Nordic EdTech News #100: 2023-11-13

Your Weeks 44 - 45 update from the Nordic and Baltic EdTech ecosystem

Hello, good morning and welcome to the 100th edition (!!!) of this newsletter.

I clearly remember sending the first issue to just 134 subscribers in early September 2019 - this edition will be sent to a community of nearly 3,000 highly engaged subscribers. None of this would be possible without you - I really appreciate every share, every click, every like and the positive feedback you send about the quality / value of the content I put out. Thank you!

So many people have helped me on this journey that I cannot thank them all. You know who you are. But I must thank my wife for everything and for moving us out to Sweden in 2019 to get the ball rolling. Reading Do Open by David Hieatt convinced me that “a simple email newsletter could transform (my) business” and it genuinely has. My network and client roster is incredible and I’m proud to work with some of the top companies leading the future of learning in the Nordics and beyond. If you’d like to find out more, please drop me an email.

Despite my initial concerns that there wouldn’t be much news to include in a fortnightly newsletter, Nordic EdTech continues to provide me with plenty of content. That’s in part because it continues to lead the way in pedagogical quality and innovative technologies. Just in the last two weeks, for example, Nordic EdTech businesses (sorry but too many to list individually!) have been identified as market leaders in Brighteye Ventures’ update on AI and the surge of digital tools for teachers, the Founders Forum Future of EdTech report, HundrED’s latest Global Collection and Sifted’s EdTech briefing.

Yet these achievements all sit against an uncertain domestic policy background. On one hand, Finnish Minister of Education, Anna-Maja Henriksson, recently published digitisation targets reiterating her determination to “ensure access to digital and printed teaching materials of high quality in both national languages.” Whilst Kari Nessa Nordtun, her newly-appointed Norwegian counterpart, has reignited the debate on mobile phones in school declaring: “I can't find any good reasons for mobile phones to be part of our children's everyday school life.”

Two notable recent updates to mention from Kahoot!, still Nordic EdTech’s largest player. This summer’s offer to buy all shares, made by a consortium led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, has now been accepted by 84% of shareholders (Link). The business will continue to run as a publicly listed company, but the consortium will carry out a compulsory acquisition of the remaining shares once they own 90% or more of the company. Separately, the business reached the milestone of 10 billion non-unique participants on the platform, marking its move “from a classroom quiz to a global ecosystem for learning and engagement.”

If you’re looking to better understand Nordic EdTech, then do check out this Virtual Bootcamp on the ecosystem. It’s free and runs between 5th and 8th December. I’m delighted to be one of a wide range of expert speakers. And if you’re in Helsinki for Slush, then add InvestED 2023 to your itinerary - it’s a great opportunity to meet key EdTech investors and network with colleagues and peers.

If you’ve missed any previous newsletters, you can catch up with them all here.

As always, this newsletter is for C, E and A - my first and most important readers.

Thank you for reading, Jonathan

News from Denmark

• Great panel for a webinar on 15th Nov looking at “Empowered Leadership: The Role of EdTech in Shaping Tomorrow's Leaders.”

• Helpful update re: the consultation on digital technology understanding in primary schools.

• Almost every seventh school student has used ChatGPT in class. (Link)

• Fluido will deliver a new study administration system for seven of Denmark’s universities. It will “put students at the centre and digitise processes that were previously handheld.” (Link)

• GreenEdTech has announced a new partnership with Exfluency and CFU Københavns Professionshøjskole. (Link)

• WOOF confirms the successful close of a new investment round. (Link)

News from Estonia

• Insights from the DigiEduHack on the best ways to improve teachers' digital competencies. (Link)

• Congratulations to Omari Loid of Praktikal, who has won a young entrepreneur award. (Link)

News from Finland

• Annie Advisor was chosen as the 2nd most promising growth company in Finland by Kasvu Open. (Link)

• Code School Finland launched their first CPD course for teachers in Arabic. (Link)

• Eduten has delivered a 3-day teacher training programme as part of a pilot project in Uzbekistan. (Link)

• Heikki Rusama, CEO of Freeed is the guest on the latest edition of the Koulu-podcast. (Link)

• Helsinki has built the world's first computer-themed playground.

• Positive Learning continues to expand internationally, landing a new deal with schools in Indonesia. (Link)

• Testbed Helsinki are still looking for EdTech innovations to add to their technology container. (Link)

• Antti Korhonen, CEO of xEdu, on his journey from Helsinki to Turin “to accelerate EdTech startups.” (Link)

News from Iceland

• Over 200,000 Icelandic learning challenges have now been played on Bara tala since its launch 3 months ago. (Link)

• Evolytes strikes a deal with Reykjavík’s School and Leisure Division (Link) as part of the city’s Digital Growth initiative (Link).

• LearnCove won the Svifaldan Incentive Award at the Icelandic Seafood Conference. (Link)

News from Latvia

• An additional €4.3 million has been earmarked for the development and maintenance of new teaching materials, including digital content. (Link)

• New self-learning online courses are now available on Skola2030 for teachers to use for “advanced level courses.”

News from Lithuania

• In 2024 a total of almost €29 million will be allocated for textbooks and teaching aids, including digital resources. According to the government, this is at least twice as much as 2022. (Link)

• EdTech Lithuania’s latest EDucated event focused on AI in Education. A full recording is available here.

• Monika Katkute, CEO at Teachers Lead Tech, has been nominated as CEO of the Year at the Build Stuff - Software Development Conference. (Link)

• Three Cubes have announced that they are making their own video game. (Link)

News from Norway

• Two very different views about the future of Norwegian schools in a world dominated by AI. (Link and Link)

• Congratulations to Professor Natalia Kucirkova, who has been awarded Lyse's research prize. (Link)

• 100 upper secondary schools will participate in a pilot of long-term projects and assignments rather than final unit national exams. (Link)

• Curipod now has 220,000 registered teachers, and has had more than 2 million students participate on the site since the beginning of 2021. (Link)

• Change at Eduplaytion as Emilie Harr takes over as CEO from Kristoffer Engebø, who’ll move to become COO and handle investor relations. (Link)

• IKT-Norge argues that the inquiry into læringsanalyse must ensure diversity of Norwegian-developed teaching aids. (Link)

• Ludenso has been named one of the 5 finalists for the prestigious Vesalius Innovation Award by Karger Publishers. (Link)

News from Sweden

• In a wide-ranging interview with The Guardian, Education Minister, Lotta Edholm said it was “extremely questionable” that any preschool should have iPads, arguing: “It is a public health problem.”

• Astrid’s AI tech is powering a new app from Trinity College London to develop English skills in 5-14 year olds. (Link).

• Over 200,000 people from nearly 150 countries have installed the imagi iOS app, rating it 4.8 out of 5 stars on the Apple App Store. (Link)

• Research from Läromedelföretagen shows an 11% yoy increase in spending on learning materials by schools, but that doesn’t match the expected increase after additional government investment. (Link)

• MyStudyWeb have confirmed that they are launching Matific for schools and students in Sweden. (Link)

• Skolon has been listed on the list of fastest growing tech companies in Sweden - for the third year in a row. (Link)

• Zebrain has launched Emma – “The next generation AI-coach.” (Link)

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