4 European edtech start-ups to look out for in 2020

12 Dec 2019

The edtech (educational technology) industry is booming and there are exciting new innovations by start-ups being launched all the time.

Due to the competitive nature of the industry, not all are able to survive and bring their products to fruition – no matter how brilliant the innovation may be.

At the end of the day, it often comes down to funding. Currently, US and China are dominating the market when it comes to edtech start-ups, largely due to the amount of funding and investment support they have been given.

Europe seems to be lagging behind despite some truly amazing edtech innovations being born by unicorn start-ups in the continent. In 2018, Europe’s edtech companies pulled in only US$700 million, while Chinese and American edtech companies received US$3.3 billion and 1.7 billion respectively.

But by 2018, the amount of funding has increased six-fold since 2014, when it attracted only US$70 million.

Here are four innovative EdTech start-ups by Europeans to watch in 2020, having secured generous funding to launch their products off the ground.

Teacherly

#Teachers, reclaim your time by planning more efficiently. Here’s how: https://t.co/AkQB0yq9hE #teacherly #teacherteams #teacherproblems #ntchat #cpchat #edtech #edtechchat pic.twitter.com/D5V9zPTPrc

— Teacherly (@teamteacherly) December 5, 2019

Based in the UK, Teacherly was developed to help improve learning outcomes by making teaching more collaborative.

Founded by a teacher, it works by helping teachers plan lessons more efficiently. Lesson planning often takes a big chunk out of a teacher’s precious time, especially when they have to do one from scratch.

According to the website, “Create lessons using one of our templates or create your own. Add learning objectives, personal development and workplace skills, quizzes, extracurricular activities and share the lesson with your class all from our easy to use canvas.”

Teacherly has proved popular with teachers, and the edtech start-up has received US$1m in funding from investors like United Arab Emirates and Global Village, according to Sifted.

Studytracks

A CA high-school geography teacher uses a mobile app to help students learn academic subjects through songs. He describes using the Studytracks app, which has a catalog of more than 1,300 songs, to help students better retain information. https://t.co/EsvwKpQtr7 @eschoolnews

— Quaglia Institute (@QISAtweets) May 24, 2019 Eir

The premise that students learn better through music is not a new one. Music has been proven to help students absorb, retain and recall information.

This edtech start-up founded in Paris, France, has leveraged that with technology to create an app that’s almost like an educational version of Spotify.

Making life easier for teachers, they can use the Studytracks app to find a series of songs that are in line with official school syllabus in one handy app, allowing them access to over 1,500 musical tracks on educational topics. For example, there’s a rap song about Romeo and Juliet.

The start-up has recently received funding of €1m (US$1,292,740).

Brainly

Stegosauruses grew to be up to 30 feet long (about the size of a London bus) but their brains were only about as big as a walnut. #knowmore #dinosaurs pic.twitter.com/pIPqQxY7B2

— Brainly (@brainly) February 27, 2018

One of the biggest benefits of technology is bridging geographical divides. This app founded in Krakow, Poland, has fostered a global learning community where students and educational experts can come together to crack tough homework questions.

Through this app, students can find answers for subjects such as Math, History, Biology, English, Physics, and more.

According to Sifted, “Brainly’s platform lets kids, parents, tutors, teachers or experts ask and respond to questions. It has a points-based system where it costs points to ask questions and points are awarded for providing responses.”

The company has received a total of US$68.5m in investment funds, and has headquarters in both New York City and Krakow.

Kahoot

✅ We love when students are engaged in a kahoot AND everyone answers the question correctly! 👏 🤗 🙌 🤩 https://t.co/Qy4W181GcU

— Kahoot! (@GetKahoot) December 8, 2019

Through gamified digital lessons, Kahoot has made a splash in schools as well as offices worldwide. It was founded in Oslo, Norway via a collaboration between the founders and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Students engage in a fun learning environment with quizzes and games on educational topics. Teachers can create fun learning games in minutes, or choose from millions of existing games to introduce a topic, review and reinforce knowledge, as well as run formative assessments.

Throughout its journey, the company has received a total of US$85m in investments from companies such as M12, Datum Group, Northzone and Disney.