Sparkmind.vc

Sparkmind.vc, established in 2017 and based in Helsinki, Finland, is a venture capital firm dedicated to the education sector. As the first Nordic venture capital company focused on learning, Sparkmind.vc targets companies that are innovating in early childhood, K12, higher, secondary, vocational, and corporate education, as well as lifelong learning. The firm typically makes investments ranging from seed to growth stages, with a maximum investment of €5 million per company. Sparkmind.vc primarily focuses on opportunities within Europe, supporting teams that are transforming educational experiences and outcomes.

Vesa Laakso

Partner

Vesa Laakso

Co-Founder and Partner

Kai Talas

Co-Founder and Partner

19 past transactions

Autovio

Series A in 2024
Autovio provides a digital platform and services for driving schools and learner drivers. Founded in 2021, the company offers a full-stack solution that includes mobile apps for instructors and learners, as well as marketing, sales, customer support and billing tools. The platform digitalizes operations and learning environments, enabling learner drivers to train and prepare for licensing online and to connect with nearby trainers. It also facilitates instructors in starting or scaling their driving-school businesses by delivering tools to manage administration and operations. By combining digital infrastructure with instructional services, Autovio aims to modernize driving education and improve the efficiency and accessibility of driver training.

Tiney

Series A in 2024
Tiney Limited is a childcare startup based in London, United Kingdom, that specializes in providing home nursery services with a focus on high-quality early years education. Established in 2018, Tiney aims to transform at-home childcare by ensuring that childcare providers are thoroughly verified and receive ongoing support. The company offers a comprehensive platform that includes a childcare management system, facilitating easy access for parents to a community of exceptional and affordable childcare options tailored to modern lifestyles. Tiney emphasizes play-based learning in safe environments that exceed national early education standards, allowing providers to concentrate on the care of children while alleviating the challenges associated with running a small business.

Swap Language

Seed Round in 2023
Swap Language is a language learning platform that specializes in delivering Danish lessons tailored for corporate clients and their international employees.

Tomorrow University of Applied Sciences

Series A in 2023
Tomorrow's Education is an innovative, AI-powered, fully personalized online university based in Europe, designed to redefine higher education by putting students at the center of their learning experience. The university utilizes advanced technology to deliver highly flexible, adaptable, and individualized educational pathways, setting new standards for learning. The key subjects are business & entrepreneurship, sustainability and inner development as well as technology, data and AI. Key Features: - Personalized Learning: Tomorrow's Education is the first state-recognized online university to provide a fully personalized learning experience that adapts to the unique needs, preferences, and schedules of each student. The platform leverages cutting-edge AI to ensure that each student’s journey is optimized for their success. - Multi-Lingual Education: The university supports multi-lingual learning with AI-powered live translation, making its content accessible to students around the world and fostering inclusive education regardless of language barriers. - AI Tutoring: Tomorrow’s Education integrates AI-driven tutoring to provide scalable, one-on-one support for students, improving the learning experience and boosting student outcomes. This model allows for high efficiency while maintaining high levels of student satisfaction. - High Retention & Success Rates: With a focus on student-centric learning, Tomorrow's Education boasts an very high retention rate and 95%+ job placement rate for graduates, highlighting the university's commitment to academic and career success. - Industry-Relevant Curriculum: The university partners with industry leaders to offer programs that are highly relevant to the current job market, ensuring graduates are well-equipped for success in their chosen fields. - Innovative Learning Environment: Tomorrow's Education provides a comprehensive, flexible, and immersive learning experience that empowers students to achieve their personal and professional goals while overcoming traditional barriers in higher education.

Oneday

Series A in 2023
Oneday aims to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs by delivering technology that automates large parts of the business launch process and integrates with universities to enable members to earn university credits as they build their ventures. Given that startup costs and complexity deter many would-be founders and that about 85% of new businesses fail, the company combines automation with academic partnerships to streamline launch activities and support sustained entrepreneurship.

Complori

Seed Round in 2022
Complori is a company dedicated to empowering children and teenagers with essential 21st-century skills to prepare them for the challenges of the digital era. The company offers an engaging and gamified web-based learning platform that provides online live group classes and a cutting-edge curriculum. Complori focuses on developing logical thinking, numeracy, communication, creativity, and resilience through programming training and other digital literacy programs. This makes it a top choice for parents seeking future-ready out-of-school activities for their children.

Kide Science

Convertible Note in 2022
Kide Science Oy is an educational service provider based in Helsinki, Finland, focused on fostering natural science learning for children aged 3 to 8 through play-based methods. Founded in 2017, the company offers a platform that equips educators and parents with story-based lesson plans and optional training, enabling them to engage children in hands-on experiments that address real-world science problems. Kide Science's research-backed pedagogical approach, developed from extensive academic work at the University of Helsinki, has successfully attracted over 1,000 preschools across 30 countries. The company also launched a teacher platform in October 2021, which has garnered free trial users from over 100 countries and reaches more than 1 million children. Additionally, Kide Science has collaborated with Sanoma to produce a book series and partnered with DreamWorks Animation to create themed lesson plans based on its popular Netflix series, Gabby’s Dollhouse, further enhancing its innovative approach to early childhood education.

Vygo

Seed Round in 2022
Vygo is an education platform designed to enhance the learning experience by connecting students with a network of mentors, advisors, and tutors. The platform organizes educational resources and social support services, allowing learners to easily access the assistance they need, regardless of their location. By facilitating connections with experienced tutors from various universities, Vygo enables students to book private classes and track their progress seamlessly. The platform aims to transform the social support ecosystem within educational institutions, ultimately improving student outcomes and expanding the impact of support services. With a focus on both on-campus and online interactions, Vygo is committed to advancing social education experiences in universities worldwide.

Wonderway

Seed Round in 2021
Wonderway is a sales performance platform that specializes in enhancing revenue generation through effective sales training. The company develops data-driven software aimed at improving the skills and knowledge of sales representatives. Its platform connects employees, managers, recruiters, and trainers through an automated e-learning dashboard, offering personalized learning plans, video tutorials, and digital training programs. Wonderway's use of machine learning enables it to tailor training to the specific needs of sales reps, facilitating quicker onboarding, certification, and upskilling. By providing real-time performance review reports and insights into training efficiency, Wonderway assists organizations in fostering a learning culture that not only develops employees but also helps them close deals more effectively.

Freeed

Funding Round in 2021
Freeed is a peer-driven platform for education professionals that originated in Finland in 2018. The company focuses on fostering a global community where teachers can share ideas, methods, and resources to enhance their professional development. By providing a channel for educators to present their professional profiles, Freeed facilitates collaboration and support among teachers both locally and globally. The platform serves as a comprehensive online resource, enabling educators to easily discover teaching materials and innovative ideas to aid their daily work.

Lexplore

Venture Round in 2021
Lexplore is a developer of a systematic reading development platform that focuses on early identification of dyslexia in children. Utilizing artificial intelligence, the company employs a novel screening method that analyzes eye movements during reading tasks to detect signs of dyslexia in school-aged children. The platform captures and records data from these eye movements, which are then processed through AI-based machine learning technologies to discern patterns associated with dyslexia. By identifying at-risk children in their early years of education, Lexplore aims to facilitate timely intervention and treatment, thereby improving reading outcomes and supporting children's educational development.

Dugga

Venture Round in 2021
Dugga is a developer of a digital assessment platform designed to enhance the quality and fairness of educational evaluations. The company offers a user-friendly, flexible, and secure system that supports various types of tests, exams, assignments, and national assessments. This platform is compatible with multiple devices, including PCs, Macs, iPads, and Chromebooks, making it suitable for all educational levels. Dugga focuses on facilitating learning for students while allowing teachers to concentrate on their primary role of teaching and supporting individual student development. By providing objective evaluation tools tailored to diverse needs, Dugga aims to improve learning outcomes and ensure equitable opportunities in the educational process.

Fretello

Seed Round in 2021
Fretello is a company dedicated to helping individuals learn and improve their guitar skills through innovative technology. Founded by guitarist Florian, the company has evolved into a comprehensive educational platform for guitarists of all levels. Fretello offers structured learning paths, tailored practice plans, daily workouts, an extensive song library, and interactive jam sessions. By combining insights from educational experts and professional musicians with advanced AI technology, Fretello aims to provide a thorough and effective learning experience that goes beyond teaching simple riffs or songs, focusing instead on mastery and continual improvement.

Playvation

Seed Round in 2020
Playvation Ltd., established in 2015 and headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, specializes in developing an online platform for story-based digital language learning services tailored to children aged between 3 and 10 years. The platform's flagship offering, Moomin Language School, provides group sessions, comprehensive learning materials, content units, and data/reporting tools to facilitate progress tracking and learning planning for educators and parents.

Kide Science

Seed Round in 2020
Kide Science Oy is an educational service provider based in Helsinki, Finland, focused on fostering natural science learning for children aged 3 to 8 through play-based methods. Founded in 2017, the company offers a platform that equips educators and parents with story-based lesson plans and optional training, enabling them to engage children in hands-on experiments that address real-world science problems. Kide Science's research-backed pedagogical approach, developed from extensive academic work at the University of Helsinki, has successfully attracted over 1,000 preschools across 30 countries. The company also launched a teacher platform in October 2021, which has garnered free trial users from over 100 countries and reaches more than 1 million children. Additionally, Kide Science has collaborated with Sanoma to produce a book series and partnered with DreamWorks Animation to create themed lesson plans based on its popular Netflix series, Gabby’s Dollhouse, further enhancing its innovative approach to early childhood education.

School Day

Seed Round in 2020
School Day is a student well-being platform that collects real-time survey data from students, analyzes it using AI, and provides actionable insights. This helps educators at classroom, school, and district levels improve learning outcomes by addressing barriers to learning.

FUZU

Series A in 2020
Founded in 2013, FUZU operates a mobile-first career development platform for users in emerging economies. It focuses on skill testing, recruitment, and learning, keeping users engaged through high-quality content and social network integration.

CanopyLAB

Seed Round in 2020
CanopyLAB is a Danish educational technology company based in Hvidovre, Greater Copenhagen. It has built an AI-powered social learning platform for corporate training, using personalization to deliver a fast, engaging, and future-proof learning experience. The company also develops white-label solutions for corporate learning and internal communication, and its LAB initiative collaborates with NGOs to promote the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and humanities.

Pandatron

Seed Round in 2020
Pandatron is a business transformation specialist, serving prominent clients such as Panasonic, Mitsubishi, and Skanska. It employs conversational AI coaching at scale, supporting thousands of employees in strategy execution, talent development, digital transformations, and cultural shifts. This approach enables personalized 1-on-1 coaching conversations, facilitating systemic issue diagnosis through collected coaching data.
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