Serial entrepreneur Sam Gichuru founded Kidato - an online schooling platform at a period when he had just started homeschooling.
His extensive experience in the tech world led to his creation of an online school platform for his children.
Speaking on Cleaning The Airwaves (CTA, a youtube channel, Sam Gichuru revealed that when seeking funding for the start-up, he turned down Ksh107 Million.
He sought funding from Y Combinator, an ‘American seed money startup accelerator’. Through the company, they were able to meet investors who were interested in Kidato.
“Y Combinator brings thousands of investors and you have 60 seconds to pitch. There were over 300 companies waiting to pitch,” Gichuru recalled.
In April, they were successful and Kidato bagged Ksh151 Million as funding from investors. However, he revealed that they had been offered an extra Ksh107 million as funding which they rejected.
“At the seed round, total dilution should not be more than 20 percent, ideally 15 percent. We were given a lot more money than we needed. Taking more money means you sell more of your company,” stated the entrepreneur.
In funding, there are a number of rounds. First is the seed rounds, Series A, B, and C. At the seed round during funding, if a company manages to raise a lot of money, that means they gave a chunk of their equity.
“The money I accepted was exactly what we needed as a company. During funding, take what you need nothing more,” advised Sam.
Gichuru has founded a number of companies - Nailab, Kuhustle, Swap Kitabu and now Kidato.
He believes that the platform Kidato will change homeschooling education. The aim is to integrate homeschooling and regular schooling into a single platform.
So far, 1,000 students have registered to the school. The students are not only in Kenya but also in Malawi, Dubai, the US, UK, Switzerland and Canada.
Aside from offering the basic subjects offered in schools, Kidato teaches students coding, chess, art and even robotics.
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