Solution Overview & Team Lead Details

Our Organization

Angaza Elimu

What is the name of your solution?

Elevating the classroom experience

Provide a one-line summary of your solution.

Delivering quality and relevant education on demand though an adaptive eLearning platform powered by Artificial Intelligence

Film your elevator pitch.

What specific problem are you solving?

Despite extraordinary gains in access, millions of students and youth in Kenya do not have access to quality and relevant education. Traditional learning and teaching models have failed to cater for students' learning needs. Teachers are overwhelmed by routine administrative tasks and large volumes of classes. A case study of Kenya where:

  • Literacy and numeracy rates are still a year below grade level, with less than a third of children in Grade 3 having basic Grade 2 level skills.

  • The pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) in public primary schools has been reported to be 56:1, against a recommended PTR  of 40:1

  • Prior to the introduction of the competency-based curriculum (CBC), Kenya’s education system had not been reformed for 32 years. This means that the system is not doing enough to produce school leavers who are ready for the 21st century world of work driven by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) 

There is therefore the need for affordable solutions that improve access to high quality and relevant education that adequately prepares the youth for the future.

What is your solution?

Angaza Elimu addresses the challenges mentioned above  through an AI powered adaptive and interactive eLearning platform which delivers personalized and mastery based learning experiences to students and amplifies teacher-student engagement. This model overcomes the traditional model of learning and teaching where all students are taught in the same basic way, using the same materials and at the same speed. We believe every student is unique and deserves personalized learning that meets their assessed specific needs and our AI-powered model is able to learn and understand students' mastery gaps and customize each of their learning paths. We provide teachers with a supportive tool to identify students' specific needs and help deliver personalized and customized instruction. This platform further automates administrative tasks like routine assessments, monitoring progress and generating reports hence saving teachers time helping them spend more time with students on instruction. Parents get instant notifications about their children's performance and engage with teachers instantaneously contributing to factual targeted constructive feedback. We also offer  interactive hands-on training on STEAME (Science , Technology, Engineering, Art, Math and Entrepreneurship) to equip students with skills  needed to succeed in the 21st century workforce and as entrepreneurs who can lead to an increase in productivity and drive economic growth. 

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Angaza Elimu is primed to transform education across Kenya and beyond by addressing the challenges of quality and relevance. Our sole purpose is to ensure that every child has access to quality and relevant education on demand. We also support teachers who are key stakeholders in the ecosystem. Currently we are working in Kenya serving more than 36,920 students in primary and secondary schools. One of our key focus areas is serving the less privileged communities and we are currently serving more than 6500 students in Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps in Kenya.

In the three years that the company has been operational we have created notable impact across different education stakeholders as follows:

  • 21k+ students have recorded an average improvement of 24% in overall academic performance. Key improvements have been recorded in English, Mathematics and Science subjects.

  • 16k+ students have gained concrete skills needed to succeed in the 21st century workforce and as entrepreneurs who can lead to an increase in productivity and drive economic growth.

  • 2738 teachers have been trained on the right eLearning pedagogy skills and this has greatly improved teaching outcomes

  • Teachers have saved 45,900+ minutes by reduced administrative tasks, such as routine assessments, monitoring progress, and generating progress reports, instead focusing on personalized instruction. 

  • Parents have saved more than $86K+ by subscribing their children on our platform instead of buying textbooks hence reducing the financial barriers to educational resources.

How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?

Angaza Elimu has been made possible by an incredible young talented team drawing diverse and extensive experience from the education, technology and business fields: 

  • Kiko Muuo: CEO: Responsible for overall strategy and operations. Utilizes his business modelling, market research & analysis and product management skills to establish Angaza Elimu as a leading EdTech enterprise.

  • Shawn Cliff: CTO: Leads the tech team in developing the interactive eLearning platforms. Has advanced technical skills in software engineering.

  • Vida Brenda: Business development lead: Leads the sales team in initiating, developing and closing sales deals. She brings onboard deep experience in sales and marketing.

  • Kevin Odero: Customer success lead: Owns and manages customer/user success after activation. Has advanced skills in customer service management

  • Regina Chege: Content development lead: Leads the content team in developing and curating quality digital content. Brings extensive skills in content designs and development.

  • Valerie Githio: Innovators STEAME lead: leads the skills development unit in building and fabricating STEAME kits and content. Has advanced skills in electrical and electronics engineering.

