Kenyan e-learning platform, Kidato has announced that it has closed a seed round of $1.4 million post Y-Combinator Demo Day. With this new investment, the company will expand its growth and product development, enabling it to help shape the future of education in Africa.
Among the startup’s new investors are Learn Start Capital, Launch Africa Ventures Fund, Graph ventures, Century Oak Capital, an Ivy League university endowment fund as well as other notable local and global angel investors including some of Kidato’s students’ parents.
Learning made easier and more fun
Launched in 2020 by Kenyan serial entrepreneur, Sam Gichuru, Kidato is built around the idea that learning is a lifetime experience, therefore it should not be boring but fun and rewarding, the same way it is to watch videos on Youtube or play Minecraft and Roblox.
Having understood how those platforms work, Kidato is redefining learning for kids by incorporating built-in behavior reward mechanisms such as lesson merits into its teaching methods to offer learners interesting and enjoyable virtual classes.
Some of the pain points plaguing Africa’s educational system range from overcrowded public schools, expensive tuition fees in private schools, distance, poorly motivated teachers to a noticeable absence of personalized attention for learners.
As such, the eight-month-old edtech startup aims to solve these challenges by building an online K-12 school in Africa that ensures better learning outcomes in smaller personalized class sizes comprising an average of 1:5 teacher-student ratio, complemented by highly trained and well-motivated tutors, and a comprehensive extracurricular program for socialization.
A win-win situation for everyone
The demand for online education has grown from the convergence of a fast-growing middle class and high internet penetration with enabling infrastructure services such as Zoom that has seen easier adoption of remote work.
With Kidato’s one laptop per student program, there will be less burden on parents in purchasing new hardware and software on enrollment. Also, parents will be able to spend more time with their children as geographic constraints, as well as long commute time in highly congested cities, are reduced.
Since traditionally learning enrichment centers are only available in affluent suburbs, Kidato’s after-school offerings have democratized supplementary skill-based learning ensuring that every child with a gadget and internet can access live interest-based learning from anywhere in Africa and beyond.
With what result? This innovative approach has seen Kidato grow by over 100% to 700+ registered students from 8 countries around the world; Kenya, Tanzania, UK, United States, Malawi, Canada, UAE & Switzerland taking its coding, chess, art, Swahili & debate courses at a price as low as $5 per lesson.
Unlike traditional schools that don’t incur infrastructural costs like real estate, Kidato’s revenue made from students doesn’t go into any extreme costs but increases tutors’ wages.
Commenting on this, Gichuru says, “Our teachers are paid at least one and a half times more than the average teacher in a private school, and that has driven a great supply of teachers to us.”
Gichuru adds that if teachers combine their efforts in both normal and afterschool classes, they can earn an average of $2,000 on a monthly basis.
As one of the fastest growing online schools with both an academic and after-school offering, the startup is on a mission to partner with both local and international universities and corporations to create knowledge sharing platforms for its tutors and students.
Leveraging such partnership will help Kidato align its after-school classes to include monthly educational field trips which, increasing our students’ exposure to the practical needs of the industries they expect to get into.
With the belief that the future of Africa is dependent on what today’s generation is learning, Kidato hopes to change the face of education for millions of students across Africa within the next 10 years.
Featured Image: Sam Gichuru, Founder, Kidato
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