Nordic EdTech News #37 : 2021-02-22
Your Week 6 and 7 update from the Nordic & Baltic EdTech ecosystems
Little did I know what would happen next when I wrote in the last Nordic EdTech News that Danish EdTech businesses were on the charge. Only two days later and Labster hit the headlines with a $60 million Series C round led by Andreessen Horowitz (investment rationale here), with participation from existing investors including Balderton Capital, GGV Capital and Owl Ventures.
In an interview with TechCrunch, CEO and co-founder Michael Bodekaer Jensen noted that the new raise would enable the business to close in on two big goals: to serve 100 million students in the next few years, and to become a platform that enables “anyone in the world to customise and build their own simulations on their platform.”
Bodekaer Jensen is clear that this is the company’s future direction stating: “We’re not a content company. We’re a platform for immersive learning.” The focus is further reinforced with plans (announced with the raise) to build Labster Portal, which will help teachers “understand how individual students are using the immersive simulations and what lessons make sense to embed together.” It’s amazing news for the company and whole ecosystem, so huge congratulations to everyone at Labster!
Whilst on the subject of Danish EdTech, I’m delighted that Esben Trier, the newly-appointed CEO of Edtech Denmark will be the subject of my next Nordic EdTech News interview. It’s scheduled to be published on Monday 1st March and will be sent to all subscribers of this newsletter. Please do reply to this email if you’ve got a question you’d like me to put to him.
ICYMI - please do check out my conversation with Gráinne Rietveld, Interim Head of Google for Education, EMEA. The interview coincided with Google’s recent announcement of 50+ updates for their education tools (Link) and as data regulators continue to voice their concerns in Denmark and Norway. (Link - in Danish)
Finally, Nordic EdTech News is delighted to be a partner for the next Creative Business Network event: ‘Digital marketplaces for Play & Learn – The Nordics.’ The event takes place this Thursday (25th February 2021) and features a keynote from Peter Fagerström, co-founder and CEO of Teach Millions, as well as panel and investor sessions. I hope to see you there - further details here.
As always, do let me know if you’ve got any feedback or a story to include in a future issue of this newsletter by emailing hello@10digits.org. Sharing this email with your network is also much appreciated!
Best regards, Jonathan
News from Denmark
New research shows how Danish students, teachers and leaders handled the first lockdown twelve months ago. (Den)
Strong growth reported by Actee, who now have 40,000 users across 22 countries. (Den)
CanopyLab prepares for a major recruitment drive (Den) and further rounds of investment. (Den)
Transformation is on the agenda as Gyldendal report that digital sales now account for more than 40% of their Danish business. (Danish)
KMD announce that their learning platform MinUddannelse had more than 7 million logins in January 2021 alone. (Den, Eng)
Læringsfestival will be virtual this year (1-4 March 2021). Details here.
Liz Sproat, formerly of Google, has joined LEGO Education as their Global Head of Learning and Outcomes. (Link)
Shape Robotics announce year-end interim report for 2020. (Link)
Skolebordet changes its name to Nordic Cloud Technologies. (Den)
News from Estonia
Congratulations to Annely Tank, who’s been named as the first CEO of EdTech Estonia (Link) as the organisation gears up for growth. (Link)
Birgit Lao has been appointed as Estonia’s first diplomatic representative for education. (Link)
Don’t miss this brilliant review of 2020 in Estonian EdTech as written by Inga Kõue, EdTech Sector Project Lead at Startup Estonia. (Link)
How partnerships between private EdTech businesses and the Estonian government are transforming education. (Link)
News from Finland
Great interview with Jouni Kangasniemi, programme director of Education Finland, highlighting the strength of Finnish education and EdTech. (Link)
Support has been developed to build students' digital competence and skills in Finnish schools. (Fin)
Finnish kindergarten children are the nation’s secret weapon in the fight against fake news. (Link)
Funzi launch funzi.mobi, a new mobile learning proposition. (Link)
Kide Science star on the cover of This is Finland magazine (Link) and announce that their resources will now be available to all kindergartens in Helsinki. (Fin)
Find out about MoovKids and how their online programme helps children worldwide. (Link)
New Nordic School announce expansion into Serbia. (Link)
Opinsys have signed a deal worth +€7mill to supply 4,000 refurbished laptops and maintenance services to +100 primary and secondary schools in Germany. (Fin)
Qridi conclude a significant deal to work with the British International School of Abu Dhabi. (Fin)
TinyApp launch new online solution for global daycare centres. (Link)
Valamis has partnered with Sverok, a Swedish national federation for gaming clubs, to create an innovative learning solution for 55,000 young gamers. (Link)
News from Iceland
Northstack publish their annual and definitive 2020 Iceland Funding Report. (Link)
News from Latvia
iZvaigzne launch new online physics resources for Yr10 students. (Latvian)
Uzdevumi announce new content development schedule for February 2021. (Lat)
News from Lithuania
How to pay for your online BitDegree course using your BitDegree token. (Link)
Mobile apps are helping Lithuanians to learn additional languages. (Lith)
News from Norway
The rise of programming in Norwegian schools. (Nor)
Inspera are working with the University of Oxford to provide a new platform for online open-book exams and coursework (Link) and have opened a new UK office. (Link)
itslearning announce an agreement to supply Berlin’s 400,000 students and teachers with their LMS. (Link)
Building on a year of “record-high growth” (Link), Kahoot reveal new integrations that will “connect and engage students directly from Google Classroom and Google Search.” (Link)
The Norwegian government’s digitisation committee recently reviewed progress in schools (Link) and have announced a review of the national book market, making reference to digitisation and healthy competition. (Nor)
News from Sweden
Astrid Education team up with the Center For Innovation in Japan (Link) and launch in Vietnam. (Link)
Collegial raise SEK 19.2m in a round led by Blq to further develop their corporate learning platform. (Swe, Eng)
New report from Läromedelsförfattarna suggests that 1 in 3 Swedish teachers cannot buy the materials that they need for teaching. (Swe)
New research has been published on teaching resources for Maths (Swe) and on how digital / printed books support reading. (Link)
Schools face extra costs (Link) as teachers criticise Stockholm’s school platform. (Link)
StudyBee launch new StudyBee Insights product in collaboration with AcadeMedia. (Swe)
Student teachers testing EdTech products via Swedish Edtest are more creative and open to using digital technologies. (Swe)
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