularly those who are most underserved.

At WISE, we have seen the difference that such ecosystems can make. Through the WISE EdTech Accelerator, more than 54 ventures have been supported, collectively reaching over 17 million beneficiaries across 130 countries. These ventures have not succeeded because they received funding alone. They succeeded because there was a platform through which they gained access to mentorship, evidence-building, partnerships, market insight, and a community committed to helping them grow.

The experience has reinforced an important lesson: scaling educational innovation is not simply about finding the next breakthrough idea. It is about creating the conditions that allow good ideas to thrive.

Qatar and WISE are uniquely positioned to bring together educators, policymakers, researchers, investors, and entrepreneurs in ways that many innovation ecosystems struggle to achieve. By connecting these communities, Qatar can play an important role in helping promising education solutions move from pilot projects to meaningful and sustainable impact.

The 2026-2027 WISE EdTech Accelerator builds on this belief through two complementary tracks. The Local Track is designed for ventures working in, or seeking to enter, Qatar’s education and skills ecosystem. The International Track supports ventures looking to grow across global markets. Both are grounded in the same principle: successful scaling requires more than a strong product. It requires the right ecosystem.

As we open applications for the next cohort, we are not simply looking for new ideas. We are looking for ventures with the potential to improve learning outcomes at scale and leaders who are willing to test assumptions, strengthen evidence, and continuously improve.

The world does not suffer from a shortage of educational innovation. It suffers from a shortage of systems capable of helping the best innovations reach every learner who needs them. Building those systems, and the ecosystems that sustain them, may be one of the most important education challenges of our time.

Applications for the 2026-2027 WISE EdTech Accelerator are open until 31 October 2026.

By Dr. Asyia Kazmi OBE, CEO of the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE)

References:

UNESCO. “617 million children and adolescents not getting the minimum in reading and math.” UNESCO, 21 September 2017. URL: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/617-million-children-and-adolescents-not-getting-minimum-reading-and-math.

UNICEF. “70 per cent of 10-year-olds in ‘learning poverty’, unable to read and understand a simple text.” UNICEF, 23 June 2022. URL: https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/70-cent-10-year-olds-learning-poverty-unable-read-and-understand-simple-text.

World Bank, UNICEF, UNESCO, FCDO, USAID, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The State of Global Learning Poverty: 2022 Update. World Bank, June 2022. URL: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/education/publication/state-of-global-learning-poverty.

World Bank. “Ending Learning Poverty.” World Bank, 12 October 2022. URL: https://www.worldbank.org/en/brief/2022/10/12/ending-learning-poverty.

UNESCO Institute for Statistics. “Learning Data Hub.” UNESCO Institute for Statistics. URL: https://www.uis.unesco.org/en/learning-data-hub.