South Africa’s Edtech FoondaMate Eyes Speedy Takeoff After $2M Funding

South African educational technology (edtech) startup FoondaMate has secured $2 million seed funding in a round led by LocalGlobe, a UK-based venture capital firm, to drive uptake of its WhatsApp and Facebook-based learning chatbot across the globe.

How does it work? Foondamate helps students with their revision by giving them immediate answers to questions and access to revision papers, while also guiding them in responses to questions.

It aims to level the playing field in education by empowering the 345 million+ students who currently have limited access to internet-enabled education and skills development due to high internet costs, hardware constraints, language constraints, and lack of technical know-how.

The startup has a team that vets where the bot sources the information and monitors results to keep the children safe on the platform.

It was launched by computer science graduate Dacod Magagula during the pandemic when WhatsApp opened its API in beta – to help businesses connect to customers and his cofounder Tao Boyle.

And since its launch, FoondaMate has been used the world over by more than 400,000 students using over 10 languages in over 30 countries, including Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, and Indonesia – where the startup recently launched and has seen a surge in usage.