Globally, technology has become the driver of every sector of the economy. From financial services to agriculture, transportation, and even education, technology is revolutionising businesses in all spheres of life.
Today, tech startups are deploying different solutions to address challenges in each of these sectors. Education, for instance, is witnessing dramatic changes with the emergence of companies deploying innovative solutions to address educational challenges.
Now known as edtechs, many of these companies are springing up in Nigeria and gaining global attention through the number of investments they have attracted in recent years.
While these companies may not have been getting as much as the fintechs, here are the top five edtechs in Nigeria that have raised significant amounts of funds to bolster their valuation:
Edves – US$575,000
Edves is a developer of school management software designed to automate school processes from student enrollment to graduation. Founded in 2016, the company’s portal allows school owners to know school fee defaulters and set reminders, educators to generate annual reports of students, and parents to track student performance, enabling teachers, administrators, and parents to reduce paper works in schools and streamline school processes.
In September 2021, the company raised a US$575,000 seed funding round to help it improve its product and bring more schools online. Last month, Edves co-founder, ‘Dimeji Falana, disclosed that the company is now seeking $2.5million in Pre-Series A, “to fund our source of growth and expand.”
AltSchool – $1 million
AltSchool was founded in October 2021 as a sub-institution of TalentQL, a tech talent outsourcing company. The company hopes to eradicate poverty by democratising access to tech training to just about anybody in Africa. The institution doesn’t charge for tuition and after the training, helps the students find job placements.
The company in February 2022 raised $1 million in pre-seed funding to scale its efforts. AltSchool says the fund would be used to advance investment to build its content and curriculum, technology infrastructure, and community concept that allows students to meet offline to network and learn together.
Teesas – $1.6 million
Teesas, which was founded by Osayi Izedonmwen the owner of Imose Technologies, offers video classes and other digital educational material for learners in Nigeria. Teesas’ content is aligned with Nigeria’s national curriculum and is offered to learners in both live and recorded versions, with a monthly subscription starting at $6. The company also provides local language courses in addition to regular schoolwork.
In December 2021, Teesas closed a pre-seed round investment of $1.6 million to bridge the educational gap through tech. The round was led by Haresh Aswani, Tolaram Group’s Africa managing director, with participation from Olivegreen Advisory Partners, an Africa-focused venture studio, and other angel investors.
Edukoya – $3.5 million
Edukoya says it wants to empower learners and their parents to take control of their learning and make it easier for them to access high-quality learning material and expert help. The startup was founded in May 2021 but launched into beta in December the same year by former Google Nigeria boss, Honey Ogundeyi.
Edukoya secured its first major funding in December last year as it raised $3.5 million in a pre-seed round led by Target Global. Participating in the round are angel investors like Shola Akinlade, co-founder/CEO of Paystack, Babs Ogundeyi, and Musty Mustapha, co-founders of Kuda, Brandon Krieg, and Ed Robinson, co-founders of Stash and Raffael Johnen, CEO of Aux Money—among others.
ULesson – $25.6 million
ULesson was founded by Nigerian serial founder Sim Shagaya in 2019. The company provides educational services intended to guide students in learning educational content. The company’s services integrate mobile platforms, secure digital (SD) cards, a culture-specific curriculum, and a network of tutors to provide practice tests and tailored content around math, physics, chemistry, and biology, enabling students to learn and prepare for their exams and respond to the syllabi.
ULesson is so far the most capitalised edtechs in Nigeria. The company has sealed three rounds of funding, the latest being the $15 million series B funding it secured in December last year.
Before that, the company had raised $7.5 million in January 2021. Less than a year after it was established, ULesson had closed a $3.1 million seed round. So far, the company had raised a total of $25.6 million to bolster its edtech services in Nigeria.
There are other Edtech that have not received funding that are bootstrapping but have become a High end solution for safer learning. With the likes of Lecturemeet you can schedule classes at your own time and schedule, learn various courses and skill and even find a tutor if you don’t want to subscribe to a learning plan.
We have amazing Edtechs in the system that have provided better ways of learning.