Nordic EdTech News #51 : 2021-10-04
Your Weeks 38 and 39 update from the Nordic & Baltic EdTech ecosystem
Good morning. Welcome to Nordic EdTech News and I hope that you have a great week. Today’s newsletter has it all - acquisitions, investments, new commercial partnerships and even a hot tub!
In addition to Nordic EdTech’s traditional strengths in pedagogy and curriculum-based resources, digital assessment is undoubtedly an area in which our businesses have a global edge on their competition. So it’s great to see Inspera confirm last week that they have received a “significant growth capital investment” from CGE Partners, a UK-based private equity fund. (Link)
Comments from Bjørn Rustberggaard, Inspera’s CEO and Founder, clearly demonstrate their plans and their future ambitions.
“What excites me most about partnering with CGE Partners is the ability to accelerate our mission to re-invent educational assessment for the 21st century and further democratise education at a global scale, making sure that no students are left behind.”
These themes are also at heart of the news that Swedish EdTech Lexplore has acquired Bergen-based, Lesemester (Link, Link). The deal, worth 35M SEK, brings together two complementary services to offer a digital reading solution to school students. It’s the latest in a series of recent consolidations preparing Nordic EdTech businesses for global expansion.
The past fortnight has also seen two significant deals for Nordic EdTech businesses, whose technologies are enhancing and expanding the output from traditional publishers. Ludenso from Norway announced a deal with Aschehoug Publishing to supplement the textbooks of 50,000 Norwegian students with digital visualisations generated by augmented reality (Link). Last week, Finland’s Seppo also confirmed a deal that will see their gamification technology placed at the heart of Pearson’s new Primary English course, Rise and Shine (Link).
Nordic EdTech’s reputation for innovation is also evident in the news that 5 of the 17 startups entering the IMPACT EdTech programme come from our ecosystem (Link). Congratulations to Hero (Denmark), InterVeu (Estonia), Memorix (Denmark), Poikilingo (Denmark) and Taut (Estonia).
If you’re looking to join an incubator programme, note that the EdTech Incubator Helsinki is now open. It’s a free 20-week incubator programme running from November 2021 to March 2022. Applications close on 22nd October.
Applications for HolonIQ’s 2021 Nordic-Baltic EdTech 50 are open for the rest of this week but will close on 8th October. Applications are welcomed from EdTech companies, their customers and investors and can be made here. The webinar announcing the Top 50 takes place on Tuesday 26th October - book your place now!
If you read this newsletter for Nordic EdTech analysis and insight, you may be interested to know that I offer consultancy services. Want to find out more? Let’s talk.
Best regards, Jonathan
News from Denmark
Following on from NEN #50, the impact of the Helsingør Municipality GDPR ruling continues to be felt as the argument for a national solution to protecting student data is proposed. (Link)
CanopyLAB releases their first-ever AI-powered course-builder. (Link)
Clio supports the digital communication curriculum with new teaching resources. (Link)
The theme for this year's Læremiddel.dk conference is “New teacher education, new teaching aids, new teacher.” (machine translation)
LEGO Group confirms exceptional H1 numbers - sales up +43% and net profit +140%! (Link)
News from Estonia
Join this year’s EdTech Hack, run by Startup Estonia and EdTech Estonia. Full details here!
An Estonian education delegation has been spreading the word in the UAE before Expo 2020 Dubai. (Link)
Happy to report that the 99math hot tub has now been installed! (Link)
How Clanbeat and TriumfHealth bolster students’ mental health and wellbeing. (Link)
The head of the kood/Jõhvi coding school details how its adaptive and personalised education is helping to change Estonia. (Link)
News from Finland
57% of Finnish teachers are considering leaving the profession due to the burden of work, increased workload and wage levels. (Link)
3DBear launches in India (Link) and celebrates with an AR / VR Carnival. (Link)
Education Alliance Finland starts work with partners on an Erasmus+ project, highlighting EdTech tools that support GDPR in schools. (Link)
HEI Schools announce new launches in Gaborone, Botswana, (Link) and in Lusaka, Zambia, in 2022. (Link)
Kide Science has been selected as a Top 10 Finalist in the EdTech stream for the Super Connect for Good 2021 Competition. (Link)
LessonApp launches new partnership with Education and Training for Quality Assurance Network (ETQAN) International in Pakistan. (Link)
New Nordic School partners with Britannica Digital Learning to provide resources for their new Nordic Learning Platform. (Link)
Chris Thür, Co-founder and CEO, of Yousician details how they have grown into a $50 million EdTech business. (Link)
News from Iceland
Lilja Alfreðsdóttir, the Icelandic Minister of Education, has sought help from Apple to preserve the Icelandic language by adding it to their operating systems. (Link)
Great profile on Hinrik Jósafat Atlason, CEO of Atlas Primer, a learning environment based on audio learning material and conversational AI. (Link)
Kara Connect signs a deal with Wrkit, an employee wellbeing platform to give their 200 clients online access to wellbeing professionals. (Link)
News from Latvia
New Latvian ebook library already has nearly 500 titles to read. (Link)
Uzdevumi completes a European Social Fund project to develop an extensive new range of digital teaching resources. (Link)
News from Lithuania
Aeroclass, an online startup in the aviation training space, confirms a $1.2 million seed funding round. (Link)
Watch the recording of last week’s "Lithuania goes AI: Education" event here - great panel of speakers and it’s all in English.
Ministry of Education encourages nurseries and schools to test EdTech resources. (Link)
Vilnius University (VU) Business School confirms plans to run an EdTech Hackathon 2021 in November. (Link) Register here.
News from Norway
Students need a funding commitment to provide access to quality digital teaching resources. (Link)
Covid restrictions have ended yet digital learning continues at many Norwegian universities. (Link)
New facilities open to encourage interest in coding and programming across Norway. (Link)
Don’t miss Girl Tech Fest 2021 - 3rd November. Details here.
Snapmentor rebrands as Curipod as the business aims for break even later this year with ARR tripling to reach NOK 1.2 million last month. (Link)
itslearning highlights the role of the DPO (Link) and stresses the impact of GDPR on educational institutions. (Link)
Kahoot! and Star Wars join forces to launch a new series of Kahoot! Academy premium collections featuring characters from the films. (Link)
Kikora confirms that it will launch its mathematics resources on the German market via a new partnership with Casio. (Link)
News from Sweden
How can Swedish schools maximise the opportunities offered by hybrid education and balance online / in-person teaching? (Link)
New framework agreements open for printed and digital teaching materials across much of Swedish education. (Link)
Strong initial performance as Albert lists on First North exchange. (Swe)
Astrid continues to expand with new staff from King and Kry. (Link)
Dugga is now part of Startup Sweden’s programme to support growth-stage female founders expanding into MENA. (Link)
Uppsala Municipality’s 18,000 primary school students will soon start using Lexplore to measure their reading ability. (Link)
Great profile of Sana Labs’ Co-founders Anna Nordell Westling and Joel Hellermark in Svenska Dagbladet. (Link)
Don’t miss Soundtrap’s Autumn EDU Summit later this month. (Link)
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