EdTech companies blend innovation with teaching to allow for accessible and comprehensive education across the world. We have seen top learning institutions in the world adopt robotic teaching assistants, VR experience, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and virtual classrooms. The following are some of the African brains behind these startups;
Brainshare- Uganda
Brainshare was founded by Charles Muhindo. It is a mobile and web app for students to exchange notes, past papers, revision resources, and course work. It provides a common ecosystem of learning for teachers, parents, and students. The teachers upload assignments, notes, and facilitate the student discussions who access them at any place and time.
M-shule- Kenya
The Nairobi e-learning platform was founded in 2016 by Claire Mongeau (CEO) and Julie Otieno (CTO). It uses artificial intelligence to offer personalized education to primary schools across Africa. M-shule serves to bridge the gap between the learners in Africa and their counterparts in developed countries. So far, M-shule has completed a pilot project involving 4,000 students in 15 local primary schools.
Student Hub- South Africa
Student Hub was founded in 2015 by Kabeya Hertzy. It’s an e-commerce hub that offers smart technology education to students, the government and education institutions. It also publishes e-books that have links in efforts to support the students in their learning.
Ubongo- Tanzania
This startup was founded in 2013 by Nisha Ligon. It’s a local multi-education media platform accessed by millions of users through the accessible technology it uses. The educational cartoons teach kids basic Maths, Science, English, and problem-solving skills that they are encouraged to apply in changing the world around them. The edu-cartoons are watched in over 1.2 million homes in Africa each week. The cartoon characters interact with the kids answering any questions that they may have.
Tuteria- Nigeria
Tuteria was Co-Founded by Godwin Benson and Abiola Oyeninyi in 2015. The online/offline tutoring links professional tutors to students in their area within their budget.
Obami- South Africa
Obami was founded by Barbara Mallison. It creates an online community that integrates students and teachers in an educational set up for a learning experience. It allows people to share and discuss lessons and learning resources smoothly, provided they are connected to the internet.
Eneza Education- Kenya
This platform was co-founded by Toni Maraviglia, Kago Kagichiri, and Chris Asegotwo who were former members of Nairobi’s iHub. It gives access to education for students in rural areas with low income and low-end cellphones. With just 50 US cents a month, students aged between 11 years and 18 years can study Maths, Science, English and also take any other of the 2,000 quizzes with more than 16,000 questions. The students can also do a mini-lesson if they happen to score below 50%.
Beni American University- Nigeria
Gossy Ukanwoke is the president and the founder of Beni American University. It’s an online learning platform with the aim of providing every African adult or teenager with a post-secondary degree or diploma. At first, Gossy started Students Circle, an educational social network that offered academic materials to students. This idea later morphed into Beni American University. This startup is unique and one of its kind in the hole of Nigeria.
ZeduPad- Zambia
ZeduPad was designed by Mark Bonne, a British entrepreneur working in Zambia for over 3 decades. The computer tablet targets primary school children teaching them numeracy and literacy skills. It also has educational lessons for adults on topics such as health, farming, and financial literacy. ZeduPad is programmed in 8 different Zambian native languages and has 12,000 classes and lessons for untrained teachers in rural areas.
Clock Education- Nigeria
It is the work of Nigerian entrepreneur Kolawole Olajide. This is a free mobile app that gives access to learning resources to educators anywhere they are in the world. It is downloaded to a smartphone and students log in to the e-learning portal using a key code given by the university they are registered at. Clock education won the UN award for Best Tech Innovation in Education for meeting the UN’s Millenium Development Goals (MDG) in 2012.
