Nigerian Edtech Startup Edves, Raises $575,000 To Bring Schools Online

Edves, a Nigerian educational technology startup, announced that it has secured $575,000 in a seed funding round led by Beta Venture. Other participating investors include Launch Africa, Chinook Capital, and Future Africa.

Edves plans to use the new capital to improve its platform and bring more schools online. The startup also said that it will also improve its products and launch new ones in order to meet growing customer demands in Nigeria and other African countries.

Founded by Dimeji Falana and Dare Adebayo in 2016, 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 enrollment and much more. The platform also allows parents to view certain details about their children or wards, as well as pay fees on the platform.

As part of its digital infrastructure efforts, the company enables interaction between teachers, parents and administrators to deliver education, providing a means of collaborating on learners’ progress on learning goals, as well as tracking and analyzing learning outcomes.

Talking about the investment, Ovo Emorhokpor, a general partner at Beta Ventures said that his firm was on a mission to assist exceptional African companies and entrepreneurs that add real value to Nigeria and other African communities.

“We have witnessed Edves firsthand and seen how they deliver on their promise to digitize the learning process in and out of the classroom in Africa. We are thrilled to be part of their journey as they scale their offerings and expand into new markets,” he said.

Zachariah George, a managing partner at Launch Africa Ventures, said that the investment was important to encourage digital teaching and learning, which he described as a “must-have and not a nice-to-have”.

“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 said. To him, Edves is very much capable of tackling “this huge opportunity head-on.

His confidence is not misplaced as Edves is the largest education portal for K-12 students, teachers, administrators, and parents in Africa. Currently, the startup operates in almost 800 schools across Nigeria, Ghana, and Zimbabwe.