Play Sense - Afrikan Heroes

South African EdTech Startup Play Sense Receives Funding for Expansion Plans

May 23, 2023

Play Sense, an independent preschool that offers play-based learning through its micro-schools online platform, has successfully secured funding from Grindstone Ventures in an undisclosed funding round, as it prepares for expansion. Meg Faure, co-founder of Play Sense, expressed her excitement about the funding support, stating that it will allow the company to enhance its franchise model and accelerate its growth. With the backing of Grindstone Ventures, Play Sense is well-positioned to succeed and is dedicated to expanding its provision of high-quality early childhood education to children worldwide. The investment aligns with Grindstone’s objective of facilitating global expansion for South African startups.

Play Sense preschool — *Play Sense co-founder Meg Faure | image supplied*

Play Sense is now a portfolio company of Grindstone Ventures, a fund that invests in companies with strong intellectual property and the potential for exponential growth, aiming to generate long-term capital growth and sustainable cash yields for investors. Catherine Young, managing partner of Grindstone Ventures, expressed her enthusiasm for welcoming Play Sense to their portfolio of investee companies. She highlighted how Play Sense is reimagining early childhood education by creating a secure bridge between home and preschool, fostering an environment that promotes collaboration, creativity, self-regulation, and adaptability, which are essential qualities for instilling a desire for lifelong learning in future generations.

According to Meg Faure, Play Sense offers a cost-effective and highly scalable model for progressive preschool education. She emphasized that this empowers passionate women in the field of early childhood to become successful entrepreneurs and make a lasting impact in their communities, both in terms of education and economic empowerment. The Play Sense franchise program provides all the necessary resources to establish a profitable playschool at one of the most affordable prices available in the market.

Play Sense utilizes a combination of play techniques to develop core skills and school readiness in toddlers and preschoolers. Its unique micro-school model allows teachers to set up playschools either at home or in spaces provided by participating families. The franchise program, often referred to as a “business in a box,” equips entrepreneurs with comprehensive training, a Play Kit, and support in operational, administrative, marketing, and teaching aspects. Play Sense also assists entrepreneurs in securing loans for their ventures.

Grindstone Ventures is primarily led and managed by women, with The SA SME Fund, headed by Ketso Gordhan, as its anchor funder. In addition to Play Sense, Grindstone Ventures has seven other portfolio companies, including AgrilogiQ, Welo Health, Ma]er Industries, Drive to Own, SNci, Locstat, and Locumbase.

Ghana-based Kofa Receives Funding to Disrupt Energy Sector with Innovative Battery-as-a-Service Model

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

South Africa’s Edu-Tech Startup Drives Innovation

January 28, 2021

Play Sense, a South African edu-tech startup that initially focused on early childhood development (ECD) business has scaled up its operations towards pivoting the ed-tech arena in the country and by extension, the region. Play Sense was established in 2016 by occupational therapists and early years experts Meg Faure and Lara Schoenfeld, Play Sense offers training for early childhood teachers and a learning programme that prioritises optimal emotional development in two-to-four-year olds, as opposed to purely skills-based school readiness skills taught in traditional play schools.

Play Sense founders, Meg Faure and Lara Schoenfeld

“Our unique model combines small groups of children in a home environment with a teacher certified to teach our play-based methodology to give toddlers a foundation for all other learning,” Faure told Disrupt Africa. Adding that “Our programme uses a combination of styles of play to teach skills of the future such as self-regulation, creativity, and collaboration.”

Faure and Schoenfeld bootstrapped the business for four years, working long hours for little financial reward – “a classic startup business scenario”, Faure says. But in early 2020, everything changed.

“Faced with the prospect of closing our playschools when hard lockdown hit South Africa, we took the opportunity to pivot our business and launched Play Sense Online within 72 hours,” Faure said.

