From Turku to millions of classrooms: three startups selected for UNICEF's Blue Unicorn program
With a focus on innovation and inclusion, UNICEF's Blue Unicorn program welcomes three startups from Turku in its first cohort: TeachersPro, GraphoGame, and Eduten. Entreprenerd spoke with the founders of the 3 startups, who told us about what this means for each of them and their next steps.
September, 2025.- A few days ago, while browsing LinkedIn, I came across a post that said something like: "Finland is recognized as the country of saunas, Santa Claus, and education." I found this very positive. I’m a staunch believer that lasting change is driven by education—and by ensuring children can access it.
One thing that makes you reflect on Finland’s path—this "young country" that gained full independence in 1917, after more than 700 years under Sweden and about 100 under Russia—is how it achieved growth and social stability: it invested in education for all. Today in Finland, education is free for children from first grade through university. Children are placed in the nearest school to their home, where classmates may be children of doctors, lawyers, janitors, engineers, and so on. There is no income-based gap to enter a "better" school. This is equity and universal access in practice.
An even more decisive factor is the teaching profession. In Finland, teachers are the strongest links in the chain. Only the most qualified candidates win a place in teacher-education programs—and they compete hard for those spots. Their salaries reflect their importance and rank among the country’s better-compensated public roles.
Crucially, Finland hasn’t stood still. It continues to improve teacher training and learning processes, and it actively encourages national and international talent to contribute to education. In this context, Turku recently received great news: three local startups were selected for UNICEF’s Blue Unicorn program, each contributing digital tools with the potential to accelerate learning for millions of children worldwide. They are TeachersPro, GraphoGame, and Eduten—aligned with Finland’s core pillars of education: teachers, students, and methodology.
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At Entreprenerd, we spoke with all three to learn about their roles in the program’s first cohort.
TeachersPro: A solution with a Latin American heart
TeachersPro was founded in 2015 after a decade of research led by Federico Malpica, a Mexican professional who spent over 25 years studying and working in Barcelona before moving to Finland. His goal: reorient teacher training to integrate the best of Finnish professional culture and pedagogy, with support from the University of Turku.
In collaboration with the university, the platform implemented competency certification for teacher training, integrating new tools as it evolved into TeachersPro 2.0. Today it draws on the experience of more than 30,000 users and multiple educational entities in 11 countries, incorporating generative AI to personalize feedback and a talent-management system for educators.
Speaking with Entreprenerd, Federico Malpica, Founder and Director of the Escalae Institute and creator of TeachersPro, explained what it means to be part of UNICEF’s initiative:
"For us, being selected as part of the Blue Unicorn Portfolio represents a very significant recognition of the transformative impact that TeachersPro can have on education worldwide. It is a validation of the sustained work we have carried out on the platform over the last nine years to professionalize teaching from a perspective based on evidence, competencies, and collaboration."
"This recognition not only honors us but also motivates us to continue strengthening our pedagogical and technological offering. Being part of the Blue Unicorns portfolio places us in a global network of innovative solutions with high potential for scalability and impact, which opens up new possibilities for collaboration, investment, and implementation in vulnerable and diverse contexts. Beyond visibility, we understand it as an ethical commitment to educational quality and equity."
"Our participation grew out of collaborative work with UNICEF in different regions, especially in Latin America, where TeachersPro is being piloted to support large-scale teacher professional development. Throughout the process, we shared with the UNICEF Office of Innovation evidence of impact, preliminary research results, and our methodological proposal, which combines mentoring, gamification, peer learning, and artificial intelligence. This comprehensive approach drew attention for its alignment with the SDGs and its ability to adapt to both high-tech contexts and environments with limited connectivity. Blue Unicorn was the result of a rigorous selection and curation process that assessed both scalability potential and the robustness of our pedagogical and technological model."
What’s next for TeachersPro?
"This distinction allows us to strengthen our growth strategy and, above all, deepen our mission to improve teaching quality through professional development. In the short term, we are expanding in countries such as Uzbekistan, Nigeria, Germany, Sweden, and Colombia, and exploring new institutional partnerships with multilateral organizations such as the International Organization of Catholic Schools, with whom we already have an agreement, as well as with universities and school networks in different regions."
"We are also developing version 3.0 of the platform, which will incorporate a peer-to-peer micro-coaching marketplace, personalized teacher learning paths, and new AI-powered features to track, evaluate, and certify the professional progress of each educator in a more precise and meaningful way."
