Nordic EdTech News #39 : 2021-03-22
Your Week 10 and 11 update from the Nordic & Baltic EdTech ecosystems
As more students globally begin (in some countries) to return to the classroom, attention is switching to the sustainability of the Covid-led, EdTech revolution. As Jennifer Carolan, Co-founder of Reach Capital, tweeted in response to this article in the New York Times: “Edtech companies grounded in learning science, are human-centric, enable personalization, are engaging & look to a future where edu is more student-driven, are winning.” There’s clear evidence from the biggest stories of the last two weeks that Nordic and Baltic EdTech is well placed to succeed on this basis.
Firstly, Finland’s Learning Intelligence Group (home of Claned and GraphoGame) announced that they had signed a MOU with the African Union to “strengthen education systems across Africa and facilitate knowledge exchange and cross-national learning” (Link).
We’ve also seen three significant Nordic EdTech funding rounds in the last fortnight with Swedish EdTechs taking the lead. Albert have raised SEK 66 million (Link) and Strawbees raised SEK 3.7 million from Almi Invest (Link in Swedish). Last week also saw the Icelandic EdTech, Mussila, announce a financing round via the Funderbeam online investment platform. Icelandic Venture Studio is leading the round, which aims to generate €1.2m from investors (Link, Link).
At the other end of the funding cycle, Kahoot! began trading on the Oslo Stock Exchange (Link) as it plans, according to the FT, its Asian expansion (Link).
Congratulations to all of these businesses and also to all of the female, Nordic EdTech CEOs and Founders included in HolonIQ’s list of the global Top 200 (Link).
On female founders, I hope that you saw my recent interview with Paula Dozsa, Co-founder and lead developer, imagiLabs. If you missed it - the link is here. The next interview will be published on Monday 29 March when I’ll be speaking with Danielius Stasiulis, CEO at BitDegree and one of the Co-founders of EdTech Lithuania.
Two regional successes to mention. Great to see the DigiYouth programme bringing together Estonian, Finnish, Latvian and Swedish students to foster student startups (Link). Also hugely encouraging to see Finland, Denmark, Estonia and Sweden in the top 4 spots of the Media Literacy Index 2021 (Link).
Finally, don’t miss the latest report from Brighteye Ventures looking at how education systems responded to the pandemic and where they’re heading next (Link). And if you’re an EdTech startup, do consider applying for the GSV Cup, a global pitch competition with $1 million in cash and credits to be won. You’ve got until 31st March 2021 to apply - full details here.
No Nordic EdTech News on Easter Monday - the next issue will be out on 12th April 2021.
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
Interesting CanopyLAB webinar this week on ‘Remote Training Trends and the Future of the Workplace.’ Full details here.
Citrix Denmark argue the case for teachers’ digital upskilling. (Danish)
EcomTrainer launches - it’s an online learning platform for business schools that allows students to gain hands-on experience of online marketing tools. (Dan)
LEGO Education create the LEGO Education Professional Development programme for teacher training. (Link)
Cecilia Qvist, former Global Head of Markets at Spotify, has been appointed as the new Head of LEGO Ventures. (Link)
Peaqs are highlighted by the AACSB as part of the post-pandemic opportunity for entrepreneurship in education. (Link)
Rob Widger joins Shape Robotics as Global Education Director. (Link)
News from Estonia
Estonian experts contribute to new European Commission report “What did we learn from schooling practices during the COVID-19 lockdown?” (Link)
The Estonian government allocate €6 million for summer camps to address Covid learning gaps. (Link)
The Digivõtme training programme will improve teachers’ digital skillsets. (Est)
EdTech Estonia on how EdTech companies have helped students with specialist support during the pandemic. (Est)
News from Finland
Seven finalists have been shortlisted for Finland’s best learning solution. (Finnish)
Important perspective from Education Alliance Finland on how EdTech can improve teacher wellbeing. (Link)
Finland’s Elements of AI course launches in Denmark. (Link)
HEI Schools launch in the USA. (Link)
Kide Science partners with Väike Päike, Estonian kindergarten providers (Link), season 3 of their TV show starts (Link) and their CEO, Sari Hurme-Mehtälä, is profiled. (Link)
Mightifier partners with Nordic International School of Lima. (Link)
Schools in the City of Vantaa will start using School Day from Spring 2021. (Link)
TinyApp sign commercial agreement with ANDEP Colombia to deploy their solution in over 1,000 kindergartens. (Link)
News from Iceland
Fantastic use of EdTech highlighted by Ingvi Hrannar in third grade lessons. (Ice)
Thorbjörg Helga Vigfúsdóttir, CEO of Kara Connect, was included in a list of influential Nordic women in tech (Link) and in a list of global female health tech founders. (Link)
News from Latvia
Five EdTechs are included in Sifted’s list of Latvian startups and scaleups to watch in 2021. (Link)
Anatomy Next launch Anatomy.app, an online education platform for teaching and learning anatomy. (Lat)
Detailed profile of Edurio CEO Ernest Jenavs (Link) as they launch new Learning and Well-being Review for schools. (Link)
Research from Fizmix shows that a third of students surveyed feel that they’re missing out on practical lessons in physics. (Lat)
News from Lithuania
Watch a recording of BitDegree CEO, Danielius Stasiulis, on Facebook Live talking about EdTech, Blockchain and online learning. (Link)
Great work from EdTech Lithuania as they map national EdTechs against HolonIQ’s EdTech taxonomy. (Link)
News from Norway
What needs to change in Norwegian schools long-term following the impact of the Covid pandemic? (Nor)
Kahoot! and Angry Birds team up to tackle climate change! (Link)
Learn how SignLab brings sign language to deaf children and their families. (Link)
News from Sweden
New report highlights children and young people's attitudes to school, school subjects and learning in Sweden. (Link)
Interesting video focusing on Astrid Education’s startup journey, growth and future plans. (Swe)
ICYMI - How Hypocampus are helping doctors prepare for their professional examinations. (Swe)
Matteappen digitise diagnostic tests from Sweden’s National Centre for Mathematics Education. (Link)
Sana Labs are on a fast growth trajectory - now up to 70 staff and over 200,000 users. (Swe)
It’s the Soundtrap EDU Summit this week. Full details here.
Skolon launch new browser extension, opening access to digital learning and teaching resources. (Link)
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