Nigerian ed-tech startup Edves is in the process of raising a US$500,000 seed funding round as it continues to expand operations across Africa.
Formed in 2016, Edves is an academic portal that automates operations in schools and colleges from admission to transcript generation.
The platform reduces teacher and administrator workload and gives them opportunities to mark attendance and prepare classroom lessons using AI algorithms. Edves, which recently took part in the global MindCET Go accelerator programme, is active in almost 600 schools across Nigeria and Ghana, and planning further expansion.
‘Dimeji Falana, the startup’s chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder, said Edves became the most used ed-tech platform in Nigeria during the COVID-19 lockdown, according to Google Analytics, Similar Web and Crunchbase, and was now in the process of raising a seed round of US$500,000 to expand further.
“In our go-to-market strategy, we are expanding to 10 other African countries to acquire schools,” he said, adding that the Ghanaian expansion had happened earlier this year, with the help of a zero-rating agreement with MTN.
“We are now acquiring schools in Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. Also, we are acquiring clients across other regions of Nigeria.”
Edves won the Seedstars Global Education Prize in 2018 and secured US$120,000 funding from Chinook Capital – organiser of the Founders Incubator programme – and the Growth Capital fund of the Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) incubator, the same year.