Insight
4 min read
A hospital video on medication safety is typically watched once and then forgotten. Hihaho, a platform from Assen, takes a different approach: users click through a table of contents, answer questions mid-clip and read subtitles in their own language, all without leaving the video. The company has been building tools since 2012 that allow organisations to enrich existing videos with more than seventeen types of interactive elements.
The idea is straightforward, but the execution requires a substantial layer of technology. Hihaho is a brand name of Icademy BV, and the first version of the platform appeared in early 2014, following a development process that began in 2013. The official release came in spring 2016. The platform has since generated a total of 20 million views on interactive videos, and a team of 23 people works from the company's head office on Kloekhorststraat in Assen.
Hihaho works as a layer on top of existing video. Organisations import content from platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo, Panopto, Kaltura or Mediasite and then add interactive elements via the Hihaho editor. These include clickable buttons, hotspots, pop-up menus, hyperlinked images, text and audio overlays, and multiple-choice questions. The result is a video that responds to the viewer rather than playing passively.
For training departments, the integration with learning management systems is particularly relevant. Hihaho supports SCORM and xAPI packages, allowing progress and results from the interactive video to flow back automatically to an LMS. This makes the platform applicable within formal e-learning programmes, not just for standalone instructional videos.
In October 2025, Hihaho launched an AI assistant that automates part of the manual work. The tool automatically generates a table of contents, produces multilingual subtitles and formulates activating questions based on the video content. The company has not disclosed exactly how much time this saves, but it lowers the barrier for organisations that do not have dedicated content strategists on staff.
Hihaho positions itself in the education sector, but its customer base extends further. In November 2020, 63 Dutch healthcare institutions joined forces to deploy interactive video learning through the platform. Sint Jansdal Ziekenhuis and Profportaal Zorg are well-known names in that group. In March 2021, Stichting AAP used the platform for an interactive tour.
That spread is no coincidence. Interactive video lends itself to any situation where a viewer needs to act on information, whether that is a nurse working through a protocol, a salesperson following a product demo or an employee reviewing onboarding materials. Hihaho therefore explicitly targets both learning and sales use cases.
CEO Mark Visser has been active in online learning for more than twenty-five years and served as a board member of the Dutch Council for Training and Education (NRTO) from 2015 to 2024. Co-owner and director Jeroen Krouwels has a background in instructional design and was previously involved in an ICT training institute. Anton de Boer and Hans de Graaf are cited as the initial founders in 2014 and are also involved with Icademy, the parent company.
Hihaho has not raised any external funding rounds. The company grew organically and, according to available estimates, generates annual revenue of around 2.5 million dollars. That is modest for a SaaS platform with international ambitions, but it also gives the company freedom in the choices it makes.
Those international ambitions are real. Hihaho has appointed a General Manager for the DACH region and is pursuing the North American market through a partnership arrangement under the name Xprtise. In the Australian and New Zealand market, collaboration runs through Digital Learning Bee. In December 2024, the company announced it would be present at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, a trade show not traditionally known as an EdTech venue, but one that serves as a stage for technology companies seeking visibility outside their own sector.
The pricing reflects the target audience. The starter plan costs €2,497 per year, the professional plan €4,997 and the enterprise subscription €9,997. These are amounts that small teams can afford, but that also fit the budgets of mid-sized training departments or commercial teams.
Hihaho demonstrates that EdTech does not have to grow exclusively from the Randstad. From Assen, the company built a product that is now deployed in multiple countries, with a team that has grown only modestly over more than a decade but appears to operate with stability. For other Dutch EdTech founders, the combination of bootstrapping and international partnerships is an approach worth examining, particularly now that investors in the sector have become more critical of scaling plans and cash burn. At the same time, the rise of AI features within existing video platforms is making the interactive video market more competitive: those who have already built a customer base and integrations are in a different position than a newcomer.
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