Craydel, a Kenyan ed-tech firm, has secured a pre-seed round of investment of $1 million in order to democratize access to higher education in Africa.
Manish Sardana, John Nguru, and Shayne Aman Premji founded Craydel earlier this year to help students and working professionals find, compare, and apply to higher education in Africa and worldwide.
“The 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 raised $1 million in a pre-seed round sponsored by Enza Capital, a pan-African venture capital firm focused on technology. BriteGaze, Future of Learning Fund, Bisk Ventures, Tekton Ventures, Chandaria Capital, and LoftyInc Capital Management are among the other investors. A collection of strategic angel investors, comprising founders and senior executives from some of Africa’s most successful SaaS, e-Commerce, and education firms, has joined them.
Craydel will utilise the money to develop its search and recommendation engine, improve its own online career materials and technologies, and reach out to additional students across Africa. Since its establishment, the company has worked with over 90 universities and vocational institutes throughout Africa and around the world, providing over 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 democratize 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.
