AltSchool Africa, the Nigerian edtech startup that styles itself as the African version of the US coding bootcamp BloomTech, has set up shop in Kenya, its second biggest market by revenue. The company’s founder, Adewale Yusuf, confirmed the news to TechCabal.
The startup is seeing traction in Kenya, with the East African country bringing in the second-highest revenue. As a result, AltSchool will now focus on providing hands-on support to its Kenyan customers and will also work on processing local payments faster.
“We are not new to the people, but this will give us the opportunity to expand,” said Yusuf. Tabitha Kayvu, AltSchool’s Country manager, will lead the startup’s Kenyan operations.
While the startup was launched in 2021 as a virtual platform for people to earn diplomas in engineering, data, and business analytics, it has seen interest in its services grow beyond Nigeria. It now has a presence in the US and Rwanda, where it opened an office at the Norrsken hub in 2023.
Key partnerships with the stakeholders in Kenya made a difference for AltSchool, the company shared. “We are in talks with different agencies on the ground to make sure that Kenyans have access the right access to the global in-demand skills that Alt school has to offer.”
The edtech startup now offers short courses on sales, content, and music creation. Yusuf says the startup will maintain these offerings in Kenya and will teach these courses in English. There are also plans to teach in the Swahili.
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Training the next generation of Africans
The gap between Africa’s 10 million job seekers and 3 million employed highlights a skills mismatch. Founded by Adewale Yusuf, Akintunde Sultan, and Opeyemi Awoyemi, AltSchool bridges this gap by equipping youth with global in-demand skills in covering business, data, engineering, media, and the creative economy.
The edtech startups offer flexible pricing between $20 and $50 per month for the duration of these courses. Additionally, they follow the income-sharing agreement (ISA) model popularized by companies like ALX, where students agree to share a percentage of their future income in exchange for reduced upfront costs.
Yusuf claims AltSchool has supported about 60,000 learners across 105 countries and makes $3 million in Annual Recurring Revenue—the predictable revenue it expects to receive from its customers over a year. Yusuf says AltSchool wants to deepen its presence in its current markets for the future. The startup was a recipient of the $30 million Rwandan Innovation Fund. Per Pitchbook, the startup raised about $3 million in May last year, it also raised $1 million in pre-seed funding in 2022.
“We want to deepen our presence in existing countries,” Yusuf told Techcabal while speaking about the startup’s future.
