Edtech startup, Gradely, has emerged the winner of the MESTAfrica country challenge for Nigeria. About 9 startups made it to the final challenge which held on July 22.
Other startups that pitched are Edusko Africa, At your service, Scrapays, Padimi, Idera, Toju, Finance Sycamore, and Social Lender. Finance Sycamore, Social Lender, and Toju are in the fintech sector.
Edusko Africa and Gradely are edtech startups, Scrapays is in the recycletech sector while At your service makes it easy for human resources to be found, hired and managed using tech. Padimi is a social enterprise bridging the social security gap for unbankable Africans.
Gradely offers personalised learning with tools and content that can support students’ learning process through its online platform.
After schools in the country shut down due to COVID-19, the startup
offered 1000 parents the opportunity to help their children experience live tutoring with highly experienced Mathematics tutors. The tutoring was free for a period of 1 month.
In April 2020, Gradely received an undisclosed investment sum from Microtraction. That investment was the VC firm’s first for this year and only its second in the edtech sector.
Gradely was one of the 8 that was selected for the Facebook Startup Accelerator in 2019. It raised $35,000 from the FB Accelerator, according to Crunchbase.
The Gradely team has significant experience in educational technology. Its 4 co-founders all have hands-on experience working with other edtech startups.
The CEO, Boye Oshinaga, was once the Vice President of Edutech for Venture Garden Group and co-founder of Riby Finance.
The CTO, Femi Ibiwoye, was the CTO for PassNG – an edtech startup that helps students prepare for examinations online. Gradely’s Growth Lead, Seyi Adelaju, previously worked as the COO for SchoolCompass while the startup’s Product Lead, Babatunde Caleb was Product Designer for QuizacApp.
As the winner of the MESTAfrica country challenge in Nigeria, Gradely will be proceeding to the Africa-wide finals to compete for the winning prize of $50,000 equity funding.