Kenyan ed-tech startup Craydel has raised a US$1 million pre-seed round of funding as it bids to democratise access to higher education in Africa.
Launched earlier this year by Manish Sardana, John Nguru and Shayne Aman Premji, Craydel enables students and working professionals to discover, compare and apply to higher education in Africa and abroad.
“An estimated US$30 billion is spent every year on higher education in Africa. But the current student experience in accessing higher education is abysmal. There is no aggregation of choices and decision making is influenced by biases and misinformation. We are transforming the way students discover, compare and apply to higher education in Africa,” said Sardana.
Craydel has just announced its US$1 million pre-seed round, led by tech-focused pan-African venture capital fund Enza Capital. Other investors include BriteGaze, Future of Learning Fund, Bisk Ventures, Tekton Ventures, Chandaria Capital and LoftyInc Capital Management. They are joined by a group of strategic angel investors including founders and top executives from some of Africa’s leading SaaS, e-Commerce and education startups.
The funding will be used by Craydel to continuously improve its search and recommendation engine, enhance its proprietary online career resources and technology, and to serve more students on the continent. Since inception, the startup has partnered with more than 90 universities and vocational colleges in Africa and abroad, offering in excess of 3,000 higher education programmes.
“Access to higher education and skills development for Africa’s growing youth population remains fragmented, yet is a fundamental cornerstone to our accelerated development. Craydel is building the rails to democratise access to higher education and to support millions of Africans up this curve. We are enthused to be backing Manish, John, Shayne and the Craydel team at this early stage as they build world class tech and embark on this meaningful journey,” said Mike Mompi, managing partner of Enza Capital.
