By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigerian education tech startup, Edves, has raised $575,000 to improve products and bring more schools online by digitizing learning and administration to ensure multi-curricular lesson delivery online and offline.
The funding round, which was oversubscribed, was led by Beta Ventures along with Launch Africa, Chinook Capital (follow on) and Future Africa.
According to Semrush, SimilarWeb and Google Analytics, Edves was the most used indigenous Edtech platform for K-12 schools learning continuity and end-of-term examination in Nigeria between March and September 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and school lockdown.
As a digital infrastructure, the startup enables collaboration between teachers, parents and administrators to deliver education, and collaborate on learners’ progress on learning goals, tracking and analyzing learning outcomes. Since its inception, over 790 schools have used the software to automate operations in Nigeria, Ghana and Zimbabwe.
The CEO/co-founder, Mr ‘Dimeji Falana, and COO/co-founder, Mr Dare Adebayo, said that the fund would fuel product improvement, the release of new offerings to address fresh consumer needs in the Nigerian market and major segments in other African markets.
On the part of Beta. Ventures (BV) General Partner, Ovo Emorhokpor commented on their decision to invest in Edves, “Beta. Ventures has a clear mandate to support exceptional African startups and entrepreneurs bringing actual value to Nigeria and other African communities. We have witnessed Edves firsthand and seen how they deliver on their promise to digitise the learning process in and out of the classroom in Africa.
“We are thrilled to be part of their journey as they scale their offerings and expand into new markets. Beta Ventures is an early-stage investor, focused on partnering with high-potential technology entrepreneurs that are building significant companies for the African market.”
According to Mr Zachariah George, Managing Partner at Launch Africa Ventures commenting on their investment rationale saying, “With nearly 60 per cent of Africa’s population of 1.4 billion being under the age of 25, digital teaching and learning is a must-have and not a nice-to-have.
“Schools all over the continent need easy-to-use, secure learner management software that encompasses all school needs by addressing specific challenges with capturing data, paperwork, and improving every area of school operations.
“With its proprietary technology, presence in 3 countries and nearly 800 institutions already onboard in Nigeria alone, we feel very confident in the EdVes team’s ability to tackle this huge opportunity head-on.”
Mr Suru Avoseh, General Partner Chinook Capital shared the rationale for the decision to back Edves for the second time. “At the height of the unexpected COVID-related lockdown, the demand for Edtech products scaled globally (further market validation), however many schools were caught unaware and paid an expensive price to work around the situation. What Edves has done is to introduce innovative technology that makes this transition to digital education seamless at a cost-effective rate.
“That’s why we invested in Edves and the team. The adoption and demand for their products have been impressive with a reach of over 780 schools in Nigeria with 350,000+ connected players (educators, parents and students).
“To realize its ambitions to play at a bigger scale, a regional expansion is necessary and our aim is to continue to support Edves’ efforts to achieve the long-term goal: To become the operating system for k-12 schools in emerging markets”.
On his part, Mr Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Managing Partner, Future Africa noted -“Dimeji and Dare are tenacious technology entrepreneurs in the education space. We’re particularly excited about their execution and growth over the years, especially supporting parents and schools during COVID. A lot of opportunities exist with education in Africa.
“The particular problem that Edves solves is critical to education management. It frees up teachers’ time to focus on more important tasks and helps parents stay abreast of their child’s educational progress. We’re excited to partner with them to build the future of learning in Africa.”
Modupe Gbadeyanka