Nordic EdTech News #65: 2022-05-02
Your Weeks 16 & 17 update from the Nordic and Baltic EdTech ecosystem
Hello, good morning and welcome to today’s Nordic EdTech News. It was great to see some many familiar faces at SETT in Stockholm last week!
The event coincided with the Swedish Edtech Industry releasing their third report on the market (Link). As I said on LinkedIn, it’s a must-read for anyone interested in the largest EdTech market in our ecosystem - the K12 sector alone is now worth SEK 4.092m. Yet the Swedish market is also very mature and 68% of members report increased growth in international markets during 2021. Growth is also evident in spend on K12 digital teaching resources, which climbed from SEK 438 million in 2019 to SEK 504 million in 2020, and in demand for resources to support lifelong learning. Recruitment of quality staff and the lack of a national EdTech strategy remain obstacles to more rapid progress.
The report also highlights the achievements of Swedish Edtest, which has brought together technology and pedagogy expertise to form one of Europe’s leading EdTech testbeds. Last week, it was announced that the project will now be run by iFous, the independent research institute for schools, in partnership with Swedish Edtech Industry. The new partners have clear ambitions to grow and scale the initiative to more schools across Sweden (Link).
Space and time don’t allow me to provide a detailed review of Kahoot’s 2021 annual report (Link), but the business is making significant progress driven by growth in “paid subscriptions for the Group’s products and contribution from acquired companies.” Total revenues and operating income for the year were $91.3 million, up 211% from $29.3 million in FY2020.
Sanoma also recently released a financial update, issuing numbers for Q1 2022 (Link). Net sales for the Learning business were stable at €69 million, up slightly from €68 million last year. Strong net sales growth was reported in the Finnish business (€6.6m vs. €5.7m in 2021) “where the share of digital learning materials is the highest.”
It’s going to be a busy week for Nordic EdTech events. The Nordic Learning Summit 2022, hosted by Learningbank, takes place in Copenhagen on 4th May with a clear focus on corporate learning. And if you’re in Helsinki or Tallinn, then don’t miss meeting Svenia Busson, who’ll be sharing insights on the future of education and the EdTech ecosystem in Europe.
As previously mentioned I’m delighted to be moderating sessions on 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.
The European Edtech Alliance will soon be publishing a Europe-wide map of the European EdTech ecosystem. The map will be an invaluable tool for investors, EdTech buyers, the media, EU policy makers and local / national government. If you want your business to appear on the map, complete this form before 5th May 2022.
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.
Thanks for reading, Jonathan
News from Denmark
The future of new IT subjects in primary and lower secondary school is uncertain. (Link)
Continuing concerns about whether Aula contravenes GDPR legislation (Link) impacts other EdTech players. (Link)
Clio’s purpose, according to CEO Pernille Wendel Mehl, is to help teachers and students to enjoy more engaging and better teaching. (Link)
Kasper Holst Hansen, the EdTech entrepreneur who sold MatematikFessor to Egmont, has raised DKK 4.5 million for Flying Bizkit, his investment company. (Link)
Shape Robotics signed an agreement to distribute KUBO robots in Romania. (Link)
News from Estonia
Why are Estonian entrepreneurs so successful? The answers are here!
Users on 99math solve 3 million maths problems every day. That’s an incredible 100 million problems per month. (Link)
Clanbeat pitched at the recent Unicorn59 event - get the full story here.
News from Finland
Eduten, HEI Schools, Howspace, Kide Science and Seppo are the finalists in a competition to find Finland’s best educational export. (Link)
15 companies have been selected for the EdTech Kasvupolku programme. (Link)
Code School Finland will partner with Knotion to reach 50,000+ Spanish-speaking students in five countries. (Link)
New Nordic Schools launch Kwizie to help teachers instantly create engaging and inspiring quizzes with AI (Link) and confirm a content partnership with Britannica Digital Learning (Link).
Playvation uses play to help Ukrainian children learn Finnish. (Link)
School Day announced a new SEL Resource Library (Link) alongside a SEL Academy with partner Eduscape (Link).
News from Iceland
Beedle has been invited to speak at the forthcoming Nordic Innovation Summit in Seattle later this month. (Link)
Nominations open for the Icelandic Education Prize 2022. (Link)
News from Latvia
Deadline this week for educators in Latvian universities to apply for a four-month digital skills training programme in the USA. (Link)
News from Lithuania
Memby launched their Ukrainian School initiative and nearly 1,000 students have signed up already.
Poklet announced plans to raise €400k to 800k in a crowdfunding round via Funderbeam. (Link)
News from Norway
“YouTubers are better than lecturers.” Read the full story here.
Positive feedback from teachers using the AR app developed by Ludenso and Aschehoug (Link). Further detail on a podcast here (in Norwegian).
IKT Norge on how EdTech companies and publishers are quickly developing digital teaching resources in Ukrainian. (Link)
Scrimba launched a Teacher Talent Programme to help “aspiring coding instructors kick-start their career.” (Link)
News from Sweden
Detailed summary of a recent online seminar looking at “Digital teaching materials: visions and business models.” (Link)
Gimi partners with ABN AMRO to help young people manage and understand their finances. (Link)
Gleerups confirmed an agreement with Kahoot, so that it will now be available through Gleerups’ digital teaching materials. (Link)
imagiLabs plan the launch of a schools proposition and are on the lookout for pilot users. (Link)
Kognity launched a new print feature enabling users to access content offline. (Link)
NE (Nationalencyklopedin) adds resources in four additional high school subjects to provide complete curriculum coverage. (Link)
Swedish Edtech Industry supports its member community through expert talsk and additional resources. (Link)
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