Nordic EdTech News #78: 2022-11-28

Your Weeks 46 - 47 update from the Nordic and Baltic EdTech ecosystem

Hello and welcome to this week’s Nordic EdTech News. The days are getting shorter and there’s lots happening, so let’s get straight to it!

As detailed in previous issues of this newsletter, Denmark’s Shape Robotics have been making significant progress in recent weeks. Their recent directed issue of new shares generated DKK 27.1 million (gross proceeds) from Fundamental Invest, a Danish investment association, and senior management (Link). The business has also upgraded its revenue expectations for 2022 by 10%, and expects sales of DKK 130 million and “a positive operating result” in 2023. Shape Robotics also announced plans to list its shares on Copenhagen’s Nasdaq Main Market in the next 9 to 12 months.

It’s also been a big week for Norway’s Inspera, who have announced plans to expand operations into the US (Link). The move follows a September 2021 investment in the business by London-based CGE Partners, specifically backing the business’ “global growth.”

Two other notable Norwegian EdTech stories to mention. Firstly, itslearning and their Finnish educational partner, Eduko, have signed an agreement with the national education authorities in Tanzania to strengthen their “educational sector and digital competence” (Link). The project is funded by NORAD in partnership with Innovation Norway. A national pilot with 60,000 students is planned for early 2023. Additionally Bloomberg has reported that General Atlantic, the US growth equity firm, is looking at ways to gain “more control” of Kahoot! (Link)

In ecosystem news, it’s great to see that the Icelandic Edtech Industry (IEI) was launched at an event last week (Link). The national association aims to “work on the interests and policies of educational technology companies, as well as to promote the growth and development of the sector as a whole for the benefit of the Icelandic education system.” The board consists of representatives from Atlas Primer, Beanfee, Beedle, Evolytes and Mussila.

Congratulations to everyone at Finland’s Annie Advisor for winning the GESAwards Nordics Semifinal (Link). The competition was held at XcitED on 18th November. Congrats also to the 7 Nordic EdTech startups (Attensi, Astrid, Freeed, imagi, Lyfta, MyMonii and SignLab) who were named in Dealroom’s list of “Top 100 Nordic Startups to Watch.”

On the subject of lists, HolonIQ will be announcing their annual rundown of the 50 most promising EdTech startups in the Nordic-Baltic region at tomorrow’s Global Impact Summit in Stockholm. 👋 Say hello if you’re attending! If you still haven’t got your ticket, don’t forget that subscribers of this newsletter can use the code NEN22 to get a special discount.

And finally, I’m delighted to be moderating a webinar with Ludenso on “AR for educational publishers: just a gimmick or a tool for transformation?” It takes place on 7th December and features their CEO, Eirik Wahlstrøm, alongside speakers from Cambridge University Press and Plantyn. All the details you need are here.

If you’ve got a story that you’d like me 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!

Thanks for reading, Jonathan

News from Denmark

• Ministers to review Vejen Municipality’s plans to replace three hours of teaching a week for grades 7 to 10 with online resources and self-study. (Link)

• Famly won “Technology Product of the Year’ at the National NMT Nursery Awards (Link) and announced their new positioning as an early childhood platform. (Link)

• Female Invest, the “financial learning universe”, acquires sustainability-focused investment platform Gaia Investments. (Link)

• Skolen Online werefeatured on V2 ØST. (Link)

News from Estonia

• 5,500 school and kindergarten students learned programming and robotics as part of the "ProgeTiigri's future maker 2022" programme. (Link)

• 13 education managers began internships in technology companies. (Link)

• 300 new students recently started Cohort 2 at the kood/Jõhvi coding school. (Link)

News from Finland

• Education Alliance Finland is joining forces with the UK’s EdTech Impact, bringing together two leading operators in the EdTech evaluation space. (Link)

• Eduten started operations in the Czech Republic (Link) and released a global survey looking at post-pandemic digital education. (Link)

• Funzi’s new partnership deal with the South African Public Colleges Organisation (SAPCO) will bring blended learning to at least 150,000 TVET students and teachers. (Link)

• Freeed look to launch new teacher communities in France, Germany, Sweden and the UK. (Link)

• Psyon Games’ ADHD awareness game, Full ADHD, won the award for the Most Valuable Patient Education work at the Reuters Pharma Awards. (Link)

News from Iceland

• Esports Coaching Academy, an Iceland-based esports education company, has announced a $750,000 pre-seed round led by Behold Ventures. (Link)

• Great profile of Jón Gunnar Thordarson, CEO of Mussila. (Link)

News from Latvia

• More than 25,000 computers will be delivered to Latvian students by the end of the year. (Link)

• Elīna Ražena & Linda Sinka, Co-founders at Learn IT, have been included in a list of Latvia’s Top 25 women from VC and startup ecosystem. (Link)

News from Lithuania

• The Lithuanian startup community continues to help and support Teachers Lead Tech in upskilling teachers nationwide. (Link)

News from Norway

• Two interesting perspectives on the use of digital teaching in higher education - positive and tread carefully.

• Kahoot! hits 8 billion non-unique cumulative participants since launch (Link) and confirms it is now available in Swedish. (Link)

• Fredrik Högemark has been named as Chief Executive Officer of Keystone Education Group. (Link)

• Ludenso confirms agreement with Cambridge University Press (Link) and launches new AR Books filled with magical fairytales in cooperation with Aschehoug. (Link)

• Sikt and higher education institutions “face major choices when it comes to the procurement of central services for learning and assessment.” (Link)

News from Sweden

• EdAider and Natur & Kultur announce a new strategic partnership. (Link)

• Sana launches Universal Search which will review “all your company’s apps to answer every question.” (Link)

• Swedish Edtech Industry reinforces the importance of allowing schools to choose between textbooks and digital materials when new learning resources budgets become available. (Link)

• Research from scientists at Uppsala University have found that “tablet computers make preschool children’s play less creative.” (Link)

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