Target Global led a $3.5 million pre-seed round for Edukoya, an African-focused online learning platform that enables learners and their parents to access high-quality education.
Angel investors include, among others, 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.
Edukoya, founded in May but launched into beta in December this year by former Google Nigeria boss Honey Ogundeyi, aims to empower learners and their parents to take control of their learning by making it easier for them to access high-quality learning material and expert help.
The platform is specifically designed for Nigerian secondary school students. At least, that’s its current pitch. Edukoya offers exam preparation and homework tutoring 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as well as a data-driven question bank with step-by-step solutions and personalised performance tracking systems.
Public education in Nigeria is deplorable; there are far too many factors working against it, ranging from inadequate funding to incompetent teachers to poor government policy. As a result, only a small percentage of Nigerians have access to high-quality education.
The seven-month-old startup claims to provide a free supplementary learning platform as well as subscription packages with premium features geared toward K-12 learning and exam preparation. This offering combination is expected to reduce the disparity in quality education distribution. The platform operates entirely online, promoting self-paced learning and allowing learners to save time and money.
“At Edukoya, our vision is to reimagine online education for the next generation of Africans.” “Africa has the world’s fastest-growing school-age population, with over 260 million students and counting,” Ogundeyi, the founding CMO of Kuda Bank, said in a statement about the new investment. “Our goal is to democratize access and make high-quality instruction and content available to all students, regardless of where they live on the continent.”
Target Global Investment Director Lina Chong stated, “We [Target Global] are delighted to lead this investment and partner with Ogundeyi and her impressive team of education technology pioneers.” “Edukoya’s mission to improve the quality of education for millions of African students, combined with the team’s ability to carry out that mission, made an immediate impression on myself and the entire Target Global team.” Their company has the potential to unlock learner potential and improve people’s lives all over the world.
This is the largest pre-seed investment in African edtech, as well as the largest investment raised by a single Nigerian female founder. The funds will be used to move the company from beta to live launch in Nigeria by 2022. It will also expand its online curriculum content coverage and on-demand tutoring feature for secondary school students, as well as accelerate its product and technology development.
In terms of funding, the African edtech scene got off to a slow start this year, but it is finally picking up steam. Despite the fact that it is a large market to serve, competition is increasing with the presence of platforms such as uLesson, which recently secured a $15 million check to double-down on the same market segment Edukoya is targeting.
However, regardless of who launches first, it is still too early to predict who will emerge as the industry leader.
