Nigerian ed-tech startup, Edves, said it has secured seed funding of $575,000 to improve its products and bring more schools online.
Beta Venture led the funding round, which was oversubscribed. Other participating investors include Launch Africa, Chinook Capital (follow on), and Future Africa.
Edves said this new funding round will allow it to improve its products by enabling the release of new offerings to address fresh consumer needs in the Nigerian market and major segments in other African markets.
Founded by Dimeji Falana and Dare Adebayo, Edves is a cloud-based school management software platform. It provides an integrated suite of services, allowing schools to manage report cards, fees payment, digital learning, student enrolment and much more.
The platform also allows parents to view certain details about their children/wards as well as pay fees on the platform. Considering that not all parents are tech-savvy, these details can be accessed via text, email, an app or the web platform itself.
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.
As part of its digital infrastructure efforts, the company also enables interaction between teachers, parents and administrators to deliver education and means of collaborating on learners’ progress on learning goals, track and analyse learning outcomes.
The startup announced a seed round investment of $120,000 in 2018 from Chinook Capital and CcHub’s Growth Capital. The company automates learning in Nigeria, Ghana, and Zimbabwe and boasts of over 790 schools that have used the software.
Speaking of the funding, Ovo Emorhokpor, a general partner at Beta Ventures, said his company’s mission is to assist entrepreneurs and exceptional African companies that add real value to Nigeria and other African communities.
The Managing Partner at Launch Africa Ventures, Zachariah George, also agrees that the investment was important to encourage digital teaching and learning among the nearly 60% of Africa’s population who are under the age of 25.
“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,” he concludes.
UNESCO believes Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) empowers learners of all ages with the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to address the interconnected global challenges we are facing, including climate change, environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity, poverty and inequality.
“Learning must prepare students and learners of all ages to find solutions for the challenges of today and the future. Education should be transformative and allow us to make informed decisions and take individual and collective action to change our societies and care for the planet,” the UN body said.
Education for Sustainable Development is recognized as an integral element of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 on quality education and a key enabler of all other SDGs (link is external). As the lead UN agency on ESD, UNESCO is responsible for the coordination of the ESD for 2030 Framework.
