Differ adds capital investment from Learn Capital and Katapult

Differ (EdTech Foundry AS), an Oslo, Norway-based supplier of a chatbot for students, secured an undisclosed amount of capital. The money was provided by American investment company Learn Capital and by the local accelerator Katapult.

Differ was founded in 2016 by Geir Sand Nilsen and Kristian Collin Berge in response to a request from the BI Norwegian Business School. BI provided two years of space, money, and a mission to fix how the school uses technology to teach and learn.

Initially, Differ was born as a content-based business with proprietary educational materials developed to inspire dialogue and conversation amongst students.

The final version was initiated as having a a pilot using Slack with over 3,000 students. The company then went on to develop its own personal tool that acts as a messaging app for students and teachers in higher education, and uses chatbots to help create conversations between people.

Prior to this round, Differ secured NOK 8.5M from Innovation Norway's IFU scheme, BI Norwegian Business School and the investor Tharald Nustad.