Kenyan Edtech Zeraki closes $1.8 million in seed funding to expand across Africa

Zeraki, a Kenyan Edtech startup that operates a digital learning and school data analytics platform has secured $1.8 million in seed funding to grow its product and expand into new markets in Africa.

Zeraki, co-founded by Nyangolo and Erick Oude in 2014, initially introduced an interactive digital learning platform for high school students with quizzes and tracking systems. However, it wasn't until the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 that the platform gained popularity.

Thereafter, they developed a data analytics system to assist schools in managing their students' data. The platform allows teachers to upload students' grades from their mobile phones and provides a performance breakdown for each student, subject, or stream.

Additionally, the platform integrates a bulk messaging service for internal and external communication, as well as allows parents to track student performance and make fee payments. It has proven to be more popular than Zeraki's digital learning platform.

Zeraki says over 5,000 schools are using its data analytics platform, and they expect the demand to continue rising as they launch into new markets and as more schools embrace digital tools to streamline their administrative tasks.

With this fresh funding, Zeraki plans to introduce more administrative tools to schools such as timetabling software, as well as offering parents fee loans. The startup is also looking to expand into 10 new markets over the next three years after scaling in Kenya, Uganda and Guinea.

The startup plans on first moving into the East African market and exploring the Anglophone African region thereafter.