Honey Ogundeyi, Founder and CEO of Edukayo.

Africa-focused online learning platform Edukoya has raised US$3.5-million in a pre-seed round led by Target Global with strategic participation from angel investors including European and African founders.

According to a statement released by Edukoya, the investors included Shola Akinlade - CEO and co-founder of Paystack (acquired by Stripe), Babs Ogundeyi and Musty Mustapha - founders of Kuda, Brandon Krieg and Ed Robinson - founders of Fintech Stash and Raffael Johnen - CEO of Aux Money among others.

Launched in December 2021, Edukoya is currently operating in beta, with a focus on Nigeria. The platform says the new funds – which it claims is the largest pre-seed round for an African EdTech platform to date - will enable the transition from beta to live launch in 2022, as well as expansion of the team, the growth of its user base and the building out the technology for Edukoya’s learning platform, including support for its Pan African and European developer hubs.

The platform incorporates features that are targeted at Nigerian secondary school learners including 24/7 Exam Preparation & Homework tutor help, a data driven question bank with step-by-step solutions and personalised performance tracking systems.

Edukoya asserts that quality education is expensive and out of reach for millions of African learners. According to data from the World Bank, African households spend 20-25% of their annual GDP per capita on education.

Speaking about the new funding, Honey Ogundeyi, Founder and CEO of Edukayo said: “Our vision at Edukoya is to redefine online education for the next generation of Africans. Africa has the fastest-growing school-age population globally, with over 260M students and counting. Our goal is to democratise access and make high quality instruction and content accessible and affordable to every student, regardless of where he or she lives on the continent”

Lina Chong, Investment Director at Target Global, said, `We are delighted to lead this investment and partner with Honey and her impressive team of education technology pioneers. Edukoya’s mission to provide better quality to millions of African Students, combined with the team's ability to execute on this ambition, left an immediate impression on myself and the whole team at Target Global. Their business has the potential to unlock learner potential and improve lives across generations''.

Edukoya plans to use its pre-seed funds to go from beta to live launch in Nigeria by 2022. It will also accelerate its product and technology as well as expand its online curriculum content coverage and on demand tutoring feature for secondary school learners.