Nordic EdTech News #60: 2022-02-21
Your Weeks 6 & 7 update from the Nordic and Baltic EdTech ecosystem
Hello, good morning and welcome to today’s Nordic EdTech News!
A huge thank you first of all to everyone who commented, liked and shared the 2021 Nordic EdTech funding report I published in the last newsletter. It’s heartening to hear that so many people found it useful and beneficial. ICYMI - the report (developed in an exclusive collaboration with Brighteye Ventures) and my headline summary of it can be found here.
Of course, two of Nordic EdTech largest players (Kahoot! and Sanoma) are well established on public markets and it’s clear from recent results that both continue to go from strength to strength. Kahoot secured a profit in 2021 (the first time since 2014) and according to E24 “is now moving forward with its plans for an IPO in the USA.” Kahoot’s strong Q4 numbers included invoiced revenue of $39.7m (up 126% yoy) and ARR of $133m (up 122% yoy) as well as reaching more than 1.1 million paid subscriptions across all services (up 64% yoy).
Sanoma Learning also posted very positive numbers in the 2021 annual results (Link). The business reported that net sales for the year grew by 28% to total EUR 637 million (2020: 500). Net sales in Q4 grew to EUR 89 million (2020: 67). Both of these numbers included a strong contribution from the Santillana acquisition.
Hugely encouraging news also for Nasdaq First North-listed, Shape Robotics, who have confirmed a “landmark milestone” deal to deliver and install a minimum of 100 SmartLabs in Romanian schools by the summer of 2022 (Link). The deal has an estimated billing value of DKK 60 million and led the business to raise its revenue forecast for the year from DKK 42-47 million to DKK 60-70 million (Link).
Whilst on Danish EdTech, this Folkeskolen article is well worth reading. It powerfully highlights the GDPR challenges Danish schools are currently wrestling with. Of course, protecting student data must lie at the heart of how education and EdTech respond to the opportunities (and challenges) of the metaverse. This new policy brief from the Brookings Institute A whole new world: Education meets the metaverse has been widely shared but provides a compelling blueprint for the way forward with student agency to the fore.
I’ve written previously about Ludenso’s partnership with Aschehoug to bring their traditional textbooks to life through AR and coupling them with relevant digital resources (Link). Ludenso is now including a handful of international publishers in a closed commercial test starting this Spring. If you'd like to get involved, please email ingrid@ludenso.com or simply join their webinar at Textbook & Academic Authors Association on the 24th February to learn more.
It’s great to see the launch of NextEdu, a new European EdTech accelerator programme, run by xEdu. It brings together Finnish and Italian expertise through a collaboration between xEdu, OGR Torino and the CRT Development and Growth Foundation to support startups from across Europe. Apply here and further details here.
And finally, if you’re interested in national education data and statistics from across our region, then do check out the EU’s Education and Training Monitor 2021. It’s an invaluable summary of European education and training systems, but please note that it doesn’t include either Iceland or Norway.
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
Denmark’s biggest EdTech conference - Digital Læringsdag 2022 (Digital Learning Day) - is confirmed for 2nd June 2022. (Link)
CanopyLAB responds to Ekstra Bladet (Link) and receives support from the influential Bootstrapping.dk. (Link)
Digital Hub Denmark and EduHub are running a pitch event for selected EdTech startups on 10 March. Details here
Restudy confirms that over half of all Danish pupils have actively used the site since launch. (Link)
Swap Language will provide online Danish lessons to Bestseller's international employees. (Link)
Coding initiative 'ultra: bit' reports positive impacts with the majority of students learning how to code through the programme. (Link)
Viducon have signed an agreement with D2L to support their growth in Denmark and Sweden. (Link)
News from Estonia
Märt Aro, Chairman of the Board of EdTech Estonia, argues the case for building a new curriculum around “modern knowledge.” (Link)
Clanbeat was named as World Summit Award Winner 2021 in the category Health & Wellbeing. (Link)
DigiPRO detail their 8 Estonian EdTechs to watch - 99math, Clanbeat, DreamApply, Edumus, Lingvist, Mentornaut, Opiq and Speakly. (Link - paywall)
How games on the Loquiz platform inspired 32k children from over 200 schools to boost their physical activity. (Link)
News from Finland
Finnish researchers create an education programme on cybersecurity for use across the EU. (Link)
Big Ear Games won second place in Chinese Users’ Choice Awards. (Link)
Edufication and Learning Scoop join forces to export Finnish expertise. (Link)
Eduten confirmed 14 new school customers in India (Link) and align the product with the CBSE curriculum. (Link)
Funzi has launched four new courses on growing your business and mindfulness since January. (Link)
Interesting future events from the Helsinki Education Hub on fund raising and student wellbeing. Details here.
New Nordic Schools emphasise the quality of the Finnish Curriculum in an article in the Helsinki Times. (Link)
School Day recently reached 6 million student wellbeing responses. (Link)
News from Iceland
KPMG Iceland have developed resources to help primary school students better understand network and online security issues. (Link)
Utís Online, Iceland’s teacher-led EdTech event will be held on 23-24 September 2022. Details here.
News from Latvia
Education in the future is unthinkable for students and teachers without IT skills.
Coding school, Codelex, sees strong growth in student numbers. (Link)
ROBO HUB on why learning about robotics is an important part of early childhood development. (Link)
News from Lithuania
New digitally-enhanced textbooks available through the Eduka platform. (Link)
Great to see Poklet recruiting young people aged 8-15 to become members of their children's advisory board. (Link)
Teachers Lead Tech confirm their expansion into Poland under the new brand Jasne. (Link)
News from Norway
Jens Aarre Seip, CEO and co-founder of Curipod, features in The EdTech Founders Podcast from EdTech Garage. (Link)
The Kahoot! app is now available in Arabic, making it accessible and available in 14 languages (Link) as it also celebrates the launch of Kahoot! Multiplication by DragonBox (Link).
Motimate founders leave the business less than a year after being acquired by Kahoot. (Link)
NOKUT student survey finds that the pandemic shift to online teaching has had a negative impact on the quality of education. (Link)
How the University of Stavanger ensures that student teachers are fully aware of the possibilities of using technology in their classrooms. (Link)
News from Sweden
Digiexam moves into profit, drives rapid sales expansion in 2021 and increases share of business from markets outside of Sweden. (Link)
IST announce acquisition of JaRocka AB to expand their IST Foto business. (Link)
Matteappen / Magma Math has been named as an approved vendor of the Washington Learning Source programme. (Link)
Quizrr has been selected as a 2022 STITCH for RMG: Global Innovation Challenge winner. (Link)
Storyals and its Dutch partner launch a new AI-driven training app to transform corporate digital upskilling. (Link)
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