How is your business helping to solve the health, social, or economic challenges created by COVID19?
A good education is even harder to attain in developing nations now, and teenage minds with a STEM education are essential to opening up prosperity options. We provide compelling STEM education to support learners and teachers during school closures, or (especially in Africa) those who have no school to go to. In Tanzania we extracted animated lessons from the interactive app and are TV broadcasting them via the government education channel, reaching even those who have no mobile phone access. The future of STEM education is gamified mobile self study, and MindZu is going to drive it. We target individuals via B2C in Asia, and governments via B2G in Africa.
Does your business contribute most to recovery, response, or resilience?
Response - we're responding directly to issues caused or exacerbated by the COVID-19 outbreak.
What is the stage of your product development?
I have a market-ready product/service. I could sell it to customers
What strengths does your team bring? Include skills and personal experience with the problem.
The four founders are born and raised in Africa (Kwang in Malawi, Khalaf in Tanzania, Godfrey in Zambia, Karen in South Africa), and have good experience working with India. Founders are experienced in corporate leadership and creative media start-ups. Karen was at Dow Europe, Marriott International and the BBC, won awards for projects at Intel, The Humane Society and Lockheed Martin, and founded several start-ups including a computer games company. Kwang is a creative director with UN experience, and skills in advertising, education and animation. Khalaf was CEO of Macmillan Publishing in East Africa and is steeped in education publishing and government contracting. Godfrey is a strategist, led Nielsen’s global management services group, and is a pioneer of the e-learning, gaming and digital marketing industries. We all have a passion for helping people prosper through education, and understand how to disrupt the traditional industry which, in many developing nations, is a poor match for socioeconomic realities.
What countries do you operate in?
Registered in Mauritius, we operate primarily out of Cape Town, South Africa and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Our target markets are India, Tanzania and South Africa initially, expanding into other countries Africa and Asia within a year. Our core products follow GCSE, adapted for local curricula, so we will roll out worldwide within two years.
Is your company headquartered in a US "Opportunity Zone"?
No
