Nordic EdTech News #63: 2022-04-04
Your Weeks 12 & 13 update from the Nordic and Baltic EdTech ecosystem
Hello, good morning and welcome to today’s Nordic EdTech News. It was great to meet so many subscribers and Nordic / Baltic EdTech businesses at BETT the other week. I left feeling confident that there’s still a very strong international appetite for the solutions produced across our region.
That’s also evident from the two biggest investment stories of the last two weeks - a €3million funding round for Finnish EdTech, Funzi (Link) and a NOK 19 million raise for Norwegian EdTech, Videocation (Link).
Funzi’s business focuses on giving users mobile access to the soft skills that are important for building employability and entrepreneurial skills. The investment will be used to accelerate the business’ growth in new markets and to support its aim of bringing “digitalization… to traditional education.” In a busy fortnight, Funzi have also announced a pilot with the Lagos State Ministry of Education in Nigeria (Link) and confirmed a new deal with the Cyril Ramaphosa Education Trust to expand provision in South Africa (Link). Congratulations to everyone at Funzi!
Videocation provides elearning and video content for the corporate learning sector. The investment is specifically targeted on building its business in Spain, where it already has course content and staff in two offices. After the new share issue, the company is valued at nearly NOK 300 million (Link - $$).
It was also great to see Nordic success at the BETT Awards where Mussila won the prize for best digital international educational resource (Link). The Icelandic startup recently launched Mussila WordPlay and is currently raising a seed round to expand their EdTech product range. For further detail, read this interview with CEO, Jón Gunnar Þórðarson.
Important to note a new agreement between the EU and the US on data privacy (Link). This preliminary deal (The Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework) is still to be signed but will clearly impact EdTech businesses and markets. More detail to come but it should make life easier for everyone using cloud services and anyone who has struggled to navigate the landscape since the Schrems II ruling in July 2020.
If you’re an educator and are looking for new digital tools that could make your life in the classroom better / easier, then do check out the Academic Software Demo Day programme. These free webinars are delivered by experts on key apps, learning platforms and software for teaching. Register for free here.
I’m delighted to be moderating sessions on scaling international growth and the use of AR/VR in education at the EdTechX Summit 2022 (23rd June in London). They feature brilliant speakers from GoStudent and Ludenso (more to be confirmed). You can get 40% off your ticket by booking now and using the promo code - ETX22SPEAKER40. This is the link for full event details and to book your place!
And finally, if you read this newsletter for Nordic EdTech analysis and insight, you may be interested to know that I also offer advisory and consultancy services. Want to find out how I could help you or your business? Let’s talk.
All best regards, Jonathan
News from Denmark
Deep dive event into the US market for Danish EdTechs on 2nd May. Sign up here - will be face to face and virtual.
Digital manuals and XR-based teaching materials could soon be must-haves for Danish industry. (Link)
Schools should be able to choose which teaching materials they wish to buy. (Link)
New digital tool for language assessment in primary and lower secondary schools creates controversy with municipalities (Link) and suppliers (Link).
Beta version of Clio’s new learning platform is now available. (Link)
FrontRead and Skolen Online announce new collaboration (Link) as Tanja Schjellerup, Skolen Online’s Founder, wins an Outstanding Leadership Award at the Education 2.0 Conference. (Link)
Annual report from Shape Robotics confirms significant increase in 2021 revenues to nearly DKK 18 million with DKK 60-70 million forecast for 2022 (Link). A new agreement with Altex, Romania's largest IT and electronics retailer, has also been concluded. (Link)
News from Estonia
Great to see Estonian EdTech leading the way at BETT earlier this month. (Link)
Highlighting the importance of cyber security across Estonian education. (Link)
New board game for children, the Money Wisdom Compass, has been created to help improve financial literacy skills. (Link)
DreamApply launches a new all-in-one scholarship and grant application management solution. (Link)
How Taut is supporting Ukrainian educators through their VideoBit platform, which facilitates asynchronous video chats for teachers and students (Link). Taut is also one of 8 startups progressing to the second stage of the IMPACT EdTech programme. (Link)
News from Finland
How an AR game is teaching Helsinki’s pupils about rainforests. (Link)
Great to see how Claned is helping the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens train African women for leadership. (Link)
An Eduten Festival took place in Vietnam last week including an awards ceremony! (Link)
Detailed insight from HEI Schools on what makes Finnish early years education so successful. (Link)
HundrED have started choosing the “100 inspiring innovations that are changing the face of education in a post COVID world.” Submit your entry here by 1 June 2022.
School Day launches a new SEL course with Microsoft Education (Link) and highlights how their solution has supported schools in Vantaa. (Link).
News from Iceland
Registration is now open for Utís Online, one of Iceland’s leading EdTech events. Get involved and sign up now!
News from Latvia
17 Latvian education leaders are participating in a pilot project with MIT to strengthen digitization and innovation. (Link)
News from Lithuania
BitDegree outline their roadmap for the rest of 2022 as they aim to become “the #1 crypto education platform globally.” (Link)
Vinted joined Unicorns Lithuania in supporting Teachers Lead Tech to improve Lithuanian teachers’ digital skills (Link) as CEO Monika Katkutė outlines the importance of their work. (Link)
News from Norway
Open meeting this week to begin developing a new strategy for digital competence and infrastructure in Norwegian schools. (Link)
Research from NIFU highlights how digital teaching tools can engage students, improve accessibility and build pedagogy. (Link)
NOK 50 million will be made available to develop learning resources for Ukrainian refugees in Norway (Link) as well as supporting online teaching from their homeland. (Link)
Insight from GrunnDig shows that programmes like Scratch can help give students a greater understanding of algorithmic thinking. (Link)
Marie Jacobsen Lauvås, CEO and Co-founder at Capeesh, was named Young Innovator Award at Trondheim Tech Port. (Link)
Eduplaytion confirms that their new office in Brazil is now open. (Link)
Per Borgen, Co-founder of Scrimba, features on the Shifter podcast and highlights how they cracked the code for revenue growth. (Link)
News from Sweden
Astrid Education announced their expansion to South Korea. (Link)
Positive response to Atea’s BETT visit from school leaders. (Link)
How a “digital reading buddy can facilitate reading comprehension and arouse the desire to read.” New research featuring ILT Inläsningstjänst and Talkamatic. (Link)
Kognity unveils Kognity for NGSS, a curriculum of interactive materials for high school science teachers that adheres to teaching standards developed by 26 US states. (Link)
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