Nordic EdTech News #79: 2022-12-12
Your Weeks 48 - 49 update from the Nordic and Baltic EdTech ecosystem
Hello and welcome to the final Nordic EdTech News of 2022! As you’ll see below, the year is certainly ending with a bang!
It was great to meet so many friends and colleagues at HolonIQ’s Global Impact Summit in Stockholm at the end of last month. The event culminated with the announcement of the 2022 Nordic Baltic EdTech 50. That’s HolonIQ's annual list of the most promising EdTech startups from across the Nordic and Baltic region.
There’s a wealth of supporting detail and insight on the composition of the list via the above link (e.g Sweden leads the way; a maturing age profile of companies and the dominance of B2B and B2B2C models etc.). Congratulations to the 50 companies who made the list!
Advanced AI technologies underpin many of the companies included above, so it’s important to note that Norwegian teachers have sent a report to the country’s parliament expressing their concerns about ChatGPT, an AI chatbot, which is being used by Norwegian students (Link). I’m sure that we’ll be hearing more about this trend throughout 2023 but Tony Wan of Reach Capital has already written a great piece on the topic, looking at the future of two AIs: artificial intelligence and academic integrity. The article also highlights how this “new wave of “generative” AI will not only give rise to new edtech market leaders, but also challenge longstanding practices and beliefs in teaching and learning.”
Acquisitions and sector-wide consolidation will also continue to feature strongly in this newsletter as EdTech businesses adapt to a post-pandemic reality. Two updates here to report - Swedish EdTech, Akribian, is now part of the Edument Group (Link), whilst Danish EdTech, Bookboon, has been sold to UK-based The Access Group for DKK 500 million (Link). Bookboon provides “practical personal development content on an easy-to-use platform” and this, according to the company, is the largest deal for a Danish EdTech business to date.
Whilst on Danish EdTech, Shape Robotics continue to hit the headlines (see NEN 78). The business has now signed a new distribution agreement with NOD, a leading Romanian electronics and IT distributor. It is expected to deliver orders of DKK 60 million over the next three years. (Link)
If you’re looking for interesting content to enjoy over the festive season, this webinar with Sanoma Learning’s CEO and CFO on “Creating value and growth with learning content” is well worth a watch. If your business needs to access government funding to grow, then this latest report from Brighteye Ventures should be essential reading. And if you’re looking to use the festive season as a chance to drive your professional and personal growth, check out this first-of-a-kind podcourse from Sweden’s Colearn.
Nordic EdTech News returns to subscriber inboxes on 9 January 2023, so please follow us on Twitter where we’ll be keeping an eye on any major developments over the festive season.
Finally, huge thanks to everyone for reading, subscribing and supporting this newsletter over the last 12 months - it’s very much appreciated!
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Best regards, Jonathan
News from Denmark
Atea's purchase of KMD's hardware and standard software business has been approved by the competition authorities (Link) as KMD celebrates 50 years of working in Danish folkeskole (Link).
Research in school with reading app, FrontRead, suggests that gamification motivates students to read more. (Link)
Labster provides free access to +4.5 million students in Ukraine. (Link)
Lindhardt and Ringhof Uddannelse argue that their resources do not contravene GDPR standards (Link) as the “absurd” Microsoft agreement continues to cause problems in Copenhagen (Link).
More than 8,000 students across the country participated in digitalpænt, Telenor's annual education programme. (Link)
News from Estonia
Complok, a digital learning platform for banks and fintech, won the 2022 Ajujaht Estonian startup competition. (Link)
EdTech Estonia celebrates its second birthday (Link).
kood/Jõhvi confirmed the opening of their new school building. (Link)
Congratulations to Triumf Health who won the World Summit Awards 2022 in the Health and Wellbeing category. (Link)
Four teams graduated from the EdTech co-creation programme run by EdTech Estonia and Tallinn University. (Link)
News from Finland
The European Commission has decided that the new European SALTO Digital Resource Centre will be established at the Finnish National Agency for Education. (Link)
Funzi and EWS-KT scale up their courses to improve crop production and farmers’ income in Nigeria. (Link)
Don’t miss the EdTech Incubator Helsinki Gala on 15th December as the ten teams from the third cohort pitch their innovations. (Link)
Oppiva Invest's 2022 operational review highlights opportunities for EdTech companies to grow and for training providers to utilise new innovations to support learning. (Link)
Playvation enters collaboration with WEKITA, a German childcare chain. (Link)
Sanako’s 2022 results deliver a +38% increase in revenues and positive cash-flow. (Link)
News from Iceland
News from Latvia
Interesting 2022 report on the Latvian startup ecosystem from Startin.LV.
News from Lithuania
Encouraging to see the Lithuanian EdTech ecosystem growing so fast and making such an impact! (Link)
Learnoverse launches the Metaverse Education Alliance, which aims to develop Web3 talents and teachers. (Link)
Monika Katkute, CEO of Teachers Lead Tech, participated in December’s EdTech Shark Tank in New York as their “US adventure begins.” (Link)
Turing College launched a new Data Engineering course with Oxylabs. (Link)
News from Norway
Look out for three Læring på digitale flater events in Bergen, Sandefjord and Trondheim next Spring. Details here.
The Norwegian Competition Authority imposes fines of a total of NOK 545 million on Norway's four largest publishers and Bokbasen for violations of the Competition Act. All have said they will appeal. (Link)
“Norway has the world's fourth best funded school system, but a lot of money never reaches the classroom.” (Link)
Eirik Wahlstrøm, Co-founder and CEO at Ludenso, has been named in e24's list of top leadership talents in the "Company Builder of the Year" category. (Link)
News from Sweden
Haldor joins IKT Norge as part of its international expansion plans. (Link)
Magma Math won the US Supes' Choice award for maths instructional solution of the year. (Link)
Ommej, a student wellbeing app, raises SEK 5.5 million to support its continued expansion in Sweden and beyond. (Link)
Skolon has been included on Deloitte's Fast 50, the list that ranks the 50 fastest growing technology companies in Sweden. (Link)
Storyals now offers story-based courses to onboard and train frontline workers on how to effectively use Microsoft365 and MicrosoftTeams. (Link)
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