Nordic EdTech News #77: 2022-11-14
Your Weeks 44 - 45 update from the Nordic and Baltic EdTech ecosystem
Hello and welcome to this week’s Nordic EdTech News! Thank you to the +50 new subscribers who have signed up in the last two weeks. You join over 2,000 subscribers who receive this email every fortnight to stay updated on the businesses, people, technologies and tools shaping the future of learning across the Nordics!
Those themes lie at the heart of HolonIQ’s forthcoming Global Impact Summit in Stockholm on 29th November. I’m delighted to be a contributing partner for the event and there’s a brilliant programme planned with leading voices from across our ecosystem including Kahoot! CEO, Eilert Hanoa. Subscribers of this newsletter can use the code NEN22 to get a special discount on the ticket price.
The last issue of this newsletter highlighted the important role played by governments in national education and EdTech markets. That’s the lead story again today with news that the Swedish government will invest SEK 685 million in teaching materials for gymnasiet and grundskolan in 2023. A further SEK 555 million will be invested in both 2024 and 2025. The 2023 budget will also contain an additional SEK 5 million investment in Läslyftet, a teacher training scheme to support learners’ early reading and writing development (Link). The investment aims to address some of the inequality in resource provision highlighted in previous NENs.
In an otherwise quiet fortnight for investment news, Seppo has announced a €1.2 million funding round from a group of Finnish investors (Link). With 35% of the company’s turnover already coming from export markets, the investment will support further expansion of their gamified learning platform across Europe and Latin America.
In a follow-up to their recent annual summary of Norwegian schools, the Utdanningsdirektoratet have released additional insight about their use of digital technologies (Link). Three top lines: 3 / 4 school leaders feel that their digital infrastructure is good enough to deliver a wide range of digital teaching; there are big differences between teachers' digital competence and the schools' planned use of ICT; digital learning resources are prioritized in some settings over traditional books.
Whilst on the Utdanningsdirektoratet, do check out this update on a report they have commissioned on final assessment in primary / secondary education across 5 Nordic countries.
Great to see Nordic EdTechs well represented in HundrED’s 2023 Global Collection (Link). The report highlights the 100 brightest innovations in K12 education from around the world.
It’s a busy week for EdTech events. The Helsinki Education Hub is running InvestED on 17th November and XcitED takes place again on 18th November. XcitED will also host the 2022 GESAwards Nordics Semifinal - congratulations to the following shortlisted companies! Annie Advisor (Finland), Edfluence (Lithuania), Eduten (Finland), Endurae Voice Technology (Estonia), Pathfindr (Denmark), Qwizie (Finland), Skolon (Sweden) and Teachers Lead Tech (Lithuania). Full details here.
If you’ve got a story that you’d like to include in a future issue of this newsletter, please email hello@10digits.org, tag me on Twitter or LinkedIn or use #nordicedtech / #balticedtech. Sharing this email with your network is also always much appreciated!
Happy Birthday, Ella! ❤️❤️
Thanks for reading, Jonathan
News from Denmark
Gladsaxe Municipality have evaluated and categorised 750 learning apps according to their approach to personal data policy. (Link)
Schools can continue to use their Chromebooks as Datatilsynet reviews new evidence submitted by municipalities. (Link)
Copenhagen municipality changes its tender requirements for a new learning platform to include international cloud solutions. (Link)
Students don't think Google Translate is cheating (Link) as one teacher advocates its use (Link).
The EduHub mentoring programme will now be managed and run by EdTech Denmark. (Link)
Labster confirms the 10 winners of its STEM Excellence Awards, that recognise educators who blaze “a trail of innovation and creativity” in EdTech. (Link)
Mette Eistrøm Krüger, HR director at Telenor, on the value of a blended approach to employee learning and development. (Link)
Shape Robotics issued their Q3 financial report showing YTD revenue of MDKK 36.5 and their first positive EBITDA. (Link)
News from Estonia
England’s Shadow Secretary of State for Education visits EdTech Estonia (Link) as The Guardian highlights how a focus on early years sets Estonia apart. (Link)
Interesting piece by Kadri Tuisk, CEO of Clanbeat, on World Mental Health Day about the importance of “bridging the student mental health gap.” (Link)
News from Finland
Applications to join the next cohort at the Helsinki EdTech Incubator are now open. (Link)
Change ahead at Education Alliance Finland as CEO and Co-founder, Olli Vallo, moves into an advisory position and starts a new role with Freeed (Link).
Kide extend their partnership with Gabby's Dollhouse (Link) and continue to expand their range of lessons and topics. (Link)
News from Iceland
Great profile of Mathieu Grettir Skúlason, CEO of Evolytes, whose solution will be in 80% of Icelandic elementary schools by year end. (Link)
Clarification that Menntamálastofnun, the national Directorate of Education, will only close after the Government’s reform proposals (see NEN 76) pass into law. Until then, business as usual. (Link)
News from Latvia
Students in vocational education were able to take part in the first national trial of digital assessment in Latvia. (Link)
News from Lithuania
EdTech Lithuania participated in an event organised by Global Lithuanian Leaders. (Link)
News from Norway
40% of Norwegian lecturers say they lack new and updated teaching materials for the subjects they teach. (Link)
Norway’s national coding lesson for schools will take place between 5th and 11th December. (Link)
Anne Lise Waal, CEO at Attensi, announces that she’ll be leaving the business early in 2023. (Link)
Digleefy completes a NOK 3 million raise to power its game-based learning technology that creates more effective teams.. (Link)
Kahoot! delivers a record Q3 financial performance benefitting from good “Back to School and Back to Work” periods. (Link)
Significant redundancies to come over the next few months at Pickatale. (Link)
News from Sweden
Albert’s Jan to Sept 2022 report outlines increased ARR (SEK +150 million - up 88%) but worsening losses (Profit before tax = SEK -72,897 (-40,642) thousand.) (Link)
Astrid’s new app uses generative AI to improve communication skills in the workplace. (Link)
Dora Palfi, CEO at imagi, appeared on the Beyond 8 Figures Podcast. (Link)
Magma Math are finalists in the Math Instructional Solution category at the 2022 Supes' Choice Awards. (Link)
Quizrr has trained 100,000 employees on their digital training platform so far in 2022. (Link)
Skolon delivers a strong Q3 performance, during which paying user numbers expanded to almost 500K (Link) , and lands new agreement with Aurskog-Høland municipality in Norway (Link)
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