Nordic EdTech News #46 : 2021-07-05
Your Week 25 and 26 update from the Nordic & Baltic EdTech ecosystem
Hello, good morning and welcome to the last Nordic EdTech News before the summer break. I hope that you have a relaxing and enjoyable time away from work to rest and recharge the batteries. We’ll back in your inbox on Monday 9th August with a round up of everything that’s happened. In the meantime, there’s still plenty happening across our ecosystem, so let’s get to it!
Given the pedagogical excellence of Nordic EdTech, it’s tempting to solely focus on how technology enhances learning experiences. But that would be to ignore the Nordic businesses that lead the world across other parts of the education landscape. One area where Nordic businesses excel is student recruitment and significantly, two of them (Norway’s Keystone Academic Solutions and Sweden’s Educations Media Group) have recently announced plans to merge (Link, Link). The newly merged company, Keystone Education Group or KEG, will be a dominant global player in the international student recruitment market, with annual online unique student user traffic exceeding 110 million. Their goal is clear: “to become the most trusted and scaled resource for students, and the global leader in enrolment generation within education.” With offices in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, this is a great Nordic EdTech success story!
Congratulations also to the team at Sparkmind, the Helsinki-based EdTech VC firm, who have announced the final closing of their fund at €55 million (Link). Sparkmind is the first Nordic venture capital company exclusively focused on the learning sector and has already invested in a number of leading Nordic EdTech businesses. They plan to invest in another “20-25 companies” and we look forward to seeing where these future investments will be targeted.
This news comes hot on the heels of Brighteye Ventures’ ‘EdTech Funding Report 2021- Half year review’, which highlights an exceptional six months for our ecosystem. The report identifies that European EdTech, as a whole, has in 2021 already received over $1B in VC investment in a calendar year for the first time. With a total of $201 million, the Nordics is #3 in Europe in terms of total investment with 23 individual deals at an average of $9.1mill. There’s interesting further commentary on the “EdTech avalanche” from Brighteye here and the global half-year context from HolonIQ here.
Away from funding news, Clio have confirmed that Pernille Wendel Mehl will be their new CEO, starting in the Autumn (Danish). She joins from Danske Spil and is identified as “perhaps one of the strongest digital leaders in Denmark.” Those skills will be invaluable as she helps “prepare future generations for a more digital future.”
If you’re looking for an interesting read whilst relaxing, then do check out the World Bank’s new report, Learning Recovery after COVID-19 in Europe and Central Asia: Policy and Practice. It contains some great insights about how national education systems could / should adapt using the key lessons learned during the crisis.
Of course, if you missed last week’s Nordic EdTech News Interview with Steve Tucker, CEO of itslearning, you can read it in full 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 always much appreciated!
Have a great summer. See you again in August.
Best regards, Jonathan
News from Denmark
Actee confirm investment from well-known investor Anders Bjornsbo with the ambition of reaching DKK 50 million turnover in a few years.(Danish)
EdTech Denmark launch a new initiative with CanopyLAB, DigitalHub Denmark and Labster to connect visiting EdTech delegations with the right people, startups, research and companies. (Link)
LEGO Foundation research shows that “learning through play using creative digital platforms has real educational power for educators and children.” (Link)
The three-year trial teaching digital and technology skills has finished, but 29 of the 46 pilot schools are set to continue next year. (Link)
New VR project developed by students in Gladsaxe to combat bullying. (Link)
News from Estonia
Edumus win silver at the Estonian marketing and communications awards for their "Every Student Online" campaign! Congrats! (Link)
IT students are now able to do their military service in Estonia’s Cyber Command. (Link)
News from Finland
Interesting Helsinki-based research highlights some of the challenges with online learning during the pandemic. (Link)
Important post from Education Alliance Finland on how to measure EdTech impact (Link) as they announce new partnership with Pålogga and GDPR in Schools that includes GDPR risk checks in EdTech evaluations.
It’s been a record year for investment in Finnish startups. Edtech Finland provides a useful Edtech overview highlighting the most significant funding rounds. (Link)
Great update on the global reach of Finnish EdTech by Good News from Finland. (Link)
Funzi launch free “Get that job” course to help learners do exactly that! (Link)
Ilona IT creates a new tool to increase collaboration and digital confidence for preschool educators. (Link)
Kide Science launch in Morocco with Arrayssoun School. (Link)
New Nordic School team up with Manor Multi Academy Trust to take Finnish education into the UK. (Link)
Lots to enjoy here as Mika Kasanen, CEO School Day, shares his EdTechX Story! (Link)
News from Iceland
Always looking to include more EdTech news from Iceland - please email hello@10digits.org with any stories or tips!
If you missed my recent interview with Jon Gunnar Thordarson, CEO at Mussila, you can read it in full here.
News from Latvia
Edurio launch their new report on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion among school staff in England. Over 16,000 participated across 380 schools. (Link)
Deal announced to develop Khan Academy Maths resources in Latvian. (Lat)
1,700 videos have been developed by industry experts / teachers and posted on the Tavaklase.lv website. (Lat)
News from Lithuania
Poklet, an app that educates children about money management, is named as Startup of the week by Startup Lithuania. (Link)
News from Norway
Egmont will be the sole owner of Norway's largest publishing house, Cappelen Damm. They’re buying Bonnier Books’ share of the business. (Swe)
Hypatia Learning, working with Østfold University College, Høgskolen i Volda and Halden municipality, received funding from the Norwegian Research Council for a project “Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Assessment for Learning (AfL) to Improve Learning and Teaching in 21st Century.” (Link)
Catch up with highlights of Kahoot’s EDU Summit 2021 (Link) as they launch new language learning resources with Cambridge Assessment English. (Link)
New Rector at NMBU plans a digital day every week for all employees. (Nor)
Wittario, an outdoor games-based learning app, has raised an undisclosed amount from investors to fund their plan to become a world-leader. (Link)
News from Sweden
Could virtual, simulation-based training be effective for new teachers? Swedish research suggests it might be. (Swe)
Dugga name Peter Wilcke as their new CEO for “global expansion.” (Link)
Humly acquire Simply Supply Ltd - it’s their second acquisition of a UK-based supply teaching agency in recent months. (Link)
Hypocampus will roll out the Cortexio study platform to NTI Gymnasiet’s 28 schools across Sweden. (Swe)
Impactful research from Läromedelsförfattarna - Nine out of ten students state that teaching resources help them learn things in school, and eight out of ten use such resources when they do not understand what the teacher means. (Link)
Learnster joins AccessUK 2021, an accelerator programme for Swedish scaleups aspiring to establish themselves in the UK. (Link)
Skolinspektionen research shows that girls were less positive about online, distance learning during the pandemic. (Swe)
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