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Nexford University Lands $10.8M Pre-Series A to Scale its Flexible Remote Learning Platform

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Nexford University - Investors King

Two profound problems face the higher education sector globally — affordability and relevance. Whether you live in Africa, Europe, or the U.S., a major reason why people don’t go to university or college or even drop out because they cannot afford tuition fees. On the other hand, relevance shows the huge gap between what traditional universities teach and what global employers actually look for. It’s not a secret that universities focus a bit too much on theory.

Over the past few years, there has been the emergence of a number of alternative credential providers trying to provide students with the necessary skills to earn and make a living. Nexford University is one of such platforms, and today, it has a closed $10.8 million pre-Series A funding round.

Dubai-based VC Global Ventures led the new round. Other investors include Future Africa’s new thematic fund (focused on education), angel investors, and family offices. Unnamed VCs from 10 countries, including the U.S., U.K., France, Dubai, Switzerland, Qatar, Nigeria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, also took part.

To date, Nexford has raised $15.3 million, following the first tranche of $4.5 million in seed funding raised two years ago.

Fadl Al Tarzi launched Nexford University in 2019. The tech-enabled university is filling affordability and relevance gaps by providing access to quality and affordable education.

“That way, you get the best of both worlds,” CEO Al Tarzi said to TechCrunch. “You get practical skills that you can put to work immediately or for your future career while actively keeping a job. So the whole experience is designed as a learning as a service model.”

Nexford Unversity lets students study at their own pace. Once they apply and get admitted into either a degree program or a course program, they choose how fast or slow they want the program to be.

Nexford University

Fadl Al Tarzi (CEO, Nexford University)

The CEO says whatever students learn on the platform is directly applicable to their jobs. Currently, Nexford offers undergraduate degrees in business administration; 360° marketing; AI & automation; building a tech startup; business analytics; business in emerging markets; digital transformation; e-commerce; and product management. Its graduate degrees are business administration, advanced AI, e-commerce, hyperconnectivity, sustainability, and world business.

Nexford’s tuition structure is very different from traditional universities because it’s modelled monthly. Its accredited degrees cost between $3,000 to $4,000 paid in monthly instalments. In Nigeria, for instance, an MBA costs about $160 a month, while a bachelor degree costs $80 a month. But the catch for the monthly instalment structure means the faster a learner graduates, the less they pay.

What’s it like learning with Nexford University?

Nexford University doesn’t offer standardized and theoretical tests or assignments as most traditional universities do. Al Tarzi says the company employs what he calls a competency-based education model where students prove mastery by working on practical projects.

For instance, a student working on an accounting course will most likely need to create a P&L statement, analyze balance sheets and identify where the error is to correct it. The platform then gives the student different scenarios showing companies with different revenues and expense levels. The task? To analyse and extract certain ratios to help make sense of which company is profitable and the other unit economics involved.

Though Nexford plays in the edtech space, Al Tarzi doesn’t think the company is an edtech company. As a licensed and accredited online university, Nexford has a huge amount of automation across the organization and provides students with support from faculty and career advisors.

After offering degrees, Nexford puts on its placement hats by fixing its graduates with partner employers.

There’s a big shortage of jobs in Nigeria, and despite the high unemployment, it’s actually difficult to find extremely qualified entry-level graduates. So Nexford has carried out several partnerships where employers sponsor their employees or soon-to-be employees for upskilling and rescaling purposes.

An illustration is with Sterling Bank, a local bank in the country. Most Nigerian banks have yearly routines where they hire graduates and put them on weeks-long training programs. Sterling Bank employs any candidate it feels did great after the capital intensive (eight weeks in most cases) programs.

So what Nexford has done is to partner with Sterling to fund the tuition for high school leavers. When these students go through Nexford’s programs for the first year, they begin to get part-time placements at Sterling. Upon graduation, they get a job in the bank.

“That saves Sterling the training cost and our tuition fee is almost equal to the training that they provided for students. Also, students start paying back once they get placed, so it’s a win-win.”

Nexford University has learners from 70 countries, with Nigeria its biggest market yet. Nexford also has blue-chip partnerships with Microsoft, LinkedIn Learning, and IBM to provide access to tools, courses and programmes to improve the learning experience.

One of the major gains of this learning experience is how it prepares people for remote jobs. Nexford is bullish on its virtual skills grid, where people will get jobs remotely regardless of their location on the platform.

