All parents want only the best for their children – a solid education, a supportive environment, exciting future career prospects, and useful edtech tools that will help them and their children achieve all of the above. With digitalization taking over and the pandemic dictating the new reality, it’s hard to find something that matches global trends but also fits in with the standards of the local education system.
We are ready to save your time and stop searching for such innovative edtech solutions. Here we present to you the map of edtech startups in South-East Europe that will help your child or their school to better prepare for a new school year.
Bulgaria
Name: Ucha.se and Eduboom
Founders: Darin Madzharov, Nikolai Jeynov (2012)
To concentrate: online tutoring
Total funding: around €415K (seed)
Ucha.se is an edtech platform whose mission is to inspire Bulgarian children to learn. The company offers lessons and video tests to Bulgarian students of all grades according to the country’s public school system. Currently, more than 60% of Bulgarian schools are subscribed to the platform. In 2020, Ucha.se expanded internationally with the multilingual Eduboom version, now available in Romania, Italy and Spain.
Also discover The Recursive podcast episode with company co-founder and CEO Darin Madzharov.
Name: Shkolo.bg
Founders: Miroslav Djokanov, Lyubomir Vanyov, Simeon Predov, Alexander Stoyanov (2016)
To concentrate: school management software
Total funding: N / A
Shkolo is a software solution which eliminates the use of paper notebooks in Bulgarian schools and provides them with the electronic version instead. The company optimizes schools’ back-end and administrative processes, allowing teachers to deliver lessons online, students to check their grades, and parents to track the extracurricular activities their children are participating in.
The company has become the main platform for the digitization of education in Bulgaria, which has led to the use of electronic diaries in all schools in the country from autumn 2022.
Name: Mind Hub
Founders: Polly Yankova (2015)
To concentrate: coding
Total funding: N / A
MindHub is a computer platform for teaching programming to children aged 6 to 18. Based on gamification, the company offers out-of-the-box courses with a franchise model that has already created a network of coding schools.
Romania
Name: Kinderpedia
Founders: Evelina Necula, Daniel Rogoz (2014)
To concentrate: school management software
Total funding: around €3.6M
Kinderpedia is a school communication and management SaaS platform that optimizes administrative processes in schools and kindergartens in Romania and abroad. The platform offers full virtual classroom features, including gradebook, video teaching, attendance checking, and progress reports.
Name: Brio
Founders: Dragos Iliescu (2016)
To concentrate: student performance assessment
Total funding: approximately €1.4 million (start-up)
Brilliant is an online educational testing platform for Romanian students of all levels. The platform assesses students’ academic performance by offering tests approved by the Romanian Ministry of Education, in areas such as mathematics, history, literacy and digital literacy, and the Romanian language.
Name: Ascendia
Founders: Alex Malureanu (2007)
To concentrate: educational content tool
Total funding: approximately 876K€
Ascendia is a Romanian e-learning company that creates e-learning content. Present in 9 countries, the company is the first edtech listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Its main product, Booksq, is a course editing tool that helps publishers create digital textbooks. In 2021, Ascendia also won a tender for €3.5m to execute the largest public sector edtech project in RomaniaEdulib, which will develop and adopt digital infrastructures and tools in the local education system.
Name: Adservio
Founders: Alexander Holicov (2008)
To concentrate: school management software
Total funding: approximately €2.2 million
adservio is an online school management platform for schools and kindergartens approved by the Ministry of Education of Romania. The platform is available in 9 languages and just raised 2M€ in a funding round led by Catalyst Romania.
Name: iziBac
Founders: Raluca Bacinschi-Stratulat, Adrien Stratulat (2017)
To concentrate: gamified exam tutoring
Total funding: around 190K€
IziBac is an educational mobile application that offers preparation for national Romanian high school exams through a learning process through gamification. Led by a former teacherIziBac offers video lessons focused on user engagement and knowledge retention.
Name: DO-IT
Founders: Daria Cupareanu (2021)
To concentrate: social app
Total funding: N/A (priming)
DO IT is an interactive mobile application that provides young people with social interaction while developing their skills through effective and fun challenges ranging from cooking to critical thinking and other group challenges.
Greece
Name: Meby
Founders: Eimantas Bekeza, Silvestras Stonkus (2019)
To concentrate: online tutoring
Total funding: around 1M€
Member is a Lithuanian startup that entered the Greek edtech market last year after closing its pre-seed round with 850K€ led by Change Ventures. The company offers online tutoring services for high school students. Focused on student engagement, Memby is a digital platform offering group sessions where students can ask questions in real time, participate in group discussions and test their knowledge during and after the course.
Name: Morphs
Founders: Anna Natsvlishvili, Alexandros Pithamitsis, Vasiliki (Ilia) Tzotzopoulou (2021)
To concentrate: soft skills development
Total funding: N / A
Morphs is an educational platform focused on developing children’s soft skills through social-emotional learning. The company works with educational institutions, as well as corporate employers who wish to offer benefits to their employee-parents.
Name: Woli
Founders: Vasilis Zoupas, Philip Antonopoulos
To concentrate: educational fintech
Total funding: approximately 700K€ (priming)
Woli is a Greek fintech who also deserves to be on the list among his edtech peers. Woli helps kids and teens (ages 10-18) learn about personal finance and develop good financial skills from an early age. The company is developing a debit card and money app that helps parents automate pocket money and kids learn how to use it effectively.
Name: Classify
Founders: Nikolaos Nukou
To concentrate: school management software
Total funding: around 612K€ (start-up)
binder is an end-to-end modular platform solution for the digitization of academic processes in K12 schools, higher education institutions and other academic centers. The company streamlines administrative operations, such as managing admissions and registrations, student and alumni engagement, transportation, and billing.
Kosovo
Name: Labbox Education
Founders: Arta Zaimi (2019)
To concentrate: electronics, engineering
Total funding: around 452K€
Labbox Education is an edtech startup that helps kids learn about science, electronics, and computer engineering while engaging them in fun, interactive challenges on a learning platform app.
If you are curious to learn more about edtech startups in South East Europe and their innovative educational and technological solutions, also check out our other articles:
