Nigerian ed-tech startup ScholarX has joined the league of African startups that raise funds to kick-start their businesses. The startup has raised US$100,000 towards an intended US$200,000 pre-seed funding round to launch new products and grow its team.
At A Glance
The startup was launched in Nigeria in 2016. The ScholarX app allows users to select parameters and scroll through lists of available scholarships that match their requirements.
Co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of ScholarX, Bola Lawal said this round of funding for ScholarX (US$100,000 of a pre-seed round so far) came mostly from angel investors.
“We are primarily raising for our new model, called SkillsFund, which we are ready to run a full pilot of in July,” he said.
“SkillsFund democratises labour-force reconditioning by providing financing to help new entrants — recent graduates — get up-skilled via verified training partners in in-demand skills and then help place them with local employers seeking fresh talent.”
The startup said funds raised would also go towards building the startup’s capacity in terms of staff and technology to handle funding, recruitment, and placement of successful students in the program.
“This means that ScholarX will be positioned to actualise its goal of building an ecosystem around education financing for current students and recent graduates. It means that we won’t just stop at providing scholarships but provide additional training opportunities that will directly lead to jobs for the growing youth population,” he said.
ScholarX last rolled out a new product back in 2017 when it launched Village, an education crowdfunding platform that allows African secondary school and university students to create fundraising campaigns for backing by sponsors.
The Nigerian startup took part in the global WISE Accelerator and the Cape Town-based Injini ed-tech incubator last year and was named part of the third Google Launchpad Africa accelerator cohort in March.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.