Moringa School, a Kenyan EdTech startup focused on developing and nurturing high potential individuals in software engineering and other tech-based skills, has closed a pre-series A round from Proparco (AFD Group), according to a statement shared with TechCabal today. This funding round, according to Moringa, will be used to solidify its expansion to Ghana and soon, Nigeria. It also plans to scale across other African countries in the next 12 months.
Founded by Audrey Cheng, Moringa school has, in the past 7 years made tremendous changes to its structure to accommodate the growth they envisage. Earlier this year, the company announced Snehar Shah as new CEO while also signing a content partnership deal with Flatiron School, a leading US-based educational institution that organizes online and on-campus coding bootcamp.
“The investment comes at an exciting time for Moringa as the institution expands to Ghana and Nigeria. We are keen to leverage on this partnership to train many more students using the leading US Bootcamp’s curriculum from Flatiron School. In line with our vision of a world in which anyone can create their future, we welcome the support of Proparco to make our courses available in new markets in Africa,” Shah said.
Proparco, the lead investor in Moringa’s new rounds, is a private sector financing arm of Agence Française de Développement Group (AFD Group) that specializes in providing funding and support to both businesses and financial institutions in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle-East. Their investment activity focuses on key development sectors: infrastructure; mainly for renewable energies, agribusiness, financial institutions, health and education.
“Supporting the African tech ecosystem is one of Proparco’s key priorities. Through our investment in Moringa, Proparco is proud to support an ambitious Edtech in its expansion in Africa and thus contribute to bridging the skills gap that has been affecting the growth of startups on the African continent”said Françoise Lombard, Proparco’s CEO.
Moringa school has trained over 4,000 students. About 85% of this number have secured jobs in companies across Africa and off the continent including Safaricom, I&M, Andela, Sanlam, Microsoft, Cybertek and Dalberg Data Insights. In 2020, Moringa School was listed among the top 50 Edtech companies in Africa by HolonIQ. The World Bank also cited Moringa School as a leader in the Edtech space following its research into technology boot camps. Last year, Moringa was selected as one of the World Economic Forum’s “Technology Pioneers in 2021.”
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