Nordic EdTech News #72: 2022-09-05

Your Weeks 34 - 35 update from the Nordic and Baltic EdTech ecosystem

Hello and welcome to today’s Nordic EdTech News. It’s great to welcome 45 new subscribers since the last newsletter - thank you for your support. The interest in Nordic EdTech clearly continues to grow!

As with NEN #71, we begin in the world of Danish publishing with the news that Morten Hesseldahl stepped down as CEO of Gyldendal at the end of August (Link). In a press release, Hesseldahl acknowledged the contribution of the education business to establishing a “healthy” financial position. But their H1 2022 report shows a drop in yoy turnover (DKK 416 million vs. 436 million) and widening losses (DKK -38 million vs. -2 million). The board has concluded that “Gyldendal is best off taking a new look at the business” - current head of Gyldendal’s education business, Hanne Salomonsen, became acting CEO on 1st September.

At the same time Gyldendal has received serious criticism from Denmark’s Data Protection Authority (Link). Secondary school teachers have had unauthorised access to students' personal data for the last ten years through the publisher’s Systime Screening tool. Over 120 schools currently use the product, but Gyldendal is unable to say how many students have been affected.

Whilst on student data, Denmark’s Furesø Municipality has stopped using Chromebooks in response to their ongoing ban in Helsingør municipality’s schools (Link). Teachers in Helsingør report huge challenges in dealing with the practical implications of this decision - big rises in photocopying and the use of mobile phones have also been noted. (Link)

As Sweden’s election campaign reaches its conclusion, AcadeMedia’s 2021 / 2022 financial report contained a sharp warning to investors (Link). Their CEO, Marcus Strömberg, acknowledges there has been “a heated debate in Sweden about independent schools” and the results of the election could pose a risk to the company moving forward. However, the company increased yoy net sales by 7.5% to SEK 14,339 million with operating profit (EBIT) up to SEK 1,224 million.

AcadeMedia also announced the acquisition of Framtidsutveckling, which supports students to make informed choices about their future studies and employment (Link). This reinforces their strong position in “search services for education” and builds on last year’s purchase of Studier.

Time is running out to get tickets for this year’s TechBBQ, the Nordics’ largest Tech Summit (Copenhagen - 14/15 September). The programme has now been released and it’s great to see two dedicated EdTech sessions: The Future of EdTech: Here & Now - a 360° perspective and Immersion & Participation: Connected Futures. I’m also delighted to be moderating an Ask the Edtech Investors Anything session on 14 Sept in the Blue Garden Tent between 14.20-15.00 with Hannes Aichmayr from Brighteye Ventures and Kai Talas from Sparkmind. Be great to see you there!

Don’t forget that Brighteye Ventures’ EdTech startup festival is on this week (5th to 9th September), covering a range of cross-cutting themes relevant for every EdTech startup including comms, funding, sales and talent.

Two more events to make a note of. Do check out the great panel talking about Scaling for Global Success at the Nordic Co-operation in EdTech event at Oslo Innovation Week (28th September). Also I’m delighted to be a contributing partner for HolonIQ’s Global Impact Summit in Stockholm on 29th November. Registrations are open and subscribers of this newsletter can use the code NEN22 to get a 20% discount on the ticket price.

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 government will scrap Den Digitale Prøvevagt, the online tool used to monitor exam compliance in upper secondary schools. (Link)

• Danish schools can take and import pictures of children into the national management portal without specific permission from parents. (Link)

• A national debate is needed to clarify the role for global tech giants in Danish education, experts argue. (Link - $$)

• The expansion of digital teaching portals and municipality-led procurement could lead to “discountskolen.” (Link)

• CanopyLAB announces new partnership with Futuro Verde (Link) as Bootstrapping reports that Sparkmind.vc has converted DKK 5 million DKK from debt to capital investment (Link).

• Great review of Drama Studio, the game-based multiplayer tool from Ugly Duckling Games. (Link)

• Shape Robotics announced a significant increase in yoy revenues for H1 2022 (MDKK 15.636 vs. 4.345). (Link)

News from Estonia

• Leading Estonian EdTech founders debate the current state of the market and seek solutions to common challenges. (Link)

• ALPA Kids won the top prize in an AI development marathon run by Tehnopol. (Link)

• Encouraging to see collaboration between EdTech Estonia and Tartu University’s department of Educational Technology. (Link)

• Mindvalley, a leading global learning app, has chosen Tallinn as the location of its new European HQ. (Link)

News from Finland

• How 3DBear's simulations support learning across Finland's vocational educational institutions. (Link)

• Kide Science have been named as a semifinalist in EdTech Week’s Early Childhood & Family Tech Shark Tank. Good luck! (Link)

• Interesting insight from Otava suggests a clear divide in the use of digital resources in Finland: “At all publishers, up to 70-80 percent of the products sold to upper secondary schools are digital learning materials. In elementary schools, the situation is the other way around.” (Link)

• Sanoma Learning has completed the acquisition of Pearson’s Italian K12 learning content business and its German exam preparation business. (Link)

• Riku Alkio, CEO of Seppo, says that: "Learning technology is like any other business, but the market is perhaps even tougher." (Interview - $$)

News from Iceland

• Iceland confirms plans to consolidate university applications onto a single digital portal. (Link)

• Northstack reports that the Icelandic Directorate of Health is to sue Kara Connect following a long-running disagreement. (Link)

News from Latvia

• Inese Saldābola has been named as the head of Skola2030, the government initiative to give students the necessary “knowledge, skills and attitudes.” (Link)

News from Lithuania

• Nacionalinė švietimo agentūra (The National Education Agency) has curated almost 300 digital teaching tools that are freely available to teachers. (Link)

• Vilnius Coding School has acquired the Baltic Computer Academy. (Link)

News from Norway

• Government prepares to deliver a new digitisation strategy for schools this Autumn (Link) as IKT Norge argues that it should include “equal access to digital infrastructure and digital teaching aids” (Link).

• Universities push to return to in-person teaching on campus. (Link)

• Great insight into a day in the life of a Norwegian teacher. (Link)

• Eduplaytion’s new digital maths solution, Numetry Skole, has made a strong start since launching last month - agreements signed with 11 schools and municipalities in Norway including Stavanger (Link). It also now qualifies for the Utdanningsdirektoratets grant programme for digital learning solutions (Link). In addition, their Mattespillet Numetry product has over 130k users and can now be accessed through the Feide secure log-in service (Link).

• Kahoot’s latest parents survey finds that “playful family screen time sparks learning and connection at home.” (Link)

• Ludenso confirms new UK partnership and a pipeline of other international opportunities. (Link - $$)

News from Sweden

• Albert signs a licence agreement with Egmont to include content featuring the cartoon character, Bamse, on their Jaramba platform. (Link)

• New research shows that Dugga’s assessment platform can improve students’ grades and wellbeing as well as increasing teachers’ efficiency. (Link)

• Kognity’s CEO, Hugo Wernhoff, details his personal and his company’s move to the US. Will be fascinating to follow. (Link)

• Skolon announces H1 results (net sales up 38.5% but losses widen) (Link) as it secures agreements with Fredrikstad and Hvaler municipalities in Norway (Link).

• Swedish Edtech Industry launches a collaboration with The Park “to jointly establish an EdTech Hub.” (Link)

Thanks for reading this newsletter. If you think that your colleagues and wider network would find it useful, please share it with them!