"Being part of the UNICEF Blue Unicorn Portfolio gives us an ideal platform to connect with strategic partners who share our vision and can help make TeachersPro a transformative tool for millions of teachers and students worldwide."
GraphoGame: Combating childhood illiteracy through play
Grapho Group develops scientifically validated literacy tools for home and school, collaborating with internationally recognized universities, educators, and game developers to create engaging, evidence-based games that promote early literacy.
As they describe themselves: "We bring researchers, educators and game developers together to solve the global challenge of illiteracy. One in five people cannot read—let’s put an end to it."
This Turku-based edtech was also selected by UNICEF. Entreprenerd spoke with Mervi Palander, CEO and Founder of GraphoGame, about the recognition.
What does the Blue Unicorn selection mean for GraphoGame?
"Being selected for UNICEF’s Blue Unicorn portfolio is a tremendous honor and a strong validation of GraphoGame’s evidence-based approach to early literacy. It reinforces our commitment to delivering equitable, accessible, and high-impact learning solutions to children worldwide, especially those in underserved communities."
"Long-standing research partnerships, hundreds of RCT studies, and demonstrated learning outcomes aligned strongly with UNICEF’s focus on practical, evidence-based solutions. Following evaluation, GraphoGame was selected as one of only seven innovations for the first Blue Unicorn cohort."
What’s next?
"We are proud to launch in Malaysia as part of the Blue Unicorn portfolio, starting with extensive teacher training that has already received an enthusiastic response. After the initial pilot, our goal is to integrate GraphoGame as a permanent resource in the Malaysian education system. In parallel, we will work with global partners to scale to new countries, reaching millions more children with equitable, accessible early-literacy learning."
"We are also investing heavily in developing and researching literacy data to better understand learning progress and support early intervention", said Mervi Palander, CEO and Founder of GraphoGame.
Eduten: Math learning platform
Eduten began as a spin-off from the University of Turku, when a team of researchers set out to build better digital tools for children’s education. More than 15 years later, Eduten is a leading Finnish edtech company with a mission to help students reach their full academic potential.
Today, Eduten develops its technology in collaboration with the University of Turku to deliver engaging, scalable digital learning in classrooms worldwide.
As the company states: "Eduten is based on Finnish pedagogy. Its exercise library has been co-designed and validated with thousands of Finnish teachers. Eduten offers ready-to-use weekly math exercises for children aged 6 to 15. It is available in English and Spanish."
Entreprenerd spoke with Henri Muurimaa, CEO and Co-founder of Eduten, about joining the first Blue Unicorn cohort.
What does this recognition mean for Eduten?
"Being selected in the first official Blue Unicorn cohort is a huge honor, and we are proud of it. It widens our international visibility and reputation as a credible organization that implements national-scale projects on digital transformation of education systems. And of course, the practical side of joining the cohort is the pilot project we recently started with UNICEF in Malaysia."
Muurimaa adds, "We have been working with UNICEF since we won the original Blue Unicorn Award in 2022, and being selected is a testament to the work we’ve carried out together to create a collaboration model for UNICEF and various edtech companies. Before this, we and UNICEF implemented three country pilots with excellent results and many learnings; the latest pilot model builds loosely on those."
What’s next for Eduten?
"We are steadily pivoting to focus on national-level digital transformation projects. As seen in Mongolia, Bhutan, and Finland, the Eduten platform is an excellent backbone for the digitalization of education. We have several similar projects underway in addition to the UNICEF project in Malaysia."
"I believe this is the best example of leveraging Finnish educational expertise to help children and uplift countries around the world", said Henri Muurimaa, CEO and Co-founder of Eduten.
The First Blue Unicorns
The Blue Unicorn portfolio will help deliver UNICEF’s commitment to address the global learning crisis through practical, evidence-based innovation that delivers real results for children.
The selected solutions will be piloted and scaled in six Learning Pioneer countries: Egypt, Ghana, Malaysia, Rwanda, Uzbekistan, and Zimbabwe. All activities will be carried out in close collaboration with the respective ministries of education and UNICEF country offices.
"We are building a portfolio of solutions that can bring meaningful learning to millions of children. These ventures represent a new wave of innovation - inclusive, adaptive, and rooted in evidence. We are proud to help them scale in those education systems where children need them most", said Frank van Cappelle, Head of UNICEF’s Global Learning Innovation Hub, on UNICEF’s website.