Gradely

Gradely is a Nigerian adaptive learning company whose app builds individualised learning paths for K-12 students by diagnosing learning gaps and then recommending practice questions, animated video lessons and one-on-one tutor sessions until a student reaches mastery of a topic. The approach is described by the company as an implementation of Benjamin Bloom's Mastery Learning: a student takes an adaptive assessment, watches recommended video lessons, takes targeted tutoring in specific topics, and progresses once mastery is attained. Practice items are graded by difficulty and escalate automatically as a student clears levels.

Alongside the consumer app, Gradely provides schools and teachers with a learning management system that supports assessment creation from a question pool of more than 100,000 items, auto-graded computer-based exams, live video classes with interactive whiteboard, screen sharing and recordings, one-click personalised report cards, and school fee invoicing and accounts management. Content is curriculum-aligned, historically to WASSCE and IGCSE topics, and the current site describes coverage of Maths, English, Science and Verbal/Non-Verbal Reasoning for Key Stages 1–2, and subjects including Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Literature for Key Stage 3, GCSE and A-Level, plus exam preparation for Common Entrance, WAEC, JAMB, 11+, 13+, SAT and A-Levels.

The company frames its mission around learning poverty, citing rates of 57% in low- and middle-income countries in 2019 and 86% in Sub-Saharan Africa, and states a goal of supporting 10 million students to reach minimum proficiency in maths, languages and science by 2035.

Founding story

Co-founders Boye Oshinaga and Oluwaseyi Adelaju had previously built a school discovery website used by about 3,000 private schools to acquire parent customers. During a school visit they met a parent whose child had failed mathematics two terms in a row while the class teacher was unsure what could have been done differently; Oshinaga concluded that early data on the child's strengths and weaknesses would have changed the outcome. A survey of 800 parents found that children's academic performance was the strongest influence on the decