EDINA
EDINA is a digital expertise centre at The University of Edinburgh operating subscription mapping, geospatial, computational notebook, and generative AI platforms — principally Digimap, Digimap for Schools, Noteable, and ELM — for UK universities, K-12 schools, and public-sector clients.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1996
- HeadquartersEdinburgh, United Kingdom
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What EDINA does
EDINA is a digital expertise centre operating within The University of Edinburgh, established in 1996 as a unit providing data and digital services to the UK education and research community. It runs a portfolio of subscription data platforms and a bespoke consultancy practice, employing 51–100 staff at its Edinburgh headquarters. Its customers are primarily UK Higher and Further Education institutions, primary and secondary schools (over 3,500 British schools use Digimap for Schools), and public-sector organisations requiring geospatial, AI, or digital product engineering support.
The product suite centres on six offerings. ELM is a generative AI innovation platform providing compliant access to Large Language Models with Retrieval Augmented Generation, agentic workflows, and ETL capabilities. Noteable is a browser-based computational notebook service used to create and share coding lessons. The Digimap platform delivers Ordnance Survey, historical, geological, LiDAR, and marine mapping data to UK universities and colleges by institutional subscription; Digimap for Schools is a cross-curricular mapping service for K-12 learners aged 5–16+. agCensus is a proprietary agricultural census time-series database for England, Scotland, and Wales, with algorithms converting government small-area data into 2km, 5km, and 10km grid squares. Consultancy Services provides bespoke AI, geospatial, and application development work for education and public-sector clients. Technology integrations include Angular, OpenLayers, and Angular Material Components, with data partnerships across Ordnance Survey, National Library of Scotland, Getmapping, Collins Bartholomew, Natural Earth, Overture Maps, and Geograph.
EDINA monetises through three primary streams: tier-priced institutional subscriptions for Digimap and Digimap for Schools (£123/£198/£234 per year excluding VAT for primary, secondary, and international schools respectively); not-publicly-disclosed institutional agreements with universities and colleges for Digimap; and bespoke consultancy engagements. Distribution combines a self-serve subscription portal for schools, direct institutional sales for Higher Education, and enterprise field sales for consultancy. The Free Access Scheme, funded by Ordnance Survey, provides free 12-month subscriptions to schools in the lowest 8% of deprived areas, seeding long-term adoption. Marketing is multi-channel — a monthly newsletter, organic social (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram), YouTube content, free training webinars, and a curated learning resources library of 143+ items.
EDINA firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- EDINA
- Legal name
- EDINA
- Website
- https://edina.ac.uk
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1996
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- EDINA is a digital expertise centre at The University of Edinburgh operating subscription mapping, geospatial, computational notebook, and generative AI platforms — principally Digimap, Digimap for Schools, Noteable, and ELM — for UK universities, K-12 schools, and public-sector clients.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
EDINA industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Educational Geospatial Software and Services
- NAICS
- Educational Services (611), Educational Support Services (611710)
- SIC
- Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Digital Learning, EdTech Enablement & Connectivity for Education (BPADAKAH)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Interactive Presentation & Lesson Delivery Engagement Tools (EDAFAGAJ), Interactive Practice & Skill-Building (Drills, Games, Mastery Practice) (EDAFACAC)
Keywords
Where EDINA is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Edinburgh
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
EDINA business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Digimap Subscription: Annual subscription-based access to online mapping and spatial data services for UK Higher and Further Education institutions. Subscription model with institutional licensing.
- Digimap for Schools Subscription: Annual subscription for K-12 schools in Great Britain and international schools. Priced by school type (Primary: £123, Secondary: £198, International: £234 per year excluding VAT).
- Consultancy Services: Bespoke professional services including AI and GenAI, geospatial and academic data engineering, web and mobile application development, and digital product design. Delivered by dedicated team of geospatial, computational and AI engineers.
- agCensus Data: Agricultural census time-series database accessible through Digimap for academic institutions. Data provided in various formats including csv, shapefiles and geotiffs.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | Primary Schools - Annual Subscription |
| Subscription | Annual | Secondary Schools - Annual Subscription |
| Subscription | Annual | International/All Through Schools - Annual Subscription |
| Subscription | Annual | Free Access Scheme |
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | 30-Day Free Trial |
| Subscription | Annual | Teacher Training at University - Free Access |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels8 records
EDINA product offering
Product offeringCore offering
EDINA provides digital products and services for education and research, including subscription-based online mapping and spatial data delivery (Digimap and Digimap for Schools), an AI innovation platform providing access to Large Language Models (ELM), a cloud-based computational notebook service (Noteable), a grid-square standardised agricultural census database (agCensus), and bespoke consultancy services in AI, geospatial and digital product development for the education and public sectors.
Product overview
EDINA is a world-class centre for data and digital expertise at the University of Edinburgh, established in 1984 and operating as a multi-product platform provider for education and research. The product portfolio comprises six distinct offerings: ELM® for AI innovation providing safer access to Generative AI via Large Language Models with RAG and agentic workflows; Noteable® for cloud-based computational notebooks enabling coding lessons accessible from any browser; the Digimap® suite including the core Digimap subscription service for UK Higher and Further Education (featuring Ordnance Survey, historical, geological, LiDAR, and marine mapping data) and Digimap for Schools for primary and secondary education (supporting learners aged 5-16+ with cross-curricular geography, maths, literacy, and history content); agCensus for agricultural census time-series data across England, Scotland, and Wales standardized into grid representations; and Consultancy Services leveraging over 30 years of geospatial, computational, and AI engineering expertise. The company also offers specialized expertise in geospatial and satellite data, computational learning, text and data mining, e-preservation, and machine learning.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- ELM: An AI innovation platform, launched at The University of Edinburgh, providing a safer, central gateway to Generative Artificial Intelligence via access to Large Language Models.