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Enable personalized learning and individualized instruction for learners who are most at risk for disengagement and school drop-out

Where our solution team is headquartered or located:

Nairobi, Kenya

Our solution's stage of development:

Growth

How many people does your solution currently serve?

56285

Why are you applying to Solve?

Funding: we will deploy the funds to improve and scale our work in the underserved communities: refugee camps, arid and semi arid areas. We aim to build a sustainable model in serving these regions with the ultimate goal of driving maximum impact and closing the digital divide gap.

Product and market development support: we aim to tap in the solve network of experts and mentors to help us in high level product and market strategy with a goal of helping us reach scale and drive maximum impact to our beneficiaries.

In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?

Financial (e.g. improving accounting practices, pitching to investors)

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

Kiko Muuo

More About Your Solution

What makes your solution innovative?

Traditional learning and teaching models have failed to cater for students learning needs. Teachers are overwhelmed by routine administrative tasks and large volumes of classes. 

Emerging technologies like AI(Artificial Intelligence) powered eLearning models have proved to be of great help in meeting students specific learning needs and supporting teachers to spend more time providing personalized instruction hence helping each student achieve their full potential. Our AI powered interactive and adaptive eLearning platform delivers personalized and mastery based learning experiences to students and amplifies teacher student engagement. Our offline interactive mobile application allows users to access all functionalities even when not connected to the internet. This saves them from spending financial resources on the expensive internet.

What are your impact goals for the next year and the next five years, and how will you achieve them?

By 2026 we aim to drive the following impact:

  • 1M+ students have increased access to quality and relevant education. With notable improvements in literacy and numeracy competencies.

  • 300k+ students have gained concrete skills needed to succeed in the 21st century workforce 

  • 80k+ teachers trained on the right eLearning pedagogy skills

  • 26M+ more minutes for teachers to focus on personalized teaching.

  • $48M+ saved by parents subscribing to our platform instead of purchasing textbooks.

How are you measuring your progress toward your impact goals?

To achieve our impact goals we track our growth metrics under three segments:

  • User growth: improving user growth and conversion

  • User engagement: improving the product stickiness with a keen focus on content consumption and active time usage metrics

  • Revenue generation: with improved user growth and product stickiness we expect to grow our revenue numbers.

With a positive improvement on the three segments this results in many users on the platform obtaining maximum value from the product designed to help improve the learning and teaching outcomes.

What is your theory of change?

Angaza Elimu exists with the sole purpose of ensuring every student has access to quality and relevant education on demand. We track impact on the following metrics:

  • Students are improving in their academic performance. A keen focus on literacy and numeracy skills as they are the core competency skills

  • Students gaining relevant 21st century skills and been able to implement them in building and modelling innovative solutions to solve some of the problems faced in their local communities.

  • Teachers been able to spend more time engaging students and delivering more personalised instruction.

  • Parents saving money by spending less on their children's education.

We have created notable impact across different education stakeholders as follows:

  • 21k+ students have recorded an average improvement of 24% in overall academic performance. Key improvements have been recorded in English, Mathematics and Science subjects.

  • 16k+ students have gained concrete skills needed to succeed in the 21st century workforce and as entrepreneurs who can lead to an increase in productivity and drive economic growth.

  • 2738 teachers have been trained on the right eLearning pedagogy skills and this has greatly improved teaching outcomes

  • Teachers have saved 45,900+ minutes by reduced administrative tasks, such as 

routine assessments, monitoring progress, and generating progress reports, instead focusing on personalized instruction. 

  • Parents have saved more than $86K+ by subscribing their children on our platform instead of buying textbooks hence reducing the financial barriers to educational resources.

Describe the core technology that powers your solution.

An adaptive and interactive Artificial Intelligence(AI) powered eLearning platform that delivers personalized and mastery based learning experiences to students and amplifies teacher student engagement. The platform is both web and mobile based. The AI model leverages educational data mining to identify student knowledge gaps, learning pace and behaviour.

This system is made up of the following components:

  • Content management, maintenance, and delivery components interact with students to deliver individualized subject content and assessments.

  • Student learning database stores time-stamped student input and behaviors captured as students work within the system.

