Teesas is proving that it is an impact-driven EdTech with the Teesas Donate Program aimed at supporting underprivileged and out-of-school children in attaining academic excellence.
The Teesas Donate Program encourages the public to donate old or faulty tablets. Intending donors are to submit their contact details on the firm’s website, and the Teesas team will work with a logistics company to pick up the devices. Alternatively, donors can drop off the smart devices at any of the nine Imose Technologies service centres nationwide. Devices to be donated should have the following minimum specifications: a 6-inch screen size or above, 2GB RAM and 16GB ROM, Android 6 or above and iOS 12 or above. Imose Technologies, a sister company of Teesas, will refurbish the tablet and install the Teesas Education app before the tablets are delivered to the underserved communities.
An annual subscription to the Teesas Education app is N34,320 but all beneficiaries of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) program will access the content at no cost. It gets better. Teesas will provide a router with a one-year data subscription to ensure that the children can access the Teesas Education app via the internet, and its tutors will volunteer their time to visit the underserved communities to monitor the children’s academic progress and provide free tutoring support. Should any of the devices be damaged, they will be repaired for free by Imose Technologies.
The Teesas Education app teaches children aged 2 – 12 years core subjects including Maths, Sciences, and Literacy through engaging tutor-led videos and e-books in English that are aligned with the national curriculum. Users can also learn educational content in major Nigerian languages namely; Bini, Hausa, Ibibio, Igbo, Ijaw, Yoruba, and Tiv. Teesas also offers French lessons and social and emotional learning such as anti-bullying lessons delivered by the start-up’s ambassador, Mercy Johnson-Okojie. Teesas has a companion app for parents too. The Teesas Parents app provides parents with personalised content recommendations and real-time feedback on their children’s performance. Both apps are available on Android and iOS.
According to a recent Voice of America report, there are 18.5 million out-of-school children in Nigeria, 60% of whom are girls. This is a significant difference from the 10.5 million estimated by UNICEF in 2021. As such, Teesas is hoping to reach more girls in underserved communities such as the Little Saints Orphanage, Abule Egba Home in Lagos, some of the early beneficiaries of the Teesas Donate Program.
Osayi Izedonmwen, founder and CEO of Teesas says that the Teesas Donate Program aligns with the company’s mission to liberalise access to education in Africa.
“We believe that our educational app is Africa’s learning gateway because it opens up opportunities for learning by children anywhere. For instance, children impacted by insurgency who cannot go to school can continue learning with these refurbished tablets that come pre-installed with the Teesas app,” he said.
Teesas announced its entry into the market in December 2021 after raising $1.6m in pre-seed funding. Since then, the company has continued to record milestones in the African EdTech space. In February 2022, Teesas was selected to The Elite 200 from a global applicant pool of 750+ companies.
The Elite 200 is the acclaimed list of semifinalists in The GSV Cup — the world’s largest pitch competition for EdTech startups run by female-led, multi-stage venture capital firm GSV Ventures. Companies selected to The Elite 200 represent the top pre-seed and seed-stage start-ups in digital learning across the “Pre-K to Gray” space.
In May, Teesas was named among five innovators of the Morgan Stanley 2022 Sustainable Solutions Collaborative (the Collaborative) cohort for increasing educational opportunities across the African continent. Teesas will join a bespoke yearlong strategic collaboration with The Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing (The Institute) where they will tap into the full range of Morgan Stanley’s expertise, networks and resources to help them achieve scale. The EdTech start-up also receives an award of $250,000 to increase the impact of its initiative.
The Collaborative, launched in 2020, aims to identify breakthrough innovations that address systemic change to support a sustainable future. Teesas was the only African start-up to make the second cohort. Izedonmwen says that among other things, the Morgan Stanley award is making it possible for the Teesas Donate Program to reach more orphanages and underserved communities.
