Kidato, a Kenyan education tech startup, has linked up with Silicon Valley-based accelerator Y Combinator, receiving US$125,000 funding in the process with further support in the pipeline.
Y Combinator accelerator
Y Combinator is a US-based seed money startup accelerator launched in March 2005 and has been used to launch over 2,000 companies.
Established in 2020, Kidato is an online school that provides high-quality, affordable education to Africa’s growing middle class.
Parents often choose between cheaper public schools where student-teacher ratios are as high as 50:1 or more expensive private schools.
Kidato classes and tutors
Kidato classes tuition fee is much lower than those in private schools with 5:1 student-teacher ratios of 5:1. Here, the same international curriculum as those in other private schools, is taught.
Kidato has more than 400 registered students and over 200 using the platform to supplement their learning. The online school has more than 30 tutors, half of them working full-time. Kidato was founded by Sam Gichuru, who previously founded the Nailab incubator in Nairobi.
Gichuru took part in the accelerator in 2015 with recruitment startup Kuhustle as its co-founder.
While Kuhustle is still operational, it has remained small due to primary platform leakage and other challenges.
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