An ecosystem that in Italia alone is worth EUR 2.7 billion in turnover, employing 11 thousand people, and that in 2024 has collected EUR 74 million in private resources (+174% compared to 2023). This is the snapshot of the EdTech market in our country – which groups all the technologies applied to education and training – taken by the EdTech 2026 Report by the Proxima Observatory, promoted by the Enzima12 group, presented today, 25 March, in the Press Room of the Chamber of Deputies.
The report
The report contains the first unprecedented analysis of 388 Italian start-ups in the sector surveyed over the last 24 months by 12Venture – a startup studio of the Enzima12 group – from which it emerges that EdTech in Italia is increasingly being driven by demand from companies and not from schools (68% of start-ups focus on B2B) and that artificial intelligence has become the natural language of the product: 45% of the offer is AI-powered learning and 60% of the early stage is already built on generative AI.
The great hubs
The ecosystem, the report states, remains concentrated in the major hubs, Milan, Rome and Turin, but is showing the first signs of opening up towards the South. In the census, 15% of companies exceed €500,000 in annual turnover, with 45% of the top performers exceeding one million; at the same time, 90% of the early stage is still pre-revenue or below €50,000. In the background, a sector that has entered its industrial phase, with Europe rising to 33% of global VC investments and Italia at 2.7 billion in turnover and 11 thousand employees.
Italy’s start-up world
Looking at the maturity of the ecosystem, 37% of the start-ups analysed are in the early stage, 43% already have a product validated on the market, and 20% are in the consolidated growth phase. A polarisation also emerges from the data: 90% of early stage companies declare revenues of less than 50,000 euros or are still pre-revenue; at the same time, 15% of the companies surveyed exceed 500,000 euros in annual turnover, with 45% of the top performers exceeding one million.
Declarations
“In Italia, the market is responding: in 2024, EdTech startups raised EUR 74 million in private investment, +174% compared to 2023, for an ecosystem worth EUR 2.7 billion in turnover and employing 11,000 people. The Pnrr has brought infrastructure and equipment to schools, but the game is now being played elsewhere: on people’s skills, on data governance, and on the real capacity of companies to use technology in a structural manner,’ stressed Alberto Oddenino, president of the Proxima Observatory.
