South African edtech startup FoondaMate has received $2 million seed funding in a round led by LocalGlobe, the UK-based venture capital firm, to increase usage of its Whatsapp and Facebook-based learning chatbot throughout the globe.
In addition to LocalGlobe, the round had the involvement of Emerge Education, Odunayo Eweniyi via FirstCheckAfrica, Iyin Aboyeji via Future Africa, and LoftyInc, among angels from Luno (Marcus Swanepoel) and Justworks (Isaac Oates) (Isaac Oates). They join XX accelerator, the startup’s initial supporter.
Read also Malagasy Edtech Startup Sayna Raises $638K For International Expansion
Magagula said the firm is focusing on localizing its learning material to accommodate learners in new countries and fuel the expansion of its platform to more than 50 million users. Its current investment round brings around the resources needed for this speedy take-off.
Why The Investors Invested
Since its inception, the startup has gained notable traction. FoondaMate has been utilized by over 400,000 students utilizing over 10 languages in over 30 countries, including Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, and Indonesia — where the firm has recently launched and usage has increased dramatically — so far.
“FoondaMate’s viral growth strongly reflects how well the product resonates with learners, and speaks volumes to Dacod and Tao’s deep understanding of their users’ needs,” said LocalGlobe partner, Ziv Reichert. “Having initially launched with a mission to transform how students across Africa study, FoondaMate has evolved into a tool that is now used and loved by learners from a range of backgrounds, with varying needs and learning styles, from all across the world. We believe that it takes immense empathy for a problem and a real long-term view to build a product of this kind.”
A Look At What The Startup Does
Foondamate, which was founded in 2020, assists students with their revision by providing them with immediate responses to questions and access to revision papers, as well as directing their responses to questions.
Read also Applications Open for 2022 Africa’s Business Heroes Prize Competition
Co-founder Dacod Magagula stated that the firm is aimed at high school kids in emerging markets where Whatsapp is extensively used and significantly less expensive or free to use. According to him, the company’s learning chatbot is user-friendly, inexpensive, and an organized alternative to using search engines for study. Additionally, educators use FoondaMate’s integrated resources to assign and post homework, as well as to share other learning materials with students.
Magagula stated that he began developing FoondaMate when WhatsApp launched its beta API to facilitate business-to-customer communication in 2020.
“It (WhatsApp) was in beta at the time, and I started playing around with it … I thought it’d be a really good way to enable access to study materials to students in the same position as myself…because a majority of students do not have access to the wider internet but have access to WhatsApp. Also, a lot of network providers offer WhatsApp for free to attract users to their network,” said Magagula, who co-founded FoondaMate with Tao Boyle — who, before they teamed up, was trying to fix the supply chain to get textbooks to underserved schools.
In addition, Magagula’s high school experience enabled him to recognize the viability of the concept.
“…during the final year of high school in South Africa, I used the computer my brother and I had bought using our savings, for studies and to download all revision materials I could get my hands on. I had a huge database of past papers but no way of sharing it with my friends, and printing them was expensive,” said Magagula, who serves as the startup’s CEO and CTO. “But the materials played a big role in my success in school as I graduated top of my class and my performance was the best ever in the history of school (at that time). And so FoondaMate was created to make these resources easily accessible to students,” said Magagula, who pursued Computer Science at the University of CapeTown. After teaming up with Boyle, they added more functionalities and integrated it with additional services.”
Read also Viva Technology and IFC Reveal Top 45 Most Innovative Startups In Africa
“Initially I thought FoondaMate would be used by students who do not have access to Wi Fi and those with limited access to the internet. But reality is, it is being used by those with good internet connectivity too…because it’s really an easy and intuitive way to access study material,” he added.
To ensure the safety of children on the platform, the startup has a team that verifies the bot’s information sources and monitors its output.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh