Engineers Without Borders Canada invests in unique EdTech startup M-Shule

Engineers Without Borders Canada (EWB) announced its investment in M–Shule, a Kenyan-based EdTech company using SMS to deploy tailored education content for children in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is the eighth venture to receive a cash investment from EWB, an early-stage investor in innovative Africa-based social enterprises.

M–Shule is well-positioned to work within the educational systems in Kenya and other sub-Saharan African countries to provide innovative and adaptive bite-sized lessons that complement classroom learning. As students engage with the SMS based platform, M–Shule’s adaptive technology tailors content to both challenge the child as well as help clarify specific concepts. M–Shule’s progressive approach to education also leverages both data and community learning. As students learn and progress, data is provided to parents, teachers, and school administrators. This rich data-set promotes dialogue between stakeholders and provide insights and opportunities to intervene with additional support for students.

“What we love about M–Shule’s platform is that its holistic and unifying approach arms stakeholders in the primary school ecosystem with data-driven tools critical for improving the quality of education for all students. We are delighted to welcome M–Shule to our portfolio where they join other bold teams defiantly tackling some of the world’s most challenging problems,” said Nicky Khaki, Managing Director for EWB Ventures.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the fastest growing and the youngest population in the world. Over the coming three decades, around one billion children will need to be educated. However, the current educational landscape is ill-equipped to handle this demand as millions of children are currently falling behind:

• Up to 40% of students in SSA remain illiterate after 5 years of school

• 42% of SSA students drop out before the final year of primary school

• Only 28% of SSA students are enrolled in secondary school

Unequal opportunity for education reduces prospects for economic growth and exacerbates issues such as hunger and child mortality. Sustained access to equal education can increase income per capita by 23%. Too many students are locked out of future opportunities due to issues such as high pupil-teacher ratios, high teacher absentee rates, and lost classroom time.

“We are excited and thrilled to work with EWB Ventures as a partner and investor, given their deep expertise, commitment to ongoing support, and shared focus on ground-breaking and sustainable change. This partnership will enable us to continue to innovate in primary school learning alongside our stakeholders, and scale our impact across the region,” said Claire Mongeau, CEO and Founder of M–Shule.