Klas is building the Shopify for online teaching
“Klas is a platform that allows anyone to start an online school and deliver live lessons. Think of Klas as Shopify for online teaching,” Nathan Nwachuku, the 18-year old co-founder and CEO told Benjamindada.com.
“Our software supports everything you need to teach online, including: payments, scheduling, community, community, analytics and video conferencing.” he added.
Founded in December 2021, Klas has grown its waitlist to over 2,000 creators. Creators on Klas can teach anything including coding, design, crypto, business, languages. The edtech startup recently partnered with Artickl — a UK-based startup building tools to automate the job seeking and application process through AI — to connect learners to global job opportunities.
“The idea for Klas started when I became blind.”
On his 15th birthday in 2019 while in secondary school, Nathan lost his right eye after he had an accident: “the accident took me out of school for five months, during that period I got bored while trying to get medication. So, I was thinking how I can teach Physics online and make money, that was when the motivation for Klas and to seriously get into tech surfaced.” Nathan recalled.
“I started learning about business, marketing and how to code via Youtube.” After he graduated from secondary school in 2020, he turned down his University admission to explore his new obsession — tech and building solutions.
Prior to co-founding Klas with Lekan Adejumo (CTO), whom he met via a YC matching platform, Nathan launched Blarbar, a social betting app with over 10,000 active users. “Blabar failed because I did not know how to keep the business running.”
Klas raises $130,000 in an angel round
Recently, the Nigerian based edtech startup raised a $130,000 angel round with investments from Tola Adesanmi (Spleet), Odunayo Eweniyi (Piggyvest), Nadayar Enegesi (Eden life), Njoku Emmanuel (Lazerpay), Leonard Stiegeler (Jumia), Voltron capital, Cabal Fund, Velocity Digital, HoaQ.
Klas wants to be the Shopify for online teaching. “Most creators duct-tape different tools together to provide important class components, such as scheduling, payments, community, analytics, and video conferencing. All of this is built into Klas, integrated and seamless.”
As of 2020, mobile e-learning had grown by $38 billion. From 2017 to 2022, there is an expected upward trajectory of $6 billion. The global industry has since its birth grew by 900% globally.
With this new fund, “Klas will double down on platform innovation and powering online schools globally,” the edtech startup is playing in the same space as Maven, Teachable.