Hello and welcome to the first edition of European Edtech News! This newsletter is produced by the European Edtech Alliance (EEA), a consortium of 23 national Edtech trade associations and innovation clusters from across Europe.
Our aim is simple - every newsletter will include all you need to know about the fast-growing European Edtech scene and its world-leading Edtech businesses. It will also feature updates from our member organisations.
What better way to demonstrate Europe’s Edtech excellence than yesterday’s news that Austrian Edtech, GoStudent, had raised €205 million ($244 million) in a Series C round (Link). This values the company’s online tutor marketplace at €1.4 billion ($1.7 billion) and creates Europe’s newest Edtech unicorn. Huge congratulations to everyone involved!
This mega round follows a flurry of other significant, recent investments in Edtech businesses across Europe. Most notably, these include Madrid-based Lingokids, who raised $40M for their early learning platform (Link), and Sweden’s Kognity, who raised $20M to support their entry into the US high school market (Link).
These raises reinforce the exceptional growth of European Edtech evidenced in the new Brighteye Ventures paper, ‘EdTech Funding Report 2021- Half year review’, which was published yesterday. Before the GoStudent raise, European EdTech had already received over $1B in VC investment in a calendar year for the first time, with an average deal size (across all rounds) of $9.4M, more than triple the 2020 average of $3M. At the time of publication, 23 European EdTech companies had raised more than $10M in 2021. Brighteye’s Managing Partner, Alex Latsis, commented:
“We are pleased to see that the largest rounds this year, 7 of which have been $50M+, are spread across both a range of EdTech verticals and headquartered in 5 different European markets. We believe this will lead to accelerated maturity across the European EdTech ecosystem as these companies scale, develop their offers and reach new customers.”
The European Edtech Alliance’s mission is to support the sector’s stellar growth and to connect and strengthen the pan-European Edtech ecosystem. The organisation officially launched on 8th June - a recording of the launch event is now available here.
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Thank you for reading. The next issue of European Edtech News will be published on 21st July 2021.
Produced by the team at the European Edtech Alliance.
NEWS FROM OUR MEMBER ASSOCIATIONS
FUND-RAISING
It’s been a record year for investment in Finnish startups. Edtech Finland provides a useful Edtech overview here, detailing some of the most significant funding rounds.
iconoClass from France secures $3.6M to accelerate growth of its platform. (Link)
K-12
EvidenceB, an Edtech startup that links cognitive sciences and artificial intelligence to provide personalized learning to students, won the 'Education & Formation' award at the Tech for Good Awards competition, created by BFM Business and France Digitale. (Link)
Trill Impact acquires Sweden’s ILT Education for an undisclosed sum. (Link)
POST SECONDARY
Aivancity School is joining EdTech France’s network of exclusive partners. It is a new type of school focusing on AI and Big Data and is aimed at students, executives and companies. (Link)
Swedish Edtest is running a matchmaking event (22nd September) between adult education institutions and Edtech companies. Sign up here if you’re interested in testing your solution with polytechnics, vocational training colleges and universities.
LIFELONG LEARNING
Members of EdTech France's board opened the latest edition of Learning Technologies 2.0 with a masterclass on the best digital strategies for lifelong learning. The virtual event runs until 2nd July and there’s more than 30 sessions to discover in both French and English. (Link)
CONSUMER
Classtime, a solution for formative and summative assessment, is working with Ecodrive to educate new drivers in Switzerland on greener driving practices to help save millions of litres of fuel. (Link)
GoStudent is using AI to take online tutoring out of the black box. (Link)
OTHER MEMBER UPDATES
Great to hear that The Bett Show will return to ExCel in 2022. We hope to see you there!
The Dutch Edtech foundation was recently launched to accelerate innovation by connecting the community, sharing insights, creating an overview of the landscape and forming consortia that focus on current concrete social challenges in the Netherlands. Over 50 members have joined their mission and they are supported by six founding partners: the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate; the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; Marineterrein Amsterdam; StartupAmsterdam; itorium and Growth Tribe.
EdTech Denmark launched a new initiative with CanopyLAB, DigitalHub Denmark and Labster to connect visiting Edtech delegations with the right people, startups, research and companies. (Link)
EdTech France will be crossing the country to meet Edtech startups at the Murex Festival in Toulon. They’ll be discussing the best business models for startups and the specifics of the French Edtech market. (Link)
Get to know the German EdTech scene with EDUvation at their MeetUp on 29th June. Sign up here
The German Alliance for Education has been named as a partner of the National Digital Education Space initiative run by the German Federal Ministry of Education. Full story here.
SEK Lab Edtech Accelerator opens an exclusive Edtech space in Madrid to support local innovators and the rapidly-growing ecosystem. (Link)
Make a date to watch SEK Lab’s Demo Day for their sixth cohort on 2nd July. Full details here - the event will be in Spanish.
SuperCharger Ventures opens applications for its EdTech Accelerator Cohort 3.0 (Link) and seeks new university partners to join institutions such as Imperial College Business School and BI Norwegian Business School. (Link)
The UK Government’s draft Online Safety Bill establishes a new regulatory framework to tackle harmful content online. (Link)
NEW RESOURCES
Great content produced by the EdTech Poland foundation including a detailed map of Polish Edtech companies and a new podcast.
SuperCharger Ventures’ EdTech Book will be released in Q4 2021 and provides a comprehensive view of education technology at this crucial moment for the industry. If you are interested in learning more about it, please contact tyreece@superchargerventures.com.
Written and produced by the European Edtech Alliance. The European Edtech Alliance is a consortium of national trade associations and clusters working with founders and providers of education technology (Edtech), to support the domestic and international growth of these businesses and the innovations they represent.