Africa’s Multi-Million Dollar Edtech Industry Receives a New Entrant Craydel

Africa’s edtech industry continues to leap forward. Gradually joining fintech unicorns like Fawry, Interswitch and Flutterwave at the top of the continent’s startup ecosystem. 

A report by Global Market Insights shows that the world’s e-learning market is expected to reach $375 billion by 2026, with Africa’s e-learning market seeing a growth of 14 percent between 2011 and 2018. And is projected to reach $1.8 billion by 2024.

Today, Kenyan edtech startup Craydel made the news for a pre-seed round of $1 million. The edtech startup enables students to compare universities, course options, and tuition prices. Breaking into the African ecosystem with a unique service, Craydel will be using the funding round to improve its search and recommendation algorithms, as well as expand its online resources.

TechCrunch disclosed that the round was led by Enza Capital, a private venture fund that invests in early-stage tech startups across Africa. Other participants in the round are Future of Learning Fund, a Kenya-based edtech backer, BriteGaze, a South African artificial intelligence fund. Bisk Ventures, a venture capital firm out of Silicon Valley and Tekton Ventures, a  San Francisco-based technology investment firm.

On the side of angel investments in Craydel, we’ve got Kenya-based Chandaria Capital, Nigeria-based LoftyInc Afropreneurs Fund, and a host of other angel investors including founders and top executives of top Africa edtech and e-commerce companies.

Co-founders Manish Sardana, John Nguru, and Shayne Aman Premji, Craydel, were inspired by the lack of a robust platform to help people make informed college and course decisions.  So they launched Craydel this year to address this challenge. The co-founders believe that by providing students with access to a gateway that provides verifiable information on universities, they are giving students better control over their career paths.

“An estimated $30 billion is spent every year on higher education in Africa,” Sardana, Craydel’s CEO, said. “But the current student experience in accessing higher education is abysmal. There is no aggregation of choices, and decision-making is influenced by biases and misinformation.”

“We are transforming the way students discover, compare and apply to higher education in Africa,” he said. 

Craydel offers students a variety of alternatives at every level, including online certificate programmes that they may partake before committing to a certain professional path.

READ ALSO: This SA Edtech Startup is Using WhatsApp to Bypass Africa’s High Internet Costs