Nordic EdTech News #123: 2024-11-11
Your Weeks 44 - 45 update from the Nordic and Baltic EdTech ecosystem
Hello and welcome to today’s Nordic EdTech News. This newsletter has long advocated for Nordic collaboration on education / EdTech, so it’s great to see some movement on this front in the last two weeks.
The Nordic Council’s recent meeting in Reykjavík acknowledged the declining PISA results across the region and called for a “specialist education committee to advise education ministers on measures to improve PISA results in the Nordics” (Link). Similarly Nordic governments and stakeholders are now “laying the foundation for a Nordic AI Centre focused on the responsible development and use of AI” (Link). In a coordinated PR blitz, 5 Nordic ministers have published a joint opinion piece in key national media: The Nordic region must be Europe's driving force in the AI race.
Hopefully these moves mark a critical moment, in which region-wide collaboration can finally get underway. I’ll continue arguing the case for EdTech providers to be fully involved in such policy-driven innovation, influencing how AI supports learning and addressing core challenges in student outcomes.
It’s timely therefore that Sana, one of our leading AI-powered knowledge tools, has announced a new $55 million round led by NEA, which brings their total funding to over $130 million at a reported valuation of $500 million (Link). Sana also confirmed the acquisition of Ctrl, the Israeli workplace automation business. (Link)
To find out more about the vision of Joel Hellermark, their founder and CEO, do check out this excellent interview (Link). I found his passion and focus on product vision to find product-market fit super inspiring.
Also on AI, Lithuania’s Turing College has secured €2.5 million in grant funding from the European Innovation Council to develop AI solutions in adult education (Link). CEO Lukas Kaminskis confirmed that the grant would support investment in solutions “that will both facilitate the work of our mentors and improve student achievement and experience.”
Plus congratulations to Emerge, who have closed $73 million for their oversubscribed global early-stage Fund II (Link). The fund is backed by over 100 of the world's best future of work and learning operators.
Sanoma Learning have published their Q3 results which showed a small (and expected) drop in 2024 revenues to date (Link). The drop reflected the “planned discontinuation of low-value distribution contracts in the Netherlands and Belgium” and the end of the curriculum renewal process in Spain. Learning content sales increased across other major markets, although sales in Finland fell to €50.4 million from €52.6 million between Jan and September last year.
Staying in Finland, the government has announced plans to restrict the use of telephones and mobile devices in schools (Link). But the measures seem common-sense and are hardly draconian: “…a student may in future only use their phone or mobile device during a lesson for learning purposes or for personal care with the teacher's or principal's permission.”
Natalia Kucirkova of the International Centre for EdTech Impact eloquently makes the point in Nature that such bans have dominated the headlines, but other technologies used by children in schools (EdTech in other words) have flown under the radar. She argues for “researchers, developers and investors to come together to improve the quality of educational tools.”
Keep an eye out this week for the results from ICILS - an international study that maps digital competence among students in grade 8. Published on 12 November, five Nordic countries have participated - Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Norway and Sweden. It’s the first time that Sweden has been involved so it’s interesting, as Jannie Jeppesen from the Swedish Edtech Industry suggests here, that there’s no planned press conference to discuss the results. There’ll be more on the results in the next NEN.
Do check out the Future of Education Consortium’s Summit in Tallinn next month (5th December). The event aims to explore groundbreaking solutions and foster collaboration aimed at reshaping the educational landscape for future generations.
And finally, plenty of notice for a keynote I’ll be giving at SETT Mechelen next February (Link). The focus will be on the Nordic reassessment of digital tools in education and highlights the international interest in what’s happening here at the moment. I’m looking forward to it - let me know if you’re attending!
As always, if you’ve got a story that you’d like me to include in a future issue of this newsletter, please email hello@10digits.org, tag me on Twitter or LinkedIn or use #nordicedtech / #balticedtech.
Thanks for reading, Jonathan
News from Denmark
At the School leaders' annual meeting the need for a unified AI strategy and teacher training were clearly identified for primary schools. (Link)
Danske Forlag argues that books should only be used in large language models with the agreement of authors and publishers. (Link)
Diplomasafe are helping build a secure digital infrastructure to issue and manage micro-credentials that support hospitality professionals across Europe. (Link)
Labster’s UbiSim has been named a TIME Best Invention of 2024 for “preparing the next generation of nurses to deliver compassionate, competent care to diverse patient populations.” (Link)
Ugly Duckling Games have partnered up with lerngut to make Drama Studio available to schools and teachers across Germany. (Link)
Zensai CEO: “We have a team that can compete with the best growth companies in Silicon Valley.” (Link)
News from Estonia
Don’t miss this Tallinn Breakfast event on Monday 18 November with Brighteye Ventures and Trind Ventures. Full details here.
Interesting debate in the role of AI in education: Are we losing the ability to think?
News from Finland
Edtech Finland has joined the Finnish Startup Community. The move will enhance collaboration across the Finnish EdTech and startup ecosystems. (Link)
Helsinki Education Hub kicked off its new EdTech Incubation Programme. (Link)
Kwizie has launched a new interactive video player that generates gamified quiz tests in minutes with the help of AI. (Link)
Monttu Ventures have confirmed their investment in GraphoGame, but no details on size or whether this was part of their recent crowdfunding round. (Link)
ThingLink is launching a range of new AI and XR tools that are designed “to help organisations modernise learning and save time.” (Link)
A major data security risk was identified in Wilma - the software company has filed a criminal complaint. (Link)
News from Iceland
Programming and financial literacy are new additions to the updated primary school curriculum. (Link)
Akademias has acquired Avia to establish “a leading player in the Icelandic
workplace education market.” (Link)
News from Latvia
With national budgets allocating just €35 euros per student for learning resources, the lack of materials is putting a huge burden on teachers.
Institutions will be able to rent robots, computers, VR glasses, tablets and other EdTech thanks to a new scheme. (Link)
News from Lithuania
Business leaders argue for a fundamental restructuring of compulsory education in Lithuania to mirror most Western economies. (Link)
News from Norway
A new report suggests that the Norwegian government should do more to keep children safe online. (Link)
Kahoot!’s latest student survey reveals that 2/3 of US college students believe that mental health challenges impact their academic work. (Link)
Ludenso has now delivered over 1 million learning experiences in 3D & AR to more than 150 countries. (Link)
Sikt aims to complete the acquisition of new LMS, digital exam and plagiarism control solutions by January/February 2025. (Link)
We Are Learning confirms a new partnership with US-based IDOL Academy, who train and shape “the next generation of learning designers.” (Link)
Wittario, the game-based learning platform, has raised NOK 10 million in an oversubscribed round. The money will be used for international expansion. (Link)
News from Sweden
“Schoolchildren's choices and the lack of skills - how are they connected?”
Kattalo argues the case for supporting and listening to teachers. (Link)
Great insights from Frida Monsén —Head of Global L&D at Vattenfall — in the next episode of Learnster’s Stay Hungry podcast. (Link)
According to SvD, Lexplore was “close to going under during the pandemic”, but is now in a new growth phase. (Link)
Quizrr has trained 200,000 people this year - they’ve completed 740,821 modules across 89 nationalities. (Link)
Katinka Engellau-Nilsson, SchoolSoft's new CEO , outlines her vision for the company’s future. (Link)
Swedish Edtech Industry argues that Skolverket should “focus on creating and distributing national tests in a standardised format that can be used in the digital systems schools already have.” (Link)
Swedish Tech Weekly reports that TRUE has raised SEK 4 million from “a number of experienced Swedish entrepreneurs, angel investors, and the startup's new CCO Martin Stenberg.”
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