Nordic EdTech News #129: 2025-02-24
First Nordic EdTech Summit speakers announced and everything else you need to know
Hello and welcome to today’s Nordic EdTech News.
As promised, I’m delighted to open with an update on this year’s Nordic EdTech Summit, which will take place in Malmö this September. A draft programme is now available on the event website, but most importantly the first confirmed speakers can now be announced. Thanks to all of them for their support of this unique event.
These senior EdTech leaders come from across our regional ecosystem. They will be sharing their insights, experiences and strategies for growth. You can expect big ideas, candid discussions and invaluable, practical knowledge from them as we identify the opportunities and address the challenges ahead for Nordic and Baltic EdTech.
I know it's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day, but the Summit is your chance to step back, see the big picture and refocus on what truly drives growth and impact.
More speakers and further details on the programme will be announced soon. But if you’re interested in speaking at the event or would like to partner with us, just reply to this email to let me know.
"What a breath of fresh air this event has been. Honest, grounded and motivational knowledge sharing from some of the best in the industry.”
Mathieu Skulason, CEO and Co-Founder at Evolytes
“Had a great day today attending the fantastic Nordic EdTech Summit! Top notch event. Nice food. Great speakers. Awesome networking opportunities, getting inspired by AI, innovation, challenges, success, scaling, sales - all the good stuff.”
Harry van der Veen, CEO at NUITEQ
“This week we enjoyed great conversations and content at the Nordic EdTech Summit. Thanks for getting 100+ Edtech Founders, investors and the wider community together for a couple of days of sharing knowledge and experience. We’ll be back!
Brighteye Ventures
Early Bird pricing ends this Friday, 28th February. As the venue only has capacity for approximately 200 delegates, act quickly to reserve your spot.
In other news, Sanoma Learning announced their 2024 FY results showing a small drop in net sales to €764m from €795m last year (Link). This was caused by the end of low value distribution contracts in the Netherlands and Belgium plus the end of Spain’s curriculum update. Continued growth is visible in Poland and the Netherlands, whilst the business has been able to sustain “above-average price increases.”
Notably, their FY report also reveals that digital still accounts for less than half of annual net sales (46%). While the business is operating at an impressive 19.2% margin.
Forecasts and plans for 2025 are steady ahead with demand for learning content expected to be “relatively stable across the Group's main operating markets.” But what’s perhaps most interesting is there’s very little mention of AI in the report, apart from this sentence: “In Learning, we concluded multiple AI pilots across our markets, including AI driven survey tool and text-to-speech implementation in tests.”
Whilst on AI, it’s great to see a joint declaration by the Finnish and Estonian governments on it, digitalisation and media literacy. This stresses that these are essential civic assets that should be continuously developed. Finnish Minister of Education, Anders Adlercreutz, is clear: “Finland and Estonia want to be on the front lines here.”
Skolon also released their 2024 FY figures that show an encouraging 40% increase in net sales, rising to SEK 145.2 million from SEK 103.4 million in 2023 (Link). The business continues to close in 1 million paying users, reaching 862,538 (707,092) at the end of the period, an increase of 22% compared to Q4 2023. Average revenue per user also increased to SEK 165 (140), calculated on revenue over the last 12 months. In recognition of this progress, Oliver Lundgren, Skolon’s CEO, was named CEO of the Year in the small business category by Motivation.se. (Link)
I’m including an OECD blog post in today’s newsletter that’s worth your attention. "Can the targeted use of digital devices in education win over the naysayers?" highlights a new pilot study from Germany suggesting that carefully integrating digital tools - like mobile phones - can enhance learning. But what makes this even more noteworthy is the author: Andreas Schleicher, OECD’s Director for Education & Skills. Given that he’s advising the Swedish government on improving education outcomes, could digital tools be part of his recommendations?
And finally, those digital tools and other equitable digital learning opportunities rely on interoperable and scalable digital public infrastructure (DPI). This new paper details how DPI fosters “innovation that can strengthen education systems and support the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4.”
