M-Shule has been crowned winner of the Kenya leg of the Seedstars World competition, earning the Ed-tech startup the opportunity to pitch for around US$1 million in equity investment at the global final in Switzerland next April ..
This year global early-stage startups competition Seedstars World has been hosting a series of local events across Africa which has seen winners emerge in countries like Mozambique, Tunisia, Tanzania, South Africa, Uganda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal ,Cameroon and Angola
The winner of each local round progresses to the global finals held at the Seedstars Summit in Switzerland in April; where they will go head-to-head against winners from around the world in a bid to win a share of US$1 million in equity funding as well as other prizes.
The Kenyan leg of the competition took place last Friday at the Nailab, with 11 startups invited to present their ideas in front of the local jury panel. The winner was M-Shule, a platform that improves primary education in Africa using artificial intelligence and SMS. The startup recently secured funding from Engineers Without Borders Canada.
M-Shule is the first adaptive, mobile learning management platform designed to improve performance for millions of primary school students across Kenya and Sub-Saharan Africa.
The Ed-tech startup also analyzes and tracks the success of students in reports, which are then shared with the school, teacher(s) and parents. The feedback generated thanks to the insight offered in these reports allows learning programs to be changed in order to best meet the needs of the student.
Parents and teachers can easily check the progress of students by SMS or through web apps. Though schools can register with M-Shule directly, even if the school is not a participating member, parents can sign their child up for M-Shule as an independent learner by SMS.
M-Shule also won six months of free membership to the Nairobi Garage, with runners-up BuuPass, a digital marketplace for bus and train tickets, and third place Sinbad Technologies, a platform simplifying the process of obtaining marine cargo insurance, also earning free membership.
The other startups invited to pitch were ConnectMed, Jobsikaz, PortableVoices Creatives, Sokompare, Konnector, TozzaPlus, WazInsure and BrillantPay.
The members of jury include:Neil Edward Wood, Principal at Open Capital Advisors, Duncan Muchangi, Strategy, Investor Relations and M&A at Jumia, Fanny Dauchez, Associate for Africa Seedstars World, Sapna Shah, Investment Director at Novastar Ventures, Aristarichus Weru, Head of Acquisition at Stanbic Bank Kenya and Martin Karanja, Senior Market Engagement Manager at GSMA.
The next edition of the Seedstars global early-stage startups competition in Africa will take place in Maputo, Mozambique on December 14th later this year.
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