Nordic EdTech News #29 : 2020-10-26
Your Week 42 and 43 update from the Nordic & Baltic EdTech ecosystems
There’s only one way to begin this issue of Nordic EdTech News and that’s with the news of Kahoot’s recent raise of USD 215 million from SoftBank Group (Link). The investment will be used “to accelerate growth through value-creating non-organic opportunities and continue to build our unique and versatile platform.” It’s great to see Nordic (and Norwegian) EdTech in the spotlight and it’ll be very interesting to see what happens next. Investor Brett Bivens, for example, suggests that “Kahoot will be one of Europe's next €10b "Supercompanies"", whilst the FT argue that their “business model could come under pressure from copycat apps by other startups or the tech giants.” (Link - $$)
In wider European EdTech news, the drive to build global scale in education businesses continues with Sanoma Learning announcing their intention to acquire Spanish company, Santillana (at almost 10x EBITDA) (Link). European (and Nordic) EdTech should also be encouraged by the news that Brighteye Ventures have announced a $54 million first close of a new fund as well as extensive plans for expansion (Link).
Benoit Wirz, Brighteye’s CEO, is also one of an exciting panel of investors signed up to participate at XcitED 2020. For full details of an amazing programme at Nordic EdTech’s leading event and to sign up to attend, click here. This year’s XcitED also features the GESAwards Nordic and Baltic semi-final. Congratulations to the 8 companies who’ll be pitching for a place in the global final - Dugga, Gleechi, LearnCove, Lexplore, School Day, Seppo, SignLab and Teachers Lead Tech (Link).
Furthermore, 7 Nordic EdTech companies have been identified as recipients of funding and support through the European IMPACT EdTech programme (Link). Thirteen Nordic companies have also been shortlisted for the Reimagine Education Awards - see the full list here.
Congratulations to all of the businesses recognised and good luck!
As outlined below, Asia is a key international market for many Nordic EdTechs, so a proposed Nordic EdTech delegation to South Korea in January is well timed. This is a collaborative event organised by Business Sweden and by the Embassy of Denmark and Business Finland in Korea. Find out more and get involved here.
Closer to home, don’t miss an interesting FIN-EST Education Trends Webinar (this Wednesday 28th October) and do check out the Play & Learn session organised for EdTech startups with the Creative Business Network in Copenhagen on 10th November. (Link)
And finally, Andreessen Horowitz’s ‘Edtech’s Answer to Remote Learning Burnout’ outlines a future for education technology which is “consumer- and product-led: interactive, engaging, and propelled by a global pool of instructors and peers.” Or as Sana Labs outlined at their inspiring recent event ‘Goodbye One-size-fits-all.’ (Link)
Lots to digest and think about over the next two weeks!
Best regards, Jonathan
News from Denmark
Alinea announce plans to continue SOFASKOLEN programme in the run-up to Christmas. (Danish)
Great to see Sahra-Josephine Hjorth, CEO of CanopyLAB, on the cover of this month’s DI Business. (Link - in Danish)
FrontRead host new digital conference - Desire for Learning 2020 - 19th Nov. Sign up here.
Powerful call from The LEGO Foundation CEO to upskill young people and foster their love of lifelong learning. (Link)
News from Estonia
99math continue to expand usage in the US (Link), with over 50 million maths problems solved on the platform. (Link)
BeED now offering free journey accounts for teachers. (Link)
Language learning is a real strength in Estonian EdTech. Good to see Drops hit 25 million users and heading towards $10 million revenue (Link) and do also read this interesting profile of Mait Müntel, CEO of Lingvist. (Link)
The Estonian government announce that a range of digital resources for secondary education will be made available for free to schools. (Estonian)
Worth watching the recording of the recent ‘EdTech e-Pitch’ - 7 great pitches! (Link)
Garage48, Startup Wise Guys and the U.S. Embassies in Tallinn, Copenhagen, Vilnius and Riga are running a online global hackathon from 3 to 6 December. Called ‘48 for the Future’, the future of education will be a key focus. (Link)
News from Finland
Arkki starts work with the Turkish Design Council to provide creative education across the country. (Link)
Finland International Education (FINE) has signed an agreement to supply early childhood education training services in India. (Link)
Looking forward to seeing the progress of the newly-launched Helsinki Education Hub. (Link)
HEI Schools announce new opening in South Korea. (Link)
Kide Science gets underway in India via an agreement with SSVM Institutions. (Link)
New ‘Building AI’ course launched by the University of Helsinki and Reaktor as a sequel to the internationally-acclaimed ‘Elements of AI’. (Link)
News from Iceland
The first version of Atlas Primer is now generally available following a recent soft launch.
News from Latvia
Latvian Government announce the acquisition of 6,000 new laptops for schools. (Latvian)
‘Your Class’ initiative recognised by UNESCO as an example of best practice in responding to Covid-19. (Link)
News from Lithuania
The Teachers Lead Tech pilot starts soon in South Korea. (Korean)
Organisers confirm that the ‘School 2020’ exhibition will be fully virtual. Full details here.
All of the recordings from the recent Learning Fever event are now available online - the full list is here.
News from Norway
Interesting interview with Anja Sisarica from Inspera Assessment via EdTick. (Link)
itslearning launches its first virtual global community gathering - Raising Educational Quality - on 10 November. Find out more here.
Find out how Lær Kidsa Koding’s Superbit programme is helping schools across Norway. (Video in Norwegian)
Kahoot! and Zoom announce integration to “bring engagement to distance learning and video conferencing.” (Link)
Kodetimen takes place in Week 50 with over 700 schools and over 50,000 students signed up already!
Medietilsynet launch a new teaching programme focusing on critical media understanding and deepfakes. (Norwegian)
News from Sweden
Interesting update on AcadeMedia’s EdTech investments. (Swedish)
Norrköping municipality purchase the Cicero library management system for all primary and lower secondary schools. (Swe)
Brilliant feature on Haldor and their CEO, Sara Zetterburg, in Dagens Industri. (Swe)
Studi recruit Joke Palmkvist from Microsoft as their new Nordic regional lead. (Swe)
Useful insights from Skola Hemma on effective online distance learning. (Swe)
Skolon extends agreement with Ystad municipality (Swe) and launches new partnership with iMAL. (Swe)
Don’t miss the recording of Swedish Edtest’s excellent recent webinar on measuring the impact and quality of EdTech. (Link)
Thanks for reading and see you again on 9th November!
Many thanks, Jonathan
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