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 X or LinkedIn or use #nordicedtech / #balticedtech.
Thanks for reading, Jonathan
News from Denmark
Area9 Lyceum is collaborating with SYNPLI to bring “adaptive, data-driven learning to driving education.” (Link)
Challenges with ExamCookie as students and AI find ways to beat the exam monitoring system. (Link)
SkoleGPT has been nominated for the Digitalisation Award in the Innovation Award category. (Link)
Interesting interview with Jacob Nielsen, founder of Unihelper.io, highlighting his entrepreneurship journey. (Link)
News from Estonia
Estonia has received more international recognition for educational innovation, as its EdTech solutions were praised for their long-term impact and practical applicability.
News from Finland
Code School Finland has started work with Generations International School in Macau (Link) and with Tecnológico de Monterrey, one of Latin America’s best private research universities (Link).
Eduten has expanded into New Zealand and now has over 2 million students using the platform. (Link)
GraphoGame and TALEMIA التعليمية Group have announced a collaboration to bring GraphoGame in Arabic to life. (Link)
News from Iceland
Bara tala was referenced by the President of Iceland for making learning Icelandic more accessible to immigrants in the workplace. (Link)
Congratulations to Mathieu Skulason and Iris Gísladóttir, the founders of Evolytes, who won a national award for entrepreneurship. (Link)
News from Latvia
New pilot programme to transform physics teaching in secondary schools. It will use EdTech to “promote talent development and make teachers' work more effective.” (Link)
Riga TechGirls have kicked off their “Cilvēcīgi par tehnoloģijām” for teachers. Nearly 2,800 participants are working to improve their digital literacy skills. (Link)
News from Lithuania
EXOCLASS has expanded rapidly and now supports numerous after-school clubs in Lithuania, across Europe and in the USA. (Link)
125 EdTech companies responded to a call from the Innovation Agency Lithuania to support the development of innovative products and prototypes in the sector. (Link)
A new educational programme, delivered by Vedliai and with funding from google.org, will help Lithuanian students learn about AI. (Link)
News from Norway
Norway’s largest publishers are reorganising and downsizing, largely due to falling revenues in the school book market according to the Publishers Association. (Link)
81 percent of university students use AI in their studies. But half say they have received little training in using AI tools. (Link)
Vibeke Gwendoline Fængsrud from House of Math has been nominated for Tech Founder of the Year 2025. (Link)
IKT Norge’s response to the Screen Usage Committee has been formally published with a call for a clear, national digitisation strategy. (Link)
KS calls for a “knowledge-based, safe and balanced approach to the use of technology in schools” as ICEI stresses the importance of having standards in place to “quality assure the digital learning resources used in schools.”
Scrimba has launched Instant Feedback, their first AI-powered feature, so that learners can receive real-time, AI-driven feedback as they code. (Link)
We Are Learning are now partnering with Visma SmartSkill to support their mission of transforming learning in the public sector. (Link)
News from Sweden
The Swedish Agency for Accessible Media has been tasked with ensuring that access to Legimus is only given to people with a legitimate need. The service should become “more robust, legally secure and equitable.” (Link)
Two high school students have built an AI platform for teachers. It’s now being tested by three schools in the Nacka area. (Link)
Agaton has emerged from stealth mode and has raised a funding round “to revolutionise enterprise sales through AI.” (Link)
Bright partners with Bloomsbury to offer “students access to high-quality academic titles and enhancing their study experience.” (Link)
Andreas Eng, Eventful’s founder, has resumed his role as company CEO. (Link)
Swedish Edtech Industry launches a new guide to help users get the most out of the digital tools they have purchased. (Link)
True is using blockchain technology to tackle the rise in counterfeit certificates, diplomas and official documents. (Link)
Thanks for reading this newsletter. If you think that your colleagues and wider network would find it useful, please share it with them!