NextEdu
Fondazione Sviluppo e Crescita CRT supports NextEdu, the innovative European accelerator programme for EdTech startups, run in partnership with xEdu, the main EdTech European accelerator, based in Helsinki, Finland, and active since 2016. It is aimed at Italian and European startups that want to develop their business idea in Italy and targets a total of 10 startups per year.
The aim of the Acceleration Programme is to develop cutting-edge education and training products, services and technologies for all age groups in different sectors: students from early years to university, professionals, employees and customers of companies, citizens.
Thanks to the use of Big Data and predictive analysis of Artificial Intelligence algorithms, EdTech tools will play an increasingly important role in assessing and improving people’s work performance, online learning and skills development, by promoting the development of applications tailored to the skills and learning pace of each person to optimise knowledge transfer processes and ensure fair and inclusive access to ‘good education’, which is a key goal of the 2030 Agenda from UN.
The programme took place from May to October 2022 at OGR Tech with the operational support of xEdu, which guides startups from development to market entry and internationalisation of learning solutions impacting the school, educational and professional sectors.
On 23 September, the Sala Duomo of the OGR Turin in Corso Castelfidardo hosted the first NextEdu Demo Day from 2.30 p.m. to 6.30 p.m., an afternoon focused on the development of new technologies at the service of education and learning by the startups of the acceleration programme.
| Usophy S.R.L. | Turin, Italy | Usophy Kids is a reading and learning platform for children. It offers unlimited access to books for children up to the age of 12. There are more than 1,000 books available, combined with learning tools and prizes to celebrate reading and success. |
| Escape4Change | Turin, Italy | Escape4Change provides tailored game-based learning activities that engage participants in a collaborative contex, with no age limit and a wide range of possible topics. The activities are suitable for team building as they promote team spirit and coordination among participants and also raise awareness of the chosen theme. |
| Wonderly | Miami, United States | Wonderly is an “all-you-can-learn” platform offering for children and young people to learn software development, robotics, game design, maths, data analytics and languages through high-quality, engaging content. The technology courses are designed specifically for them and are developed in the in-house animation studio together with a team of engineers, education experts and video specialists. |
| iSpeak App | Vilnius, Lithuania | iSpeak is an interactive Tik Tok for learning English. The swipe-based social format lets students explore all kinds of different lessons on various topics from creators around the world. |
| upiopi | Helsinki, Finland | upiopi creates a joyful learning experience so that the world is filled with dreamers, thinkers and doers. They offer online classes and after-school programmes in small groups for children between 5 and 10 years old, led by selected trainers following the stress-free Nordic learning style |
| 3DBear | Helsinki, Finland | 3Dbear uses immersive technologies to ignite creativity and provide simple, authentic learning and fun experiences for all. Ideas are brought to life using their editor and platform AR. 3DBear makes it possible to create and learn anything through do-it-yourself simulations XR. |
| GraphoGame | Helsinki, Finland | GraphoGame produces evidence-based, game-based literacy apps for children aged 4-9 in partnership with top universities around the world. They work with governments to distribute their app to the children who need it most. 15 languages available to teach the basics of reading and spelling, even without a connection. |
| GILO Technologies | Rijswijk, Netherlands | GILO creates software applications that summarise, classify and highlight texts. The natural language processing specialists understand the problems of language. They accurately capture and tag industry-specific text data and refine artificial intelligence models to transform it into useful information. |
| SmashMedicine | London, United Kingdom | SmashMachine enables students, universities and professionals to collaborate remotely and improve learning efficiency through new teaching methods and artificial intelligence. Customised algorithms optimise the learning process for efficient learning. |