  • Predictive model combines demographic data and learning/behavior data from the student learning database to track a student’s progress and make predictions about his or her future behaviors or performance, such as future course outcomes and dropouts

  • Reporting server uses the output of the predictive model to produce dashboards that provide visible feedback for various users.

  • The Adaptation engine regulates the content delivery component based on the output of the predictive model to deliver material according to a student’s performance level and interests, thus ensuring continuous learning improvement.

  • Intervention engine allows teachers, administrators, or system developers to intervene and override the automated system to better serve a student’s learning.

Which of the following categories best describes your solution?

A new business model or process that relies on technology to be successful

Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:

  • Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning
  • Internet of Things
  • Robotics and Drones
  • Software and Mobile Applications

Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?

  • 4. Quality Education

In which countries do you currently operate?

  • Kenya

In which countries will you be operating within the next year?

  • Tanzania
Your Team

What type of organization is your solution team?

For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models

How many people work on your solution team?

13 full time staff

How long have you been working on your solution?

5

What is your approach to incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusivity into your work?

Our goal is to reach all students with a keen focus in bridging the digital divide. We believe that each child deserves equal education opportunities and we are committed to driving this. One of our key focus areas is serving the less privileged communities and we are currently serving more than 6500 students in Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps in Kenya.

Education in underserved communities like refugee camps as all education in emergency situations is faced with a myriad of challenges. These include large classroom size, over age learners, language constraints and students with special needs.

Since we set foot in the camps in August 2019 we have created a notable impact by improving the teachers capacity for handling the large classes and meeting the needs of the students while improving the literacy and numeracy outcomes. Through our educational data mining model we have also provided real time data to our partner organization WUSC to support evidence based decision making in improving education interventions.

We are looking for more resources to expand our work in the refugee camps. We intend to reach an extra 6000 students in both camps and their host communities. 

Your Business Model & Funding

What is your business model?

We sell our products to:

B2C: Individual parents: 

  • eLearning: SaaS with annual subscription($15), termly($5)

monthly($2), weekly($0.6)

  • STEAME: modular pricing on a SaaS model

B2B: Schools: 

  • eLearning: SaaS with annual subscription($15) per student

  • STEAME: modular pricing on a SaaS model

B2B: Corporates, donors, development agents: partnership licensing

The company offers a license pricing strategy depending on number of users accessing our products/training and project management fee of  each partnership

Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, to other organizations, or to the government?

Organizations (B2B)

What is your plan for becoming financially sustainable?

We have a strategic plan focused on growing the existing core business and taking advantage of the opportunities from the growing products. The plan is pegged on the following pillars:

  • Increased strategic partnerships: Build strategic partnerships with development agencies, corporates, donors and the government to power our business development with a goal of expanding our reach in the market

  • Agency distribution models: We aim to build and grow B2B2C agency distribution models to increase our market coverage.

  • Data driven strategy: Leveraging on data to power business decisions with a keen focus on user behavioral data on acquisition, adoption, retention and churn

  • Additional revenue streams aside from current operations: Our educational data mining generates actionable insights which can power decision making by different education stakeholders. We aim to monetize these insights.

Share some examples of how your plan to achieve financial sustainability has been successful so far.

Historical performance:

  • Revenue: here is our revenue breakdown for the past years:

    • 2018: $3,130

    • 2019: $5,079

    • 2020: $66,462

    • 2021: $219,128

  • Strategic partnerships: we have the following partners supporting our growth:

    • UNICEF Innovation Fund: We are in the skills and connectivity portfolio which focuses on solutions that bridge learning or connectivity gaps towards employability. We are benefiting from seed investment, technical and business support to help build scalable products.

    • Google for Startups Black Founders Fund: SDG Program, designed to support startups at scale in their mission to achieve one or more of the 17 SDGs by connecting startups to experts from Google and beyond.

    • Liquid Intelligent Technologies

    • We are leveraging their Sigfox network to offer IoT  STEAME based training to students. Liquid acts as our business developer, exploring opportunities of expanding our business to other countries they operate in Africa. 

    • World University Service of Canada(WUSC)

    • We are working with WUSC in the Learning through Education and Access to Skills for Employment (LEAP) in Kakuma and  Kalobeyi. The LEAP Project focuses on increasing the empowerment of girls through improving learning outcomes at the primary and secondary school level, and increasing equitable participation in the formal workforce.

Solution Team

 
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