What AQA does

AQA is the United Kingdom's largest exam board and largest awarding body, headquartered in Manchester. The organization delivers high-stakes national qualifications including GCSEs, AS levels, and A levels to UK schools, colleges, and examining centres. AQA generates revenue primarily through examination fees charged to educational institutions and students, operating within a regulatory framework overseen by Ofqual.

AQA's core technology initiative is a next-generation e-marking platform being developed in partnership with Excelsoft Technologies Limited, a global assessment technology provider based in India. Under a multi-year, multi-million-pound strategic partnership announced in May 2026, this unified platform will replace AQA's three existing e-marking systems and is designed to process approximately 12 million student scripts annually across 40,000 examiners. The platform represents a significant modernization of AQA's assessment infrastructure and is intended to be jointly offered to other awarding bodies across the UK, Europe, and international markets, creating a new platform licensing revenue stream beyond traditional examination fees.

AQA pursues an enterprise field sales go-to-market motion through direct institutional relationships with UK schools, colleges, and examining centres. The organization operates without disclosed public pricing, relying on its regulatory position and scale as primary competitive differentiators. The strategic partnership with Excelsoft signals a pivot toward technology-enabled assessment delivery and potential international expansion of platform services. Note: the firmographics data attributes AQA to Gunpo, South Korea with an environmental safety consulting description, which appears to be a data attribution error; the substantive company information consistently describes the UK exam board.

Name

AQA

Website

https://aqakorea.com

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

AQA is the UK's largest exam board, delivering GCSEs, AS and A levels to schools and colleges. It is developing a next-generation e-marking platform with Excelsoft Technologies to process 12 million scripts annually.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Exam Board and Assessment Services

NAICS

Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (61131), Software Publishers (513210)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374)

akta.pro primary industry

National/State Examination Boards & Testing Agencies (EDADAFAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

International & Cross-Border Exam Prep (Cambridge/A-Levels/GAOKAO/JEE/NEET, etc.) (EDAGADAF)

Keywords

• Exam board services
• E-marking platform
• High-stakes assessments
• Qualification administration
• Education assessment

Headquarters

HQ city

Gunpo

HQ country

South Korea

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Examination and Assessment Services: AQA operates as an exam board delivering GCSEs, AS and A levels and other qualifications, generating revenue through examination fees charged to schools and students.
2. Platform Licensing: Multi-year, multi-million-pound contract with Excelsoft Technologies for e-marking platform development, with intent to jointly offer the platform to other awarding bodies internationally.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Core offering

AQA operates as the United Kingdom's largest exam board, delivering GCSEs, AS and A levels and other qualifications to UK schools, colleges and examining centres. The organisation is developing a unified next-generation e-marking platform (in partnership with Excelsoft Technologies) to replace three existing e-marking systems and process approximately 12 million student scripts annually across 40,000 examiners.

Product overview

AQA offers a next-generation e-marking platform developed in partnership with Excelsoft Technologies. This unified platform replaces three existing e-marking systems and is designed to process approximately 12 million student scripts annually, involving around 40,000 examiners for high-stakes assessments across the UK.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• GCSE, AS and A Level Examinations
• Next-Generation E-Marking Platform

Quantifiable outcome

• Processing approximately 12 million student scripts annually
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Excelsoft Technologies LimitedcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 28 May 2026Excelsoft Technologies, a global provider of assessment and learning technology solutions based in India, has entered into a multi-year, multi-million-pound strategic partnership with AQA to jointly develop a next-generation e-marking platform for high-stakes assessments. The platform will replace AQA's three existing e-marking systems with a unified platform capable of processing approximately 12 million student scripts annually across 40,000 examiners. The partnership follows a rigorous multi-stage evaluation process and the two organisations intend to jointly offer the platform to other awarding bodies and assessment organisations across the UK, Europe and international markets.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves3 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Cambridge Assessment International Education: Cambridge International delivers IGCSEs, A Levels and other qualifications globally, part of Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Comparable high-stakes assessment product set and overlapping international customer base.
• College Board: US-based non-profit administering SAT, AP and other large-scale standardised assessments. Comparable national-scale assessment delivery, examiner networks and digital-marking transformation programme.
• Educational Testing Service (ETS): ETS administers TOEFL, GRE and other large-scale standardised tests globally. Comparable in delivering high-stakes assessments at national/international scale with associated e-marking infrastructure.
• International Baccalaureate (IB): The IB is a globally recognised qualification framework competing for the same secondary-school students as A-level providers. Comparable end-customer (schools and examining centres) and assessment-delivery model.

Emerging players

• Questionmark: Questionmark provides an assessment platform for authoring, delivering and scoring high-stakes exams. Comparable at the digital assessment platform layer that AQA is developing with Excelsoft.
• Prometric: Prometric operates test delivery and scoring services for credentialing and licensure exams. Comparable in the operational e-marking/processing layer of high-stakes assessment, though more focused on test-centre delivery.

Direct peers

• Pearson (Edexcel): Pearson is the parent of Edexcel, the other major UK GCSE/A-level awarding body regulated by Ofqual. Direct competitor for school adoption of high-stakes qualifications and operates at comparable national script volume.
• Oxford Cambridge and RSA (OCR): OCR is a UK awarding body delivering GCSEs, AS and A levels under Ofqual regulation, part of Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Directly competes with AQA for English school exam-board selection.

Regional players

• WJEC / CBAC: Welsh Joint Education Committee is the primary awarding body for Wales, regulated by Qualifications Wales. Comparable role to AQA but serving a different UK jurisdiction, with overlap in qualification design and e-marking operations.

Others

• Excelsoft Technologies: Excelsoft is AQA's named strategic co-development partner on the next-generation e-marking platform and a global assessment-tech provider. Relevant as ecosystem participant and dependency rather than direct competitor.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about AQA