Kenya’s homeschooling startup Kidato raises 1.4 million for expansion

Kidato, a Kenyan, Y Combinator-backed online homeschooling startup has raised $1.4 million seed investment for expansion across Africa as the pandemic hits the education sector.

The $1.4 million was raised from Learn Start Capital, Launch Africa Ventures Fund, Graph Ventures and Century Oak Capital, among others to fuel growth for the alternative teaching platform build around Zoom.

Founded by Nailab’s Sam Gichuru, Kidato works on a homeschooling model allowing verified teachers to connect to students online to deliver classes from wherever they are as most schools are shut down and teachers cannot visit kids’ homes for offline lessons due to the pandemic.

The online learning platform recently received $125,000 from Y Combinator to help shape the face of education for 100,000+ students in Kenya and across Africa. Kidato, Swahili for a class, grade or form, is Gichuru’s second startup to join Y Combinator after Kuhustle. which has been inactive and allegedly abandoned for some time now.

In its second semester, Kidato announced it enrolled more than 50 students into its learning-from-home program as a replacement for brick-and-mortar schools. Kidato expects to triple this enrollment by its third semester. The startup had over 32 tutors and received over 500 applications in the last six months.

Apart from normal classes, Kidato boasts of integrated skill-based, after-school classes such as coding, chess, languages, art and music. The platform also offers social activities like sports and educational field trips. With the pandemic ravaging across the world, Kidato wants to use the seed financing to expand across Africa and as well build tools for teachers and pupils and replace brick-and-mortar schools and be the biggest online school for K-12 students.

Kidato has students has more than 50 students from Kenya, Switzerland, Tanzania, UK, the USA and the United Arab Emirates who pay just $5 per lesson. The startup is training its 300-plus teachers to make classes more interactive and interesting for learners.