This was done with support of Enygma Ventures, the US-based VC firm founded by award winning entrepreneurs Sarah and Jacob Dusek. The company launched a fund in 2019with a focus on investing in women entrepreneurs in the SADC region, and Play Sense was its first investment. The startup has been growing ever since.

“Parents recognise the need for change to the traditional schooling and childcare system and our uptake shows the move towards home-based learning through play,” said Faure.

With Play Sense now having a footprint all over South Africa, it is planning expansion to the United Kingdom (UK), the Middle East, and the United States (US). The startup has a handful of revenue streams.

“First is our franchise offering, whereby teachers are trained and fully supported to set up a play school for a one-off fee, and monthly royalties. We also offer our online programmes internationally on a subscription basis,” said Faure. Much has changed for the company in the last 12 months, and it is still adapting as it grows.

“The world is changing at a hugely rapid rate, and as part of our business is online we have had to be agile and persistent to refine the offering to meet changing needs,” said Faure.

Yet at Play Sense’s core is its non-traditional offering in the ECD space, and it is this more than any innovative technology that is the startup’s real “secret sauce”.

“As OTs, we knew that traditional childcare did not optimise development in little ones. Too many children, a large classroom environment creates anxiety and inhibits little ones from learning language and soft skills that will stay with them for life and become the keys to their success,” Faure said.

“We also recognised the important role that teachers play, but constraints in a traditional school meant that they often don’t reap the rewards of teaching and shaping little minds.”

Play Sense found a unique niche in the market in that it is “school-less”.

“We’ve traded traditional school infrastructure for a home environment; we’ve capped our groups to a maximum of six children, and we have developed an exciting play-based programme that allows little ones to have rich experiences to play and learn,” said Faure. And now, thanks for the internet and Enygma’s funding, the startup is scaling faster than ever before.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

South Africa’s Education Startup Play Sense Raises $458k To Pivot Online

April 10, 2020

Meg Faure, occupational therapist, childhood development expert and author

Hard time requires extreme measures. Obviously responding to the national lockdown in South Africa necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic, South African startup Play Sense, which has developed a unique play-centric curriculum for young children, has raised ZAR8.25 million (US$458,000) in funding to take its in-home, pre-school learning model online.

“We believe that the way families choose to educate their children will be impacted long term and the choice of at-home or small group setting will become the norm of the future. This funding means that we can roll our programme out internationally.”Co-founder Meg Faure, a qualified occupational therapist, childhood development expert and author, said in statement.

Here Is All You Need To Know

The funding came from Enygma Ventures, the US-based VC firm founded by award winning entrepreneurs Sarah and Jacob Dusek.
With the new funding, Play Sense aims to equip parents with the knowledge they need for raising their children.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the startup has gone digital, making its curriculum and pre-school format available online to users around the world. Faure says Play Sense overhauled its business model to include a digital offering where children can access their imagination-based play sessions virtually.

SADC Revolutionary governments: progress check - AFRIC — Enygma Ventures targets startups within the SADC region

Why The Investor Invested

Launched in 2019 Enygma Ventures is a fund with a focus on investing in women entrepreneurs in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Play Sense is its first investment.According to Sarah Dusek, General Partner at Enygma Ventures, the VC was excited about how Play Sense had successfully pivoted its business, adapting its model to serve parents and children during this unprecedented time of schooling from home.

“We are exceptionally proud of the entrepreneurs we are working with, that even in the midst of this COVID-19 crisis, we are seeing amazing resilience, creativity, and ability to pivot their businesses and respond under pressure,” she said.

A Look At What The Startup Does

Play Sense is an education solution that bridges the gap between nurturing home environment and ‘big school’. The startup offers personalised care and stimulation for 2&3 year olds in two exciting home-based programs:

Play Sense completed its pivot in just two weeks, with Faure saying it now offered a home-based education solution, including virtual contact time between teachers and learners, and activity ideas and learning support for parents.

“This will meet the critical needs of parents and their little ones during this period of isolation,” she said.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer.