Nordic EdTech News #52 : 2021-10-18
Your Weeks 40 and 41 update from the Nordic & Baltic EdTech ecosystem
With European EdTech raising money at a record rate (Link), this newsletter is usually full of private sector investment news. But over the last fortnight, it has been national governments taking the lead in stimulating Nordic EdTech. Most significantly, the Norwegian government confirmed on 7th October that NOK 180 million (approx €18.4 million) would be made available for “…the purchase of new teaching materials”, following the introduction of new curricula at the end of last year. Of this total amount, NOK 15 million will be allocated to develop teaching materials in Sami and the same sum will be spent on “…the development of teaching aids in narrow subjects where there is no commercial precondition for development.” (Link in Norwegian)
In the same announcement, the Norwegian government also confirmed that a further NOK 80 million will be provided to support schools grappling with the transition to online education. This sum will also be used to address new outbreaks of the virus or to resolve inequalities in provision. The Estonian government has made a similar move allocating an additional €12 million in the national 2022 budget to address any gaps caused by the shift to remote learning. (Link)
In a quiet fortnight for Nordic EdTech investment news, the biggest story comes from Finland where Freeed, an online teacher community platform, raised €900,000 in pre-seed funding from Sparkmind.vc and the CEO of Supercell, Ilkka Paananen (Link). Congratulations to all involved.
As well as highlighting Nordic EdTech’s global expansion (see below), it’s also important to note when major global players move into our ecosystem. The announcement that GoStudent has now launched in Sweden to create their 22nd global market is significant news - we’ll be watching their development here with interest.
One of the key factors behind Go Student’s rapid international expansion has certainly been their exceptional product-market fit. If you’re an early-stage founder, then I'd strongly recommend the new Emerge Product-Market Fit Academy - a series of interactive live sessions with the world's top EdTech and future of work founders. You can sign up for the next seminar (Wed 10th November) with Joel Hellermark, founder and CEO of Sana Labs, here.
Joel’s co-Founder at Sana, Anna Nordell-Westling, is featured in this excellent round-up of female founders to watch in European EdTech. Of the 14 founders featured, it’s great to see that 6 are from the Nordics - congrats to Anna and to Sahra-Josephine Hjorth, Founder of CanopyLAB; Marie Jacobsen Lauvas, CEO and Co-founder of Capeesh; Kadri Tuisk, Founder and CEO of Clanbeat; Sari Hurme-Mehtälä, CEO & Co-founder of Kide Science and Monika Katkute, Founder of Teachers Lead Tech.
These leading lights of Nordic EdTech will also be hoping to be named in HolonIQ’s 2021 Nordic-Baltic EdTech 50. The webinar announcing the Top 50 takes place on Tuesday 26th October - book your place now!
And if you’d like to learn more about Baltic EdTech, don’t miss the next stop of Brighteye Ventures’ European EdTech Virtual Tour. They’ll be visiting the region (virtually!) on 20 October with a great session featuring 99math, Memby, Change Ventures and Sparkmind. Sign up 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!
Best regards, Jonathan
News from Denmark
Positive reaction to trials of technology lessons in schools - teachers believe it has improved students’ skills and understanding. (Link)
12,000 students will take part in this year’s Cyber Mission, gaining knowledge of IT security challenges. (Link)
Airtame secures funding from Vӕkstfonden, the Danish state’s investment fund, and prepares to expand on “the great commercial opportunity” post- Covid. (Link)
Labster acquires UbiSim, the world’s first VR nursing training platform (Link) and announces new content and product updates to extend their K-12 provision. (Link)
Shape Robotics’ new share issue is significantly oversubscribed. (Link)
Nine out of ten Danish schools now participate in the ultra:bit programme, which gives students the opportunity to try programming and digital content creation.
News from Estonia
If you’re interested in a brief background to education in Estonia and its Pisa success, then do watch this.
A useful insight into how Estonian kindergartens are more structured than the rest of the Nordics and have more time for play than France or the UK. (Link)
News from Finland
Code School Finland signs a cooperation contract in Thailand with SEAC, the leading national lifelong learning centre. (Link)
Check out Education Alliance Finland’s insights on founding EdTech teams (Link) and watch CEO, Olli Vallo, talk to NetSupport Radio (Link) and Showbie (Link).
EDUXR event takes place on the 27th and 28th October looking at “the expanding realities of learning.” (Link)
Funzi partners with Indosat Ooredoo to accelerate the digitalisation of education in Indonesia and to bridge gaps in the quality of learning. (Link)
Kide Science opens in Brazil with Red Balloon, part of Cogna Educação. (Link)
Mightifier launches a new social-emotional skills programme to tackle climate anxiety. (Link)
Moomin Language School resources are now in use in Vietnamese kindergartens. (Link)
Visma acquires Dikaios Oy, which will become part of the Wilma learning management system. (Link)
News from Iceland
Encouraging to see the use of digital teaching techniques so well represented in the nominations for the Icelandic Education Prize 2021. (Link)
News from Latvia
Detailed profile about Solfeg.io and their international scaling to over 15,000 schools. Top two markets are the US and Sweden. (Link)
Teachers are invited to help develop digital teaching resources as part of the Skola2030 programme. (Link)
UpMatched plans to scale their upskilling and reskilling solution across the Baltics and beyond. (Link)
News from Lithuania
Overview published showing which teaching aids and textbooks schools purchased during 2020. Lithuanian and maths head the list. (Link)
Teachers Lead Tech seek financial backing from Lithuanian businesses to support their impact / model. (Link)
News from Norway
Strong argument made here for students to have access to both digital and print learning resources (Link) as one teacher raises concerns about Tromsø’s digital-only approach. (Link)
Kahoot! confirms continued strong growth in Q3 trading with $27.5 million invoiced revenue in the quarter (Link) and details new agreement with DK for Kahoot! Academy. (Link)
Keystone Education Group acquires UK-based UniQuest. (Link)
Registrations open for Kodetimen campaign - runs between 13 and 17 December. Provides tailored programming lessons for students. (Link)
News from Sweden
Looking forward to the publication of "Is EdTech Sweden's next big export industry?" from Entreprenörskapsforum and associated webinar on 27th October. (Link)
Beetroot Academy continues to see strong growth from its office in the Ukraine. (Link)
ILT Education launch their 2022 Global Conference: “Bring the Magic of Storytime to Every child!” I’m delighted to be involved. (Link)
Brilliant to see Lexplore writing in EdSurge about how their experience in Sweden and the UK can help schools in the US tackle dyslexia. (Link)
The researchED conference will take place in Haninge on 4th December 2021. Details here.
Sana partners with AI Sweden to deliver a course on information-driven healthcare that will educate 150,000 professionals on AI and data. (Link)
Jönköping municipality extends its relationship with Skolon. (Link)
TRUE’s smart contracts provide Ethereum-secured means to verify learning and are already being used by Swedish education customers. (Link)
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