- Noteable
- Digimap
- Digimap for Schools
- agCensus
- EDINA Consultancy Service
Quantifiable outcome
- Adopted by thousands of British schools and growing international community
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use EDINA
Customer profileNamed customers10 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
EDINA technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability7 records
Feature6 records
EDINA partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Ordnance SurveycoreCollaboration on the Free Access Scheme providing Digimap for Schools free of charge for schools in deprived areas. Ordnance Survey funds approximately 1700 eligible schools. Also primary data provider for Digimap and Digimap for Schools mapping data.
- National Library of ScotlandcoreData provider for historical maps in Digimap for Schools. Provides 1890s and 1950s historical mapping coverage of Great Britain.
- GetmappingcoreProvides aerial photography for Digimap for Schools. Offers contemporary aerial imagery at multiple scales.
- Collins BartholomewcoreProvides Collins Bartholomew World Panorama reference mapping showing international boundaries and disputed territories for all countries.
- TwinklminorEducational resources company partnered to provide lessons and activities using Digimap for Schools mapping service.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights5 records
EDINA competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Pearson: Pearson is a global education publishing and assessment company with a UK schools business covering curriculum, assessment, and digital learning tools. Comparable as a broad incumbent serving UK K-12 and HE with digital products that overlap education-technology procurement budgets EDINA addresses.
- Ordnance Survey: National mapping agency of Great Britain and primary data provider for EDINA's Digimap suite. Operates OS Maps and OS data products and funds the Free Access Scheme for schools. Both partner with and partially overlap with EDINA in delivering mapping products to education and public sector customers.
- Google Earth (Google for Education): Google Earth and Google Workspace for Education provide geospatial exploration and classroom tools freely to schools worldwide. A broad incumbent offering overlapping mapping functionality that competes with Digimap for Schools but lacks Ordnance Survey-grade UK data and curriculum integration.
Direct peers
- Esri UK: Esri UK is the UK distributor of Esri's ArcGIS platform and operates an established Schools programme bringing GIS into UK classrooms. Direct competitor to Digimap/Digimap for Schools in providing geospatial tools, data, and curriculum resources to UK education.
- Twinkl: UK-based educational resources and lesson-plan platform serving primary and secondary schools with curriculum-mapped content. EDINA has a GTM partnership with Twinkl to deliver lessons built around Digimap for Schools, making Twinkl a complementary and partially overlapping EdTech peer in the same schools segment.
- Google Colab: Google Colab is a free cloud-based Jupyter-style computational notebook environment aimed at teaching, learning, and data science. Direct functional peer to EDINA's Noteable cloud notebook service and a competitor for educational coding/STEM use cases in HE and FE.
Others
- UK Data Service: ESRC-funded national data service providing access to key economic, social, and population data for research and teaching. EDINA's Head of Services sits on its leadership committees; comparable as a UK research-data infrastructure peer serving the same HE customer base.
- Digital Curation Centre: Digital Curation Centre is a sister service at the University of Edinburgh providing digital curation guidance and tools for UK research and education. Operates under the same university umbrella as EDINA and shares Business Development leadership; comparable as an adjacent research-data and EdTech support service.
- Jisc: Jisc is the UK not-for-profit digital, data, and technology agency for higher education and research. Operates shared national infrastructure (including the Jisc Data Archive and Janet network) comparable to EDINA's Digimap and Noteable services serving UK universities and research communities.
Emerging players
- Mapbox: Mapbox provides APIs and SDKs for building custom map-based applications for web and mobile. Comparable to EDINA's Noteable/Digimap stack as a mapping and location platform provider, focused on developers and enterprise rather than education directly.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
EDINA social profiles
Digital presenceEDINA compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance4 records
EDINA financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
EDINA leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles6 records
EDINA funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
EDINA M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments1 record
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about EDINA
What does EDINA do?
EDINA provides digital products and services for education and research, including subscription-based online mapping and spatial data delivery (Digimap and Digimap for Schools), an AI innovation platform providing access to Large Language Models (ELM), a cloud-based computational notebook service (Noteable), a grid-square standardised agricultural census database (agCensus), and bespoke consultancy services in AI, geospatial and digital product development for the education and public sectors.
Is EDINA a public or private company?
EDINA is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently operating.
When was EDINA founded?
EDINA was founded in 1996. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is EDINA based?
EDINA is headquartered in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does EDINA make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Digimap Subscription is the primary driver. The others are digimap for Schools Subscription, consultancy Services and agCensus Data.
Who are EDINA's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Pearson, Ordnance Survey and Google Earth (Google for Education). Direct peers are Esri UK, Twinkl and Google Colab. Others are UK Data Service, Digital Curation Centre and Jisc. Mapbox is listed as an emerging player.
Does EDINA have an API?
No public API is recorded for EDINA.
What industry is EDINA in?
EDINA's product category is Educational Geospatial Software and Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPADAKAH, Digital Learning, EdTech Enablement & Connectivity for Education, with a secondary code of EDAFAGAJ, Interactive Presentation & Lesson Delivery Engagement Tools. Its NAICS code is 611 and its SIC code is 8200.