Number 16 - September 2022 European Edtech Alliance update
News from the world of European Edtech
Hello, and welcome to September’s European Edtech News!
In this month’s newsletter you will hear about why EdTech StartUps might have to go back to basics to service, read about the digital future, the current status of digitisation in German school and the newest twist on the chromebook ban in Denmark. Further you will have the chance to enter two great competitions, read about the latest EEA Member updates, as well as funding news, acquisitions and the next events you should not miss.
However, let’s start with adding you to the EdTech Map! A mapping of all European Edtech startups. You definitely want to appear on it 😉 Get on the map by filling this form.
Why EdTech StartUps must go back to basics to survive
An investor survey by TechChrunch gives a better understanding of what education investors are looking for today. Therefore, seven leading venture capitalists in the EdTech field answered a series of questions about the sector’s future. The result was a diversity of answers, ranging from how climate and workforce mobility are edtech’s next opportunities to how the departure of tourist VCs is playing out differently depending on company stages. Many admitted that things have changed, but there are still plenty of opportunities existing. Click here to read the whole report in detail.
As Jan Lynn-Matern (Emerge Education) rightfully stated Edtech investment in Europe is growing despite the slowdown in the United States — the sector has secured $1.4 billion in Europe thus far in 2022, 40% more than a year earlier, reports say). 💪
The GSV Cup
All early stage (pre-seed/seed) Edtech StartUps worldwide can still apply for the 2023 GSV Cup, the world’s largest pitch competition for "Pre-K to Gray" EdTech StartUps and win 1M$ in cash and prizes! Our First Chair Svenia Busson will be a judge again this year for the ASU+GSV Summit’s 2023 GSV Cup!
Apply here until this Saturday, October 1st, 9 am Central European Time.
Digital Security, Digital Future
Our Managing Director, Beth Havinga, was invited by the data protection authority of the German state of Thüringen to speak about "Digital Security, Digital Future". Today, already over 1000 different systems and programmes are used in individual schools and universities, which create up to 10,000 different connection points for data. What does it mean for users, which future technologies do we need to plan for now and how can teachers and learners gain full control over their data?
How can AI help fight the problems education is facing? You can find a great summary of the results of the talk in the article “The digital future is already here” in Bildung.Table. (in German but easily translatable with chrome 😉)
Report about the current status of school digitisation in Germany
The Initiative D21 published a report about the current status of digitisation in German schools and 21st century schools. A 21st Century School teaches students the skills they need for a highly technological and digitalised (in progress) world. However, a contemporary school can only do this if it integrates digital media and applications into everyday teaching through meaningful, future-oriented pedagogical concepts. It is necessary that the educational staff at schools have mastered their media/digital education tools and that media/digital education content is structurally and effectively anchored in the school's educational mandate. However, 1/3 of parents name a lack of digital skills of teachers as a hurdle for digital teaching and nearly every second parent state that their child's school is overwhelmed with digital teaching methods. You can read the full report here! (in German)
Taking this report in consideration, we are even more excited about the fact that our next Market Discovery Webinar is taking us to Germany in October. Stay tuned for detailed information and the registration link.
EdTech Hack 2022 by Edtech Estonia
Registrations are now open to join this year’s international online #edtechhack2022, a hackathon taking place on October 14-16 remotely. Join to form a team and develop a prototype for your idea in 48 hours! Here’s what you can expect:
🏆 Award pool of more than €15,000
✏️ Expert sessions and workshops by some of the best education and startup mentors
🧠 New connections and lots of interesting knowledge
Learn more and sign up here!
Advisory Board of COSN’s Driving K-12 Innovation initiative Invitation
The EEA is excited to be invited on the Advisory Board of The Consortium for School Networking, a driving K-12 Innovation initiative and the premier membership organization designed to meet the needs of K12 education technology leaders. They represents over 13 million students in school districts/systems in the US and continue to grow as a powerful and influential voice in K-12 education and we are happy that Beth Havinga will be our representative.
Danish Data Protection Authority lifts the ban on Chromebooks
The Danish Data Protection Authority has lifted the ban on Chromebooks in Helsingør. The Municipality has two months to comply with the given orders, until then schools, teachers and students are allowed to use their Chromebooks again.
NEWS FROM OUR MEMBER ASSOCIATIONS
FUND-RAISING
London based Virtual Internships raised 14.5m € in a Series A for its AI matching students at scale with internships at companies ranging from startups to blue chips.
Italian CDP Venture Capital and BPER Banca invest 12.4 m€ to launch Gility, a platform for upskilling and continuous training of workers.
UK’s Code First Girls raised 5.2m € to empower more women to access opportunities in tech.
Paris based virtual teaching assistant ProfessorBob.ai raised 4m € by the fund Generali impact investment and INNOVACOM for its conquest of inclusivity in the educational world.
Codary raised a 3.5m€ seed funding round led by Educapital, Sparkmind.vc, FJ Labs to teach kids to learn how to code.
Danish EdTech Kollektiv raised 1.5m € in a pre-seed round for its personalised training, e-learning and support for triathletes.
French StartUp LabLabee raised 1.4m € in a pre-seed round for its hands-on, practical training in telco cloud skills using a suite of digital, virtual labs.
German EdTech SafeVerse raised 1m € in a pre-seed round to build a metaverse for safety training.
Estonian StartUp Coursey.io received an investment of 600,000€
to enable employees to succeed in their work through digital learning.
French EdTech Bloom raised more than 400k€ to facilitate the search for work-study.
Acquisitions
Italian StartUp Aulab sold 60% of its capital to Gruppo Multiversity to integrate digital and edtech training skills for their software developers training.
Lepaya has acquired VCoach, a startup developing AI-driven coaching for presentation and communication skills.
THE (Times Higher Education), the world’s leading provider of higher education data and insights, is delighted to have completed the acquisition of BMI, the leading global organiser of international student recruitment events.
OTHER MEMBER UPDATES
SuperCharger Ventures, a global edtech Accelerator based in London, has launched their Accelerator Cohort 5.0, revealing their 12 new innovative startups
School Day announced a partnership to cross-promote positive mental health and well-being with Erika’s Lighthouse, that has 402,000 students in nine countries, 41 states, and 1500 schools.
Kide Science won the Early Childhood & Family Tech Shark Tank and were also chosen as Top 5 Finalist for the EdTech Cup by EdTech Week in New York.
Swedish Female Edtech Fellowship alumni Imagilabs are one of 15 finalists in the European Investment Banks innovation contest and are pitching in the finals in Vienna on the 29th of September.
A new cohort of testing edtech services in Swedish schools in the testbed of Swedish Edtest are starting in October. There is still time to apply for your edtech service or product.
Swedish EdTech Booksquare enters partnership with French academic book publisher L'Harmattan to combine their innovative book marketing and distribution services with the extensive catalog of scholarly titles.
Upcoming Events
24th-25th October: EdTech Next Summit Meet all the big EdTech VCs and Business Angels on the EdTech Next Summit 2022 in October! Download the full agenda here!
14th-16th October EdTech Hack 2022 Join this year’s international online Edtech hackathon here!
14th-18th November: Week of VocTech A free programme of in-person and online events exploring the role of digital technology in vocational training and celebrating its impact on learners, employers, training providers and society as a whole. More here!
16th-29th November; HolonIQ Future of education and workforce Summits We look forward to participating in HolonIQs stops in London, Stockholm, Berlin and Paris. Register here!
SEK Lab Edtech Acceleration Program Applications to be part of the 8th cohort are open until October 2022. Apply here!
You can find more member-related events here!
Are you interested in country specific news? Check out these members’ newsletters:
This newsletter is 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.