Kabakoo Academies, an EdTech startup that provides tech education to African youth, has secured an undisclosed amount of funding, it announced recently.
The Bamako-based startup secured the funds from video conferencing service Zoom via its EdInnovation Award. Kabakoo received the award on 1st March, 2021, and the startup is among one of six global winners at the prestigious awards.
The EdInnovation Award recognizes “the boldest and brightest solutions supporting underserved students.”
Founded in 2018, Kabakoo Academies aims to democratize access to tech education for African youth by equipping them with the skills to create tech products, become entrepreneurs, or be highly employable. The startup has been heralded as a no-code pioneer and the first EdTech on the African continent that enables individuals to design and deploy apps without coding.
Kabakoo’s learner-centred curriculum is designed for learners to acquire and develop skills in digital fabrication and technologies for small-scale manufacturing. The platform provides creative project-based learning and the integration of local knowledge as the cornerstones of its learning experience, ensuring real-world success for its learners.
Kabakoo Academies launched the first ‘No-code Training’ in Africa in March 2021 with around 20 young learners taking part in it. The program, which is described as “Intensive FullStack” is designed and delivered in partnership with Contournement, a European leader in no-code training. The training aims to equip young Africans with skills and aptitudes that make them employable.
As part of the program, the learners will be coached by world-class mentors, and they will become fully proficient in no-code tools to create websites, mobile apps, automation, and data management projects. The training aims at mastering key tools such as Zapier, Airtable, Adalo, Glide, or Dorick, which will help learners to rapidly develop ambitious tech products (without having to code) to meet the needs of local communities and markets.
Kabakoo’s no-code segment is catalyzed by strong partnerships with, among others, the current leading no-code app Notion, which supports Kabakoo’s activities through its impact program.
Meanwhile, the EdInnovation Award formalizes the partnership between Kabakoo and Zoom, which becomes a key financial and tech partner for scaling up Kabakoo impact.
By pioneering no-code training in Africa, Kabakoo becomes a leading player in the pan-African EdTech space. According to its website, the startup claims to have trained more than 530 learners, since its launch in 2018, in future-oriented competencies for digital and decentralized manufacturing through its blended learning model.
