Insurance and EdTech Comes Together to Help Parents Fund Higher Education

A Kenyan edtech startup, Craydel, has partnered with APA Life Assurance to offer personalized financial advice for parents and learners to plan and fund higher education.

APA Life Assurance will now use a co-branded online platform with Craydel to provide access to financial products such as investment plans, fixed savings, and education plans for parents who want to save for their children. This is a case where Insurance has come together with Edtech to give more education solutions for Kenyans.

“APA Life believes that by creating a new standard in financial planning, more students will have access to higher education in order for them to gain the necessary skills and education to obtain greater opportunities,” said Catherine Karimi, chief executive of APA Life Assurance.

Craydel was launched in 2021 by co-founders Manish Sardana, John Nguru and Shayne Aman Premji. It was inspired by the lack of a reliable platform in Africa to guide decisions on college and course selection.

Craydel provides students with options at every level, including online certificate programs, for which they can enroll for trial before settling on a final decision about the careers they want to pursue.

Last year the Edtech startup secured $1 million in a pre-seed round that  to  improve its search and recommendation technology and enhancing its online resources.

“APA’s deep financial expertise with financial products geared towards insuring happiness for the youth combined with Craydel’s expertise in understanding and fulfilling students’ needs is a massive step forward in democratizing access to higher education,” said Mr Manish Sardana, founder and chief executive of Craydel.

Craydel has partnered with more than 115 universities and vocational colleges in Africa and abroad and currently provides a listing of over 6,000 higher education programmes.

Spending on education in Africa is expected to grow to $740 billion by 2030, at a 14 percent compound annual growth rate, reaching $57 billion by 2030.