Teesas has been selected to The Elite 200, the acclaimed list of semifinalists in The GSV Cup, the world’s largest pitch competition for EdTech startups run by female-led, multi-stage venture capital firm GSV Ventures.
Companies selected to The Elite 200 represent the top pre-seed and seed-stage startups in digital learning across the “Pre-K to Gray” space.
Teesas will now compete for up to $1 million in cash and prizes in San Diego this April at the ASU+GSV Summit, the annual education technology event hosted by Arizona State University and GSV Ventures.
Teesas was selected from a global applicant pool of 750+ companies, the largest application pool for the GSV Cup yet. More than 175 judges from leading venture capital firms and strategic partners in digital learning like Accel, General Atlantic, Reach Capital, and Owl Ventures, among others, used rigorous criteria to determine the 200 most promising companies.
Osayi Izedonmwen, founder and CEO of Teesas said: “We are elated that we’ve been selected as one of The Elite 200 just a few months after we closed a $1.6 million pre-seed round. All of us at Teesas feel like winners already. We thank GSV Ventures for the recognition and their commitment to uplifting EdTech startups globally.”
“We’re at a critical and exciting time for the future of society,” said Deborah Quazzo, managing partner of GSV Ventures. “The pandemic has made it increasingly clear that Ed is on The Edge — on the edge of innovation, transformation, globalization. We’ve always imagined a new era in which ALL people have equal access to the future, and this year’s Elite 200 companies are emblematic of that vision. We’re proud to name the 200 semifinalists in the GSV Cup competition and look forward to having them pitch live at the ASU+GSV Summit.”
The Elite 200 companies serve learners from Pre-K to Gray, with companies well-distributed across the following categories: Early Childhood, K-12, Higher Education, Adult Consumer Learning, and Adult Enterprise Learning. The 2022 Elite 200 continue to break barriers, comprised of an increasingly diverse and global group:
- 58% of companies have female founders
- 51% of companies have founders that identify as people of colour
- 44% of companies are based outside the United States
The GSV Cup is powered by Google Cloud, HubSpot for Startups, HolonIQ, and GSV Ventures.
Teesas is an African-focused EdTech firm committed to building e-learning platforms that deliver curriculum-aligned educational content via web and mobile applications.
The Teesas educational app is aimed at children in reception and primary school grades and teaches core subjects through engaging tutor-led videos and e-books in English and local languages such as Yoruba, Ijaw, Hausa, Bini, Igbo, Tiv, Ibibio and others.
The pre-recorded videos are delivered by highly qualified tutors and uploaded unto the app across different grades with adaptation to make them fun using animation and gamification to enhance engagement and understanding.
Teesas also provides e-books and live classes to further deepen the child’s understanding and a companion app for parents that provides personalised content recommendation and real-time feedback on their child’s performance such as duration of videos watched within a course, percentage of revision quiz completed, test scores, areas of need etc.
On the other hand, GSV Ventures is a female-led, multi-stage venture capital firm focused on the $7+ trillion education sector. The fund is currently investing out of GSV Ventures Fund III and backs innovative entrepreneurs around the world in the “Pre-K to Gray” Arc of Learning.
GSV manages over $675 million in global EdTech investments. Portfolio holdings include Andela, Class Technologies, ClassDojo, Coursera, Course Hero, Degreed, Guild, MasterClass, Outlier, Photomath, Quizizz, Lead School, Brightchamps, and ClassPlus, among others.
