Nordic EdTech News #104: 2024-01-22
Your Weeks 2 - 3 update from the Nordic and Baltic EdTech ecosystem
Nordic EdTech News is the best way to keep up with the EdTech ecosystem across 8 Nordic and Baltic countries. I curate it from company updates and a wide variety of international sources. It’s a passion project of mine - the rest of my time is spent advising / consulting the companies who lead the future of learning. If you’d like to find out more, drop me an email.
Hello and welcome to today’s Nordic EdTech News. It’s clear from the last two weeks that many of the big themes of 2023 will also be key topics for Nordic EdTech during 2024. M&A, private equity / venture capital funding and student data dominate this newsletter and will, I’m sure, feature strongly in issues to come. Let’s dive in!
We kick off this week with two stories from the world of corporate learning, where Nordic EdTech firms have built a significant global reputation for their high-quality, innovative technologies. Firstly, Denmark’s eloomi is being acquired by Ceridian, “a global leader in human capital management technology” (Link). The deal will close this quarter with eloomi significantly boosting Ceridian’s ability to support “customers with more engaging learning and development experiences, AI-driven content creation, and extended enterprise learning capabilities.”
Norway’s We Are Learning are also now gearing up for international expansion, after raising €3 million in a new investment round (Link). The round was led by Dreamcraft Ventures and will support the company’s aim of “revolutionise the landscape of learning content production globally.“
There’s also two significant stories relating to private equity transactions to update subscribers on. Regulatory announcements show that the Goldman Sachs-led consortium will carry out the compulsory redemption of any remaining Kahoot! shares after securing 94.7% of the business. Once completed, the group will “pursue a delisting of Kahoot!'s Shares from the Oslo Stock Exchange.”
In addition, Swedish PE investor, Monterro, has acquired the majority of shares in Nimblr (Link). Nimblr provides short, effective learning sessions through simulations and training courses to raise cyber security awareness. The company has more than 2,500 customers in the Nordics and is now looking to expand across Europe.
In other financial news, Skolon has announced that Swedbank Robur Fonder acquired nearly 5% of the company before Christmas in an off-market transaction (Link). The shares were sold by one of Skolon's founders, Anders Abrahamsson.
Switching to data, Iceland’s data authorities have handed out fines to five municipalities (including the city of Reykjavík) who have been using Google Workspace for Education inappropriately.
In Denmark, the Danish Data Protection Authority has also criticised five municipalities because of their handling of personal data in Aula (Link). Results of a user survey of Aula, the national school communication tool, have also been recently released (Link). It’s a pretty mixed bag but everyone (46% of parents, 51% of school leaders and 39% of teachers) agrees that the system generates information overload. But that’s perhaps not surprising when 10,000 messages a minute are being sent at the beginning of a normal school day!
Do check out byFounders’ Shape of the New Nordics 2023 Report. It’s a fab overview of pre-seed to Series A startups and VCs from across the Nordics and Baltics.
Great opportunity to join European Diplomats and education leaders at the Future of Education Consortium meeting in Mikkeli, Finland on 25th January 25, 2024. Last-minute attendees are welcome and you can find out more here.
And finally, there’ll be a special edition of NEN in subscriber inboxes next Monday as I interview Neil Selwyn, professor at the Faculty of Education, Monash University. He’s one of the keynote speakers at this year’s Nordic Track at SETT and we cover many of the key EdTech topics for 2024 across the Nordics. Don’t miss it!
Thanks for reading, Jonathan
News from Denmark
“Do not confuse the screen debate with the need for technology understanding.”
High schools in Denmark are embracing ChatGPT as a teaching tool rather than shunning it. (Link)
Interesting to note that municipalities have been using online school solutions to engage students who refuse to go to school. (Link)
EdTech Denmark is running a seminar on PISA and the Nordic countries on 5th February. (Link)
How Famly built a global EdTech despite “all the barriers that exist in the Danish startup ecosystem.” (Link)
Niels Østergaard has been named as the new CEO of Hololink, the AR and VR startup. (Link)
Labster’s virtual simulations will be integrated within Kiddom’s OpenStax 9-12 curricula. (Link)
Lærfest'24 will run in Copenhagen between 13th and 14th March 2024.
LMS365 is now available on Microsoft Azure marketplace. (Link)
Praxis was the first publisher in the Nordics to integrate AI chatbots into teaching materials and have extended the approach into resources for trainee bricklayers and carpenters. (Link)
News from Estonia
Estonia’s Education and Youth Board has rolled out a teacher training course, “How to make AI work for you”, to support the integration of AI solutions in national teaching and learning frameworks. (Link)
How Estonia works systematically with data and digital resources to build “a world-class learning system.” (Link)
New podcast from DreamApply - it’s called EdTech and Pancakes and is “about paradigm shifts in education.” (Link)
Dr. Kadri Haljas, founder and CEO of Triumf Health, is one of the winners of the Visa She’s Next programme - congratulations! (Link)
News from Finland
New research highlights continuing education for teachers and the lack of a national digital strategy as key factors hampering the effectiveness and use of digital resources in Finnish schools. (Link)
Interesting international perspective on the “The Rise and Fall of Finland Mania.”
Eduhouse plans to roll out a new personal AI assistant to support employees’ skill development and work performance. (Link)
Eduten launches Eduten AI to make “teaching and learning maths a more engaging, effective, and enjoyable experience.” (Link)
Kwizie has raised an investment round (value undisclosed) as the second investment from Gorilla Capital’s Fund III. (Link)
See the Good confirms expansion into Iceland. (Link)
News from Iceland
New agreement aims to improve students’ access to edited dictionaries through the National Institute of Education's electronic learning materials. (Link)
News from Latvia
19,000 pupils took part in Latvia's national IT exam, but many children have little interest in programming. (Link)
Edurio publish new research on pupil behaviour and safety in UK schools this week. Further details here.
New WoTech programme will give women the opportunity to learn basic programming skills for free. (Link)
News from Lithuania
EdTech Week Lithuania 2024 will run in early February. (Link)
Good overview of EdTech usage in Lithuanian schools from the head of the EdTech Centre at the National Education Agency. (Link)
Good progress for Three Cubes’ Kickstarter campaign, reaching their initial goal in less than 24 hours. (Link)
Turing College announced a new partnership with Google, bringing together Digital Marketing and Data Analytics education. (Link)
News from Norway
“Book or screen? Students need both” says Marte Gerhardsen, Director of Education in Oslo. This NRK report also challenges some of the assumptions and research behind the screen time debate.
Strong speaker line-up at the Bedre Læring event in Sandefjord (12th to 13th February).
Eirik Wahlstrøm, CEO of Ludenso, argues that institutions “should adopt a research-based approach to technology in the classroom.” (Link)
126 Swedish municipalities (+40%) are now using the AV1 from No Isolation to “increase learning and social belonging during time of absence.” (Link)
Pickatale strikes a new partnership to “ignite a love for reading in students and children in Singapore.” (Link)
Sikt confirms an agreement with Kopinor to help universities more easily identify students’ cheating (Link) as 58% of teachers in upper secondary schools report that they have caught students cheating with AI aids (Link).
News from Sweden
ChatGPT is "a study buddy and student assistant at the same time" and could also be invaluable in reducing digital inequality in Swedish schools (Link).
Allbry, the student health platform, has sealed several new municipality deals with Valdemarsvik, for example, signing a three-year agreement. (Link)
Jakob Way steps down as CEO at Gleechi and gives some detail on their future direction. (Link)
Laika 13, an AI chatbot, is now available for schools to use to help raise issues around excessive screen use and mental illness. (Link)
Great to see the partnership between Magma and Liber gaining momentum. (Link)
SchoolSoft releases new apps for caregivers and students. (Link)
True Original, the digital credentials provider, doubles income and moves into profitability. (Link)
Thanks for reading this newsletter. If you think that your colleagues and wider network would find it useful, please share it with them!