Nordic EdTech News #71: 2022-08-22
Your Weeks 32 - 33 update from the Nordic and Baltic EdTech ecosystem
Hello, good morning and welcome to today’s Nordic EdTech News. Pour another coffee and read through everything that’s happened in the last two weeks!
The return to work after the Nordic summer started with a bang as leading Danish education publisher, Lindhardt & Ringhof Uddannelse, announced that its Alinea brand had acquired Clio, the Bonnier-owned digital resources provider (Link). In an exclusive interview with Nordic EdTech News, Rikke Bay, Alinea’s publishing director, confirmed that the acquisition would create the market leader in educational resources for Danish grundskole. She also detailed that discussions about the takeover “started in late spring or early summer. The initiative was not ours. We were invited to get involved in this conversation.”
In the short term, the plan is to “deliver a new unified digital platform that contains the best of both Alinea and Clio during this school year.” Early NPS feedback has shown that Alinea’s customers are “excited, engaged and interested” about the prospect. Rikke is clear that Alinea will also “continue to invest in the long run to build the best content and learning platform for our customers.”
There has been some concern that the acquisition will lead to reduced choice for Danish schools, given the dominance of Alinea and Gyldendal. But Bay refutes the suggestion: “I don't see the same picture as there's such a thriving market for learning material in Denmark. It’s not true to say that there’s just two mastodons crushing everybody else.” She also confirms that there are “no immediate plans to merge products in Sweden.” Clio users in Sweden will continue “to access the same product moving forwards. But there will eventually be a consolidation of platforms in Sweden too.”
In other news and following on from issues raised in NEN #70, Denmark’s Data Protection Authority has maintained its ban on the use of Chromebooks and Google Workspace for Education in Helsingør municipality’s schools (Link). The written decision emphasises that the ban “in no way prohibits the use of IT in schools - but the specific use of certain tools in the municipality is not justifiable against the children's information.” It also confirms that the decision only applies to this municipality and does not “initially” have consequences for the other Danish municipalities using Google products. Do also read EdTech Denmark’s summary of the concerns raised by the decision here.
Prominent Danish EdTech, CanopyLab, and CEO / founder, Sahra-Josephine Hjort, continue to be the subject of significant media interest. Although the business was the only Danish company named on Norrsken’s Impact100 - an annual list of the world’s most promising impact startups - one of its legal entities has been identified for compulsory liquidation by the Danish Business Authority after late submission of financial accounts. When approached for comment, Hjort confirmed that the paperwork to rectify the situation had been filed and that she expected matters to return to normal this week. She added: "I offer my deepest apologies for what has happened and for the confusion it caused in the market and to our incredible clients and users. We have started reviewing our internal processes to ensure something like this can't happen again."
It’s been a hugely impressive couple of weeks for Kahoot! In their EdTech Top 40: Fall 2022 report, influential US-based LearnPlatform ranked Kahoot! at #3 overall and as the #1 most used solution in the classroom engagement and instruction category. In that context, the business’ recent move to enable teachers to sell their learning resources in a new marketplace clearly aligns with their stated 2022 growth levers. The group also announced continued improvement in their Q2 2022 financial results with adjusted EBITDA, billings and operating cash flow all up (Link).
One of the great strengths of the Nordic EdTech ecosystem is how established companies like Kahoot! sit alongside rapidly-growing, rising stars. This is evidenced by Sifted’s recent survey of VCs to identify 12 EdTech startups to watch - three of the companies identified were from the Nordics.
Female Invest from Copenhagen (Denmark) is a social e-learning platform working to close the financial gender gap.
From Stockholm in Sweden, Magma Math is trying to revolutionise the mathematical journey of each and every student.
HQ’d in Oslo (Norway), Scrimba aims “to create the best possible coding school at the cost of a gym membership.”
Don’t miss this year’s TechBBQ, the Nordics’ largest Tech Summit (Copenhagen - 14/15 September). It’s where talent, founders of innovative startups/scaleups, groundbreaking technologies and solutions, international thought-leaders, key-note speakers, investors, partners, media and community come together. Further details to follow on the EdTech programme, but tickets are available now.
Do also check out the EdTech startup festival from Brighteye Ventures. It runs online from 5th to 9th September and covers a wealth of important cross-cutting themes relevant for every EdTech startup including comms, funding, sales and talent.
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
Danish digital learning technologies must be accessible and engaging for all students at all levels. (Link)
Louise Overgaard takes the lead at Coding Pirates, the organisation promoting IT creativity among children aged 7-17. (Link)
Shape Robotics announces the acquisition of a Romanian technology company, Video Technic Systems. (Link)
Skolen Online confirms investment and support from Flying BizKit. (Link)
UQualio has joined the Microsoft Startups Founders Hub. (Link)
News from Estonia
Nearly 250 Estonian startups have been founded / co-founded by women, including 24% of EdTech startups. (Link)
Great interview with Kelly Lilles, CEO and co-founder of ALPA Kids, who reveals that they’re adding 4,000 new users a day from India. (Link)
Good background to the kood/Jõhvi coding school and how it embodies “Estonian scrappiness and unity.” (Link)
How Merkuur aims to encourage students and teachers to look again at metal and wood industries through a mobile workshop across Estonia. (Link)
News from Finland
Finland’s government provides €58M support in pandemic catch-up funding for early childhood education, pre-school education and basic education. (Link)
The Claned Group partners with Ukrainian Spilno.school to “provide effective and engaging online learning.” (Link)
Cohort 3 have started their journey at the EdTech incubator run by the Helsinki Education Hub. (Link)
Nice to see Kide Science featured in Talouselämä talking about their recent €1M bridge round and expansion plans. (Link)
New Nordic Schools make Kwizie, their AI quiz engine, available free of charge. (Link)
News from Iceland
Registrations now open for Utís Online. (23-24 September 2022)
News from Latvia
Government acknowledges a lack of digital / print teaching materials as the curriculum transition period ends but highlights three online sources to help. (Link)
News from Lithuania
EdTech Lithuania and local EdTechs come together to work towards a vision of education for the year 2050. (Link)
This article reiterating the importance of upskilling Lithuania and its schools praises the work of Teachers Lead Tech.
News from Norway
As with Finland, Norway’s government announces NOK 75 million in extra post-Covid catch up support for children and young people. (Link)
The Minister of Education, Tonye Brenna, warns against making online teaching an “easy solution.” (Link)
Capeesh founder Marie Jacobsen Lauvås outlines her plans to revolutionise language learning and confirms a new US customer base. (Link - $$)
Lots of EdTech debate with IKT Norge during Arendal Week 2022. Recordings here.
Udir allocates NOK 60 million to develop 40 different learning resources projects “without a market basis.” (Link)
News from Sweden
Booksquare inks a deal with SAGE Publishing to provide accessible digital textbooks to Swedish HE students. (Link)
ILT Education reveals a new cooperation with the Finnish National Agency for Education to investigate the use of audiobooks in teaching. (Link)
Haldor’s new Schema plus product helps schools schedule exams more efficiently. (Link)
Alvesta municipality will work with Magma Math to improve maths results. (Link)
Skolon confirms a new partnership with Spotify-owned Soundtrap for Education (Link) and that all Gleerups’ digital resources will now be available for purchase through the platform (Link).
All preschools run by the City of Gothenburg will transfer to the Unikum learning portal. (Link)
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