Hello, good morning and welcome to our last monthly newsletter of the year. It contains all the latest news from across European Edtech and it’s clear that this record-breaking year is ending on a high!
The last month has seen three notable acquisitions of leading European Edtechs by global giants, attracted by their strong business models and exceptional innovations in pedagogy / technology. At the end of November Chegg announced the purchase of Busuu (HQ’d in London) for approximately €385 million in an all-cash transaction (Link). This mega move was then followed last week by the news that India’s Byjus had closed a deal to buy Austria’s GeoGebra, a leading learning tool for mathematics, in a deal rumoured to be worth around $100 million (Link). Turnitin have also finally confirmed that their long-awaited acquisition of Ouriginal (HQ’d in Stockholm) has now been finalised (Link).
Of course, we’re also seeing significant acquisitions within European Edtech as companies seek to rapidly scale internationally. The acquisition of Hyper Island by Talent Garden (HQ’d in Milan) is the largest recent example of this trend. (Link)
The year is also ending with European Edtech businesses continuing to set new benchmarks in fundraising. Copenhagen-based Famly recently secured a £14million investment (Link) from Susquehanna Growth Equity - it’s the largest investment in Early Years software in European history. Whilst the UK’s Atom Learning picked up $25M from SoftBank to scale their AI-based online learning platform (Link).
With all of these amazing Edtech businesses across Europe, it’s incredible that HolonIQ managed to narrow them down to a top 100! The full list was released on 1 December and a recording of the announcement webinar is here.
The next wave of leading European Edtechs are pitching today (15 December) at the European semi-final of the Global EdTech Startups Awards (GESAwards). Wishing good luck to Botter, Digitale Methode, eggheads, Grasple, KOKORO lingua SA, Readmio, SkillGym and Sparkademy.
If you’re new to the European Edtech scene, then do check out this great summary of the landscape and 2021’s best regional innovations by Svenia Busson, the European Edtech Alliance’s First Chair. And if you’re an Edtech founder, a startup team, an investor or policymaker looking to better understand the Edtech ecosystem, then sign up for the new Brighteye Ventures x Dealroom Edtech platform. Full details are available here.
And finally congratulations to SkillLab (Netherlands), Snowball Effect (Austria) and Zekki – What’s up? (Finland) for winning this year’s European Social Innovation Competition: ‘Skills for Tomorrow – Shaping a green and digital future’. (Link)
As always the European Edtech Alliance would love to hear your feedback on this newsletter, so do comment below. Please also share it with your networks and across social media. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter here.
The next issue of European Edtech News will be in subscribers’ inboxes on 12th January 2022.
Produced by the team at the European Edtech Alliance. Thanks for reading, stay healthy and have an amazing Christmas and New Year!
NEWS FROM OUR MEMBER ASSOCIATIONS
FUND-RAISING
Aryel, an augmented reality startup with an Edtech vertical, confirms a €250k raise. (Link)
Edusign announces a new €1 million raise to accelerate its growth. (Link)
The UK’s Mindstone banks a £1.45m round for their platform which “curates online content including articles, podcasts and video.” (Link)
Barcelona-based Edtech, Nominis, secures €180K in their first funding round. Nominis offers a digital English academy for primary school children. (Link)
K-12
Algor, the Italian developer of AI-powered mind maps for secondary schools, confirms a pre-seed raise of €180k from Club degli Investitori. (Link)
Hundred.org launches the new Faved platform - a catalogue of pedagogical practices and small ideas that help teachers to teach more creatively. (Link)
Nanaba, a Nice-based startup, crowdfunds a round of €500,000.(Link)
Finland’s Polar Partners, working with the KOULU consortium, will deliver 75 schools to Peru. (Link)
Thymio, the educational robot, celebrates its 10th anniversary! There are now thousands of Thymio robots in Swiss / French schools and homes. (Link)
SIT Alemira acquires Swiss EdTech Collider member Dybuster AG, a Swiss developer of evidence-based, AI driven learning applications for schools. (Link)
Plans to increase the fees to access Unilogin, the Danish national school sign-in solution, have been withdrawn by the Minister for Children and Education. (Link)
LIFELONG LEARNING
Luca La Mesa, co-founder of Italian Edtech, Carriere.it, wins Ecosystem hero of the year at the Global Startup Awards. (Link)
CORPORATE
Sparkmind.vc leads a $2.5m funding round for Berlin-based corporate learning startup, Wonderwerk. (Link)
OTHER MEMBER UPDATES
Education Alliance Finland has produced an Edtech Design Framework, OPUS. It is a free resource that gathers all of the knowledge they’ve gained from working with hundreds of Edtech companies. (Link)
Brilliant to see the amazing progress made by EdTech Estonia and its members in 2021 as they celebrate one year of operation. (Link)
Nicolas Turcat, Head of Education at the French Public Bank, discusses the role for public investments in the French Edtech market. (Article)
A delegation of 15 French Edtech companies met with representatives from the UAE education sector during Expo 2020 Dubai. (Article).
Nabook, an Edtech startup that helps kids to read, has published an article outlining how technology can actually make children read more. EdTech France and other partners are supporting their campaign. (Article).
Felix Lopez, director at SEK Lab, has created a map of the Edtech landscape in Madrid. It reveals that there are close to 300 Edtechs in Spain and more than 100 are from Madrid. (Link)
SuperCharger Ventures has reopened applications for its Spring/Summer 2022 programmes. They are searching for ambitious Edtech companies to join their Accelerator and Incubator programmes.
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.