“Across Sub Saharan Africa by the year 2026, there’s gonna be a shortage of about 100 million university seats as a result of huge growth in youth population not met by growth and supply. Even if you want to build universities fast, you wouldn’t be able to meet the demand. And that spirals down to the job market. We don’t think the local economy will produce enough jobs in Nigeria, for instance. But we want to enable people to get remote jobs across the world and not necessarily have to migrate.”

Last year, Nexford’s revenues grew by 300%. This year, the company hopes to triple the size of its enrollment from last year, the CEO said.

Nexford is big on designing students’ curriculum based on analysis of what their employer needs. Al Tarzi tells me that the company always follow the Big Data approach, asking themselves, “how do we find out what employers worldwide are looking for and keep our curriculum alive and relevant?”

“We develop proprietary technology that enables us to analyze job vacancies as well as several other data sources; use AI to understand how those data sets and build a curriculum based on those findings. So, in short, we start with the end in mind,” he answers.

The company is keen on improving its technology regardless. It wants to analyse skills more accurately and automate more functions to enhance user experience. That’s what the funding will be used for in addition to fuelling its regional expansion plans (particularly in Asia) and investing in growth and product development. Per the latter, the online university says it will be launching partner programs with more employers globally to facilitate both placement and upskilling and rescaling.

Merging both worlds of tech and the traditional university model is no easy feat. The former is about efficiency, user-centricity, product, among others. The latter embodies rigidity and continues to lag behind fast-paced innovation. And while there’s been a boom in edtech, most startups try to circumvent the industry’s bureaucracy by launching an app or a MOOC. Nexford’s model of running a degree-granting, licensed, accredited, and regulated university is more challenging but in it lies so much opportunity.

Iyin Aboyeji, Future Africa general partner CEO, understands this. It’s one reason why the company is the first investment out of Future Africa’s soon-to-be-launched fund focused on the future of learning and why he believes the company is a game-changer for higher education in Africa.

“During the pandemic, while many universities in Nigeria were shut down due to labour disputes, Nexford was already delivering an innovative and affordable new model of online higher education designed for a skills-based economy.”

For general partner at Global Ventures Noor Sweid, Nexford University is redressing the mismatch between the supply of talent and the demands of today’s digital economy. “We are thrilled to partner with Fadl and the Nexford team on their journey toward expanding access to universal quality higher education in emerging markets,” she said.

Is the CEO/Founder of Investors King Limited. A proven foreign exchange research analyst and a published author on Yahoo Finance, Businessinsider, Nasdaq, Entrepreneur.com, Investorplace, and many more. He has over two decades of experience in global financial markets.

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Fund Raising

Nigerian Mobility Pioneer Moove Raises $76 Million in Game-Changing Financing Round

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Moove

Moove, a trailblazing player in Nigeria’s mobility and logistics sector, has successfully raised $76 million in a financing round that promises to reshape the landscape of transportation and mobility services in the country.

This substantial investment further solidifies Moove’s position as a driving force behind innovative transportation solutions.

The company’s unique approach to automobile financing, which utilizes a hire-purchase model, has garnered attention from both investors and industry experts.

Under this model, Moove rents cars to drivers, allowing them to ultimately become car owners once they complete payments based on a predetermined value set by the company.

This infusion of funds will enable Moove to accelerate its efforts in bringing affordable and flexible mobility solutions to Nigerian drivers, fostering economic opportunities and contributing to the growth of the local transportation ecosystem.

The financing round boasts support from 31 investors, including prominent names such as BlackRock and Mubadala.

It said in a statement that, “Moove is different from typical mobility companies like Uber or Taxify; instead, it operates as an automobile financing startup that employs a hire purchase model. Under this approach, Moove rents cars to drivers, who eventually become car owners after paying the predetermined value set by Moove.”

According to the statement, the collective efforts of Nigerian mobility and logistics startups were making a substantial impact, employing 1,374 individuals in total, averaging around 49 employees per company, as highlighted by Disrupt Africa’s research.

With this successful funding round, Moove has now raised $550 million across 15 rounds as it eyes unicorn status. “Unicorn” status—a term used to describe privately held startup companies valued at over $1 billion—represents a significant milestone in the realm of entrepreneurship and innovation.

 

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Fund Raising

Zuvy Secures $4.5 Million to Revolutionize SME Financing in Africa

Nigerian startup Zuvy raises substantial funding to transform the landscape of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) financing in Africa, addressing the critical challenges faced by businesses in accessing capital

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Zuvy

Nigerian startup Zuvy has secured $4.5 million in funding to revolutionize SME financing in Africa by addressing the challenges faced by businesses in accessing capital for their operations.

Zuvy, founded in 2021 and operating out of Nigeria, specializes in providing innovative invoice financing and management tools for SMEs.

The co-founders, Angel Onuoha and Ahmad Shehu, share a passion for digitizing and providing financing solutions tailored to the unique needs of small businesses in Africa.

“When I first came to Lagos, I was helping one of my aunties run her food catering business, and I saw just how much of an impact that invoice financing could have had on her business,” shares Angel Onuoha, reflecting on his personal motivation for establishing Zuvy.

“This was primarily because most of her work is determined by large contracts that she would get from large oil and gas companies. They wouldn’t pay her for 30 or 45 days at a time, and I found that a lot of these payment delays are very common for vendors.”

Payment delays are a prevalent challenge faced by SMEs in Nigeria, where large corporations often take as long as 90 days to settle invoices for services rendered. This creates significant cash flow constraints for smaller businesses, adversely affecting their operations and growth prospects.

Zuvy aims to bridge this financing gap by providing invoice financing to SMEs, particularly in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), healthcare, and supply chain sectors where payment delays are rampant.

By offering cash advances based on invoices issued by businesses, Zuvy enables SMEs to access the funds they are owed, reducing their dependence on delayed payments.

To ensure the legitimacy of each application, Zuvy collaborates closely with the businesses receiving the services. This approach not only verifies the authenticity of the invoice but also streamlines the repayment process.

Repayment terms, ranging from 30 to 90 days, are determined based on the specific needs of each business, allowing for flexibility and tailored financing solutions.

Zuvy’s innovative approach to SME financing has garnered support from investors, with TLG Capital leading the recent funding round. The funding, split between debt ($4 million) and equity ($580k), will enable Zuvy to expand its loan book and meet the increasing demand from vendors in Nigeria.

“TLG’s innovative approach to lending in Naira, a critical aspect of our operations, has demonstrated their deep understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities within our market,” says Angel Onuoha, expressing his enthusiasm for TLG Capital’s investment.

“Most importantly, their deal execution speed is unparalleled, and we are highly aligned with their mission in fostering the growth of SMEs on the continent.”

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Fund Raising

Nigerian Health Tech Startup Helium Health Secures $30 Million in Funding to Expand Offering in Africa

Nigerian health tech startup Helium Health has secured $30 million in series B funding to expand its offering across Africa.

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Nigerian health tech startup Helium Health has secured $30 million in series B funding to expand its offering across Africa.

The funding round was led by AXA IM Alts, with participation from Capria Ventures, Angaza Capital, Anne Wojcicki, and Flatworld partners. Other existing investors that participated in the round include Tencent, Ohara Pharmaceuticals, LCY Group, WTI, and AAIC.

With the recent funds raised, Helium Health seeks to expand the reach of its fintech product Helium Credit, which is one of the leading digital finance products for Africa’s healthcare sector.

Speaking on the recent funds raised, Helium Health CEO and Co-founder Adegoke Olubusi said, “We believe in a future where good healthcare is a reality for Africans, not just a few. We are deeply committed to supporting both private healthcare providers and public health stakeholders with finance, technology, and data to achieve that vision. We are delighted to have such seasoned healthcare investors accompany us on our journey”.

Also commenting on the funding round, Helium Health lead investor AXA IM Alts through the head of impact investing Jonathan Dean said, “We are delighted to invest, through AXA IM Alts’ impact investing strategies, in ‘Helium Health’s mission of providing digital solutions to improve the quality and efficacy of health services in resource-constrained environments, whilst also directly equipping health sector enterprises with affordable financial services. This investment directly contributes to AXA IM Alts’ broader impact goals of improving financial inclusion and reducing inequalities globally.”

Launched in 2020, Helium Health has extended more than $3.5 million in credit to over 200 healthcare facilities in Nigeria, including pharmacies, diagnostics centers, Hospitals, and Clinics, which have used the loans to purchase medical equipment and medications in bulk and also expand their locations.

The health tech startup works with leading global health organizations and governments, supporting them to execute their strategies, informing policy and decision-making, and improving outcomes for us all. The YC-backed HealthTech startup claims to be the widest-reaching EMR platform in West Africa, used by over 10,000 health workers across 1,000 facilities to care for over 1 million African patients, Investors King understands.

Since Helium’s health series A investment, it has grown its credit from $250,000 to a handful of healthcare facilities to more than $3.5 million across 200+ healthcare facilities in Nigeria.

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