CcHUB acquires Kenyan edtech company eLimu, hires Abiola Olaniran as CTO

Co-creation Hub (CcHUB) has announced the acquisition of eLimu, a leading Kenyan edtech company and educational content provider.

The Nairobi division of CcHUB, iHub, facilitated the acquisition of eLimu. The edtech company which was launched in 2012, two years after iHUB opened, is among the first cohort of startups that iHub incubated. CcHUB did not reveal how much it acquired eLimu just as it didn't disclose how much it acquired iHub in 2019.

eLimu was co-founded by two women: Nivi Sharma and Marie Githinji. But its current CEO is Sam Rich who joined the edtech company and educational content provider in 2015.

The goal of the acquisition, according to CcHUB, is to transform eLimu into its digital education platform arm. eLimu will continue to create interactive and engaging learning content customised and contextualised for Africa and distribute them using its existing apps. This acquisition would enable eLimu to scale its apps beyond Kenya and East Africa.

Also, the founder and CEO of Gamesole Abiola Olaniran will be joining eLimu as chief technology officer. He would bring aboard his experience in building products for the gaming industry and contribute to transforming eLimu into the leading digital educational content provider in Africa.

Kenya is not the only African country inundated with edtech startups trying to digitise how people learn, there are a plethora of edtech startups in Nigeria, too. With increasing mobile and internet penetration, Africa is well-positioned to take a slice of the growing global edtech spend.

eLimu says about 500,000 teachers and learners use its various platforms. eLimu has recorded unprecedented growth due to the global coronavirus pandemic accelerating e-learning. And this acquisition would enable eLimu to continue to digitise learning experience for African children and invest in innovation.

"I'm thrilled to see eLimu spread its wings across Africa to make learning fun and engaging for even more children", Nivi said. "eLimu will continue to leverage its deep knowledge of the education system to tap into the opportunity to transform learning everywhere".

eLimu serves its teeming audience through:

• KCPE [Kenya Certificate of Primary Education] Revision app which provides access to the six best-selling revision textbooks. It also allows students to test themselves with past papers;
• Hadithi! Hadithi!, a literacy app for children between ages six and seven. It has dozens of stories written by Kenyan teachers, illustrated by artists across East Africa, and read by actors and celebrities; and
• Training courses for teachers so that they can embrace technology — to develop lesson plans, mark sheets, and put their materials on tablets and laptops.

Last month, HoloniQ — a leading market intelligence platform on global education — listed eLimu as one the top 50 edtech companies in Africa.

The CEO of CcHUB, Olatunbosun Tijani, said: "Education is the bedrock of healthy societies. As we continue to contribute to shaping the innovation ecosystem in Africa, accelerating the application of innovation and technology in improving education outcomes will be crucial to driving our overall agenda".

One year ago, CcHUB partnered with Nigeria's premier university of education, Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED), to launch an Edtech Centre of Excellence.

And in August 2020, iHub opened the iHub Teachers’ Lounge to equip teachers with 21st-century teaching skills and online teaching tools for richer methods of teaching and collaboration in classrooms.

This acquisition reinforces CcHUB's commitment to continue to support innovation aimed at enhancing learning outcomes across the continent.