Kenyan StartUp Helping Students Make A Decision On The Best College In Their Region Raises $1M To Expand Its Platform

A minority-owned platform that allows you to compare colleges, course options, and tuition fees all in one go has just managed to raise $1M  in a pre-seed round that will go towards improving its search and recommendation technology.

Craydel was launched earlier this year by co-founders Manish Sardana, John Nguru, and Shayne Aman Premji.

It was inspired by the lack of a reliable portal in Africa to guide the big decisions on which college and course selection students will take.

The trio then decided to bring to life a platform that would eliminate this challenge by doing most of the work for students and their parents. Craydel now provides access to a portal that offers verified information about colleges to help them in decision-making.

The startup has partnered with more than 90 universities and vocational colleges in Africa and abroad and currently provides a listing of 3,000 higher education programs.

Money earned from the funding round, which was led by Enza Capital, a private venture fund that invests in early-stage tech startups across Africa, will also be used by Craydel to enhance its online resources. 

Other investors in the round include Future of Learning Fund, a Kenya-based edtech backer; BriteGaze, a South African artificial intelligence fund; Bisk Ventures; a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm and Tekton Ventures; a San Francisco-based technology investment firm.

Speaking to TechCrunch, Sardana, Craydel’s CEO, said: “An estimated $30 billion is spent every year on higher education in Africa,” said. “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,” he added.