Education tech firms join overseas listing frenzy

Following in the footsteps of financial technology and online entertainment companies, educational technology firms are the latest emerging segment in the Chinese tech scene to join in the outbound listing frenzy this year.

In the past two weeks, major Chinese digital education firms including Hujiang Education & Technology (Shanghai) Corp Ltd and Koolearn Technology Holding Ltd, a subsidiary of New York-listed Oriental Education and Technology Group Inc, have flocked to apply for IPOs in Hong Kong.

They are joining a group of at least 12 education startups eyeing Hong Kong listings thus far as they jostle for position in the online learning industry, which is forecast by Frost & Sullivan to almost triple to 579.2 billion yuan ($85.5 billion) by 2022 from 199.3 billion yuan in 2017.