Estonian Edtech Startup Mentornaut Expands to Kenya Following $230,000 Fundraise

Mentornaut, a personalized education platform, has raised $230,000 in funding from the Estonian Business Angels Network (EstBAN)). The company’s other investors include Superangel, United Angels VCC, and a list of EdTech advocates like Bolt Co-founder Martin Villig, IT-visionary Linnar Viik, and Clanbeat Co-founder Kadri Tuisk, amongst others. On the heels of the investment, the online tutoring platform has expanded to Kenya to drive inclusion in personalized education.

Founded in 2020, Mentornaut provides an online learning platform that connects students with a vast range of verified private tutors in local education systems to help bridge knowledge gaps and support students in achieving their maximum potential in school. The company’s founders —Markus Meresma and Gregor Mändma, founded the company during the Coronavirus pandemic when lockdown restrictions brought 1.5 billion children around the world into remote learning. As distance and remote learning became more common globally, Mentornaut was established with the realisation that parents were becoming increasingly open to private tutoring to help their children overcome learning gaps.

Since its launch last year, the company said it has seen 2,500 private lessons booked on its platform. “We have seen massively positive feedback from our clients who have rediscovered the fun in learning, thanks to our wide range of private tutors,” said Markus Meresma, the company’s Chief Executive Officer.

The company has now expanded its operational footprint to Africa where it believes it can make an impact, starting with Kenya. The platform said it saw over 120 sign-up requests to tutor onboarding in the first few hours of its launch in Kenya. In Africa, the average pupil-to-teacher ratio in primary schools is extremely high at 42:1, resulting in the need for private supplementary tutoring.

Commenting on the impact that Mentornaut can have in Africa, Veljo Otsason, a founding partner at Superangel, said: “Mentornaut’s bold vision of empowering local education systems is impressive. Personalised education for kids in Africa is still largely unaddressed but necessary to build better societies and economies.”

The new capital from the Estonian Business Angels Network (EstBAN), will be used to further develop its platform, which will ensure the smooth and organized running of personalized education for parents, children, and private tutors across Africa and Eastern Europe. The company’s long-term vision is to create a personalized learning system to shape the emergence of personal learning pathways and support studies in general education schools.