The three European finalists for the GESA Awards are now known. The Global EdTech Startup Awards (GESA) co-organized by MIndCET and PAU Education have seen this year more than 600 startups applying from 70 countries and among them more than 150 Europeans.
The three winners reflect the diversity of the edtech sector.
SocialTalent is a SaaS company that changes how people work through learning, whilst enabling companies to measure their Return on Learning (ROL).
Serious Factory has developed its own authoring tool to democratise 3D simulations and Serious Games.
Unió by Harness gives teachers a range of powerful tools to increase student engagement, monitor progress in real-time and personalise learning.
Edtech is experiencing a key evolution towards a major democratization, major users’ autonomy and major personalization.
Edtech should increasingly respond to three major questions:
– Does it work? What is the return on learning?
– How does it work? How easy is it to create our own learning scenario?
– For who does it work? Can we enable anyone to learn better?
But there is another trend I would like to highlight following the analysis of the GESA applications: Edtech, Fintech and Medtech are getting increasingly connected. Several of the GESA applicants are mixing these concepts to produce innovative proposals.
Financial education for instance appears to be directly connected to better learning at the university level Blackbullion helps students focus on their studies while managing their finances, one of the most stressful aspect of university life for most students.
More impressive is the move towards medtech done by several edtech startups.
Dromnibus is based on Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) to support the therapy of children with Autism. 3asyr helps dyslexics with reading difficulties to have an easier and better online reading experience. Noisolation tackles social isolation and loneliness of children and young adults with long-term illness.
Most of the fintech and medtech innovations are based on professional expertise and a clear promise of financial and social return.
A more intuitive approach was missing. This is what edtech provides: the importance of better learning experiences to improve our quality of life in all its dimensions.
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