Targeted Training
45 % of multilinguals don’t complete vocational upper secondary school, and the completion rate is lower for this group than for the rest of the population. There is therefore a great need for more adapted training that helps multilinguals learn the Norwegian words related to their vocational subject.
The KLAR series is a new and innovative way of conducting such training. Through an app, practice dictionary and language box, a bridge is built between the user’s vocabulary in their own mother tongue and corresponding words and expressions in Norwegian. The KLAR series gives users a good insight into the professional language required in their vocation, and is also an effective tool for learning the language.
Experience From Teaching
The founders of KLAR Kompetanse are two former upper secondary school teachers with a background in teaching vocational subject language. They got the idea for KLAR when they saw how multilingual students, and also other students with weak Norwegian skills, struggled to learn vocational language. The pedagogical approach, and the founders’ in-depth knowledge of learning vocational languages, are the company’s strongest competitive advantages. In piloting the tool, the founders discovered that Norwegian students also can benefit from the tool. They are therefore selling licenses to entire classes and schools, and not just individual students.
Rapid Growth
Today, the KLAR series is sold to schools, county councils and education offices, and has so far sold close to 2,000 books and has over 2,700 users of the app. The company has also been contacted by several NAV offices who want to get to know the products better. In addition, KLAR is exploring collaboration with the oil- and cleaning industry to create a pilot of the app that can be used in the corporate market, e.g. for HSE training.
Impact-Linked Financing
KLAR Kompetanse was part of our Impact Startup accelerator program in the autumn of 2022, and we invested in the company spring 2023. The founders’ ability to learn and execute impressed us, and the company is very successful in our focus areas by reducing dropouts and increasing work inclusion. The fact that they have a targeted niche product was the trigger for us wanting to collaborate more closely with the company. We see interest from both the corporate market and other countries, as well as possible synergies with our existing portfolio.
The company is in its early stage and has a clear impact profile. We have therefore chosen to invest with what we call the impact-linked variant of SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity). This is similar to what we have done in other early stage companies, such as Lifetools.