EduOne, a South African edtech startup, has been acquired by education finance and education fund management company Fundi.
Founded in 2015 by Jason Basel and co-founders James Kieser, Pieter Strydom and Ben Rath, is a suite of digital platforms catering to niches in the education industry. From an information platform like EduConnect to its flagship scholarship management SaaS platform EduFunding, EduOne is building out an ecosystem of edtech products to help students succeed.
“Students simply did not have enough information or support to make decisions about their further education and their careers. At 17 years old, few people even know who they are, never mind who they wanted to become,” said Basel.
In 2016, Fundi became EduOne’s largest stakeholder. After the acquisition, the process of integrating EduOne’s career guidance tool, EduConnect into Fundi as FundiConnect began.
CEO of Fundi Makgu Dibakwane said obtaining EduOne was in line with the organisation’s plans.
“EduOne has been a natural next-step for Fundi. The essential philosophy of making education ‘a reality’ is a core element of Fundi’s DNA – making this partnership so exciting for us as a growing business,” Dibakwane said.
According to Dibakwane, Fundi plans to integrate other key services, such as education financing offerings, an online shop, and a bursary finder.
This will mean that a student’s journey will be fully digitised: covering all their needs from school right through to getting a job – no matter where they find themselves.”
Basel said, “This acquisition means that Fundi can reach its audiences with unprecedented scale and depth of value going forward. As a united team, we’re on the same page, have the same mission, and are looking forward to an exciting and successful future together”.
