Sparkmind, Bolsa Social and Wayra join the social impact of Smowltech

Smowltech is growing, and with its first round of financing closing, it strengthens its mission and commitment to produce a global impact in education and society.

The social impact and our first round

The Spanish EdTech startup Smowltech closes its first round of financing of 1.65 million euros, led by social impact funds such as the Finnish Sparkmind, the Bolsa Social Fund, Wayra and other angel investors’ participation.

“Our commitment is to achieve a world with access to comprehensive and quality education, reducing the barriers that prevent it, thus creating better opportunities for all.

We are sure that solutions like ours have a positive social impact on users’ lives. Sharing these values, which are the basis of our business at Smowltech, allows us to continue innovating and improving the quality of our service”.

Ricardo Vea, CEO Smowltech

Social impact objectives of this funding round

At Smowltech, we work with different institutions to strengthen our social impact. More specifically, we want to facilitate access to quality education online. Our work links to several sustainable development goals, particularly access to quality education and CO2 reduction.

To do this, we are working on corporate social responsibility actions to achieve and measure the following objectives and indicators:

• Strengthen the quality of online training.
• Improve accessibility to university and corporate education.
• Reduce the environmental impact of travel to examination centres.

The news of our first round of financing acquisition was recently confirmed. This first round will allow us to grow and continue developing our SMOWL proctoring tool.

We want to thank everyone for the congratulations and the messages you are sending us. It has been an energy boost for the entire Smowltech team.

About us

Smowltech is an EdTech startup with a mission: to strengthen online learning to improve accessibility to quality education. We want to empower users to access new learning opportunities to improve their quality of life significantly.

With the closing of this first round of financing, we will continue to develop our proctoring technology. We are primarily strengthening the product and marketing teams and consolidating our presence in the European and Latin American markets.

Social impact and Sustainable Development Goals

Smowltech supports over 100 educational institutions, companies, and governments to provide confidence in online learning processes (exams, certifications, recruitment…).

The SMOWL monitoring solution is key to ensuring the credibility and quality of online education providers, as it significantly mitigates the risks of fraud during online assessments.

At the same time, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), online education can accelerate universal access to education. In that way, Smowltech can contribute to the generalization of quality education (SDG 4) while facilitating the development of students’ socioeconomic status.

In particular, online education helps overcome physical obstacles for all people. It removes geographical barriers for students located in remote places. In addition, it facilitates the social inclusion of low-income people who cannot afford travel or accommodation costs during training programs. Additionally, online education provides flexible learning pathways. That is for users who want to study to improve their socioeconomic status but have work schedules or family commitments incompatible with face-to-face training.

The main participants of our first round

To strengthen ourselves and fulfil our mission, we have been able to count on funds such as Sparkmind. The Bolsa Social Fund has also joined to help us produce a global impact on education and society. And another help has come from Wayra. Let’s get to know our new allies a little more closely.

Who is Sparkmind?

Sparkmind is the first Nordic venture capital fund focused exclusively on the learning sector. The Fund invests in teams that transform how the world learns from the early stage to B-Series.

Their investments focus on social impact solutions that improve learning outcomes, increase learning access and efficiency, or use data insights to better support educators and students.

And now, Sparkmind has decided to support our project’s first round of funding.

“Smowltech is responding to the increasing requirements on the reliability of learning outcomes in the age of accelerating use of online learning solutions and remote exam tools. Trusted e-proctoring solutions are not only increasingly needed in higher education but also in corporate learning and in the public sector. Enabling access to high-quality eLearning, reducing the need for travel and establishing a fair learning environment for all offer the foundations for future growth. We’re excited to build on the growth momentum the company has already generated.“

Marco Kyyrönen, partner at Sparkmind

About the Bolsa Social Fund

Bolsa Social Impacto FESE has also wanted to support our round of financing. The Bolsa Social fund is a social impact fund. It invests in early-stage Spanish startups (pre-seed, seed and A-series) with high growth potential and the mission of producing a measurable and positive impact on society and the environment. Registered by the CNMV as a European Fund for Social Entrepreneurship (FESE), it is supervised by the management company Analistas Financieros Internacionales (Afi Inversiones Globales, SGIIC). Its advisory team is led by José Moncada, founder of Bolsa Social. The Fund has invested in companies with an impact on health and well-being, inclusive and quality education, responsible production and consumption, climate action, and social integration and development.

Wayra also bets on the social impact of Smowltech

Wayra is the entrepreneurial initiative of Telefónica’s Open Innovation program. It has facilities in nine Latin American and Europe countries, through which it invests and supports different startups. In addition, the Wayra Activation Program offers entrepreneurs exclusive and free access to new technologies through Telefónica’s platforms.

Do you also want to contribute to the social impact of proctoring?

We still have a long way to go, and this funding round is just the beginning!

We strongly believe technology can have a relevant social impact, helping us reinforce online training quality.

If what you have read excites you, now is the time to look for your opportunity.

We are looking for profiles that can fit into our team and our values to continue growing.

Check the offers we have available, and if you want to become a Smowler and have a real social impact, we will be happy to meet you!