It's Ed-Tech time – join the evolution!

We are extending our invitation to all innovative companies which have developed their MVPs and which are either specialising in educational technology or wish to pivot into the Ed-Tech sphere, having already developed a product or a service in a different field. Geography doesn’t matter – people from any country can apply.

“Covid-19 virus has forced education to move online overnight,” says Ieva Ilvesa, Latvian President’s advisor on digital policy. “For some it is their need to continue their studies, for others it is an opportunity to learn new skills, enrich their knowledge or turn themselves into a teacher or a coach. Ed-Tech has a lot of room for exploration and innovation.”

In Latvia, says Reinis Znotiņš, parliamentary secretary of Education and Science Ministry, Covid-19 crisis prompted the government to find a way to deliver high-quality remote education to more than 250 thousand children and teachers involved in primary education. The emergency gave a spark to a number of innovative approaches, including two pop-up TV education channels covering for 97% of households, more than 5,300 free internet connected smart devices delivered to socially less fortunate children, guidelines which encourage teachers to use a variety of online resources, cloud-based tools among other new approaches. “Traditional education system faces a lot of challenges and Ed-Tech is the way to solve it!” Znotiņš says.

Ed-TechEvolution is bringing together some of the brightest minds and some of the savviest investors in the field of Ed-Tech from the Nordic and Baltic regions to run a five-day intensive acceleration program, which in the spirit of our cause will be conducted entirely online. Mentors from more than 10 countries will be a part of this program. Apart from Mrs Ilvesa, our star squad of mentors includes Mart Aro of Teach Millions, Edgars Škutāns of uzdevumi.lv, Benjamin Bungert of Learn Launch Boston and two dozen other leading experts.

Ed-TechEvolution program will run from June 15 through June 19. Participants will be able to receive direct help and advice from 20+ highly experienced mentors, join workshops run by technological leaders in their fields, engage in thoughtful *fireside* convos with successful entrepreneurs, hear from and get heard by their fellow startupers as well as ask all of their burning questions. Winners will get development promotion awards from Ed-TechEvolution partners, including up to 3,000 euro for authors of the best ideas from Tet.

Each accepted team will be asked to set two individual ambitious goal that it will be expected to attain by the end of the program. The third goal will be common for all. The participants will be asked to conceptualise and shape their products for the scenario whereby the world gets engulfed in the second wave of Covid-19 pandemics and educational institutions are compelled to keep their classrooms shut during the semesters of 2020-21.

In addition to fledgling startups, we also welcome like-minded partners who are as passionate about the opening opportunities for Ed-Tech as we are. Partners of Ed-TechEvolution will be acknowledged in all of our outreach, marketing and representation activities leading up to the event; receive full access to Ed-TechEvolution deal flow before and during the program; get invited to take part in the selection of participants and vote to determine the winners on the final Expo Day.

Our goal is to scrutinise products and services with global potential, which are currently helping to address regional educational needs. We aim to equip local teams for rapid growth and scaling as well as to empower national ecosystems to take lead on industrial changes in the region.

In the words of Ieva Ilvesa, this crisis is “a golden opportunity” for Ed-Tech businesses. “But it requires a thorough effort to turn that opportunity into a long-term sustainable and meaningful benefit,” she adds. “Education and technology are extremely powerful tools with long-lasting impact on society, so let’s start to work on it now!”

“We are actively looking for the best solutions to facilitate education transformation process and hope to find some of those solutions at Ed-TechEvolution!” says Reinis Znotiņš.

We are looking for startups & teams that can shape the future of education. If all you have is an idea, definitely apply as well – we are planning an early-stage idea track. Let’s kickstart change together! Apply here – www.edtechevolution.org until 12 p.m. June 6^th, 2020.

Ed-TechEvolution is an international week-long all-online Ed-Tech accelerator, powered by  Lielvārds, Tet, Council of Riga and Altum. Partners: Latvian Ministry of Education and Science,  Estonia Ministry of Education and Research (Education Nation), University of Latvia, Teach Millions, Learn Launch, Council of Liepāja, Commercialization Reactor, Progressica, Contriber and Microsoft.