3 days, 44 ideas, 8686 hours of hacking: Looking back at the EdTech Hackathon 2021

From October 15 to October 17, 2021, the most ambitious Estonian edtech hackathon brought together over 200 participants online, competing for over 18,000€ in seed funding. Teams divided into teams by Friday evening and began work through the night. The aim of the weekend - to deliver a pitch so striking and a prototype so effective that the jury would believe in its feasibility.

The participants were offered access to almost 30 mentors, impact players in a variety of edtech-related fields and subdomains from gamification to pedagogy. Additionally, the organizers offered three workshops over three days, offering a sturdy basis from which to create a functional business model. One that convinces potential investors from either the public or private sector.

The hackathon brought together over 200 participants online, competing for over 18,000€ in seed funding.

Representatives of the hackathon’s partners lined up on Sunday to listen to the TOP12 teams’ pitches and choose their favourites. The impactful work done by the hackathon organizers was supported by KredEx and the Startup Estonia governmental initiative. The Hackathon’s impressive prize fund received contributions from a variety of partners: the Estonian Education and Youth Board, Tallinn Education Department, Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs, Tallinn University of Technology, Bolt, Telia, Eesti Energia, LHV Bank and Lingvist. 

From the 44 teams hacking, 12 were chosen to pitch their idea in front of the jury. The organizers had originally prepared for only 10 teams to move into the finals, but taking into account the wealth of ideas and size of the prize fund, the finals were expanded.

The variety of ideas that received seed funding from the partners is impressive. From Moneygame, aiming to gamify financial literacy to the personalized digital learning platform NoVa, from two speech therapy environments SpeakTX and SpeachFix to Firstlesson whose aim is to simplify teaching digital skills to older students - it is clear that participants understood the breadth of problems and potential solutions within the edtech industry. 

Since freshly minted companies don’t only need funding, but other forms of support as well, the organizers of the EdTech Hackathon 2021 offered up a 3-month mentorship program for 5 of the best teams. The winners of the mentorship program will be announced this week. 

Currently, 84,2% of the participants are planning to continue working on their idea after the end of the hackathon.

Preregistrations for the next Hackathon were opened on the last day of the event. The coming EdTech Hackathon 2022 is hoped to be even more ambitious with more teams participating and several countries joining hands to make it happen.

Preregister here if you’d like to stay informed about the next hack.

View the backstage photos of the EdTech Hack 2021 opening and closing ceremony.

We created an energetic aftermovie from the hack which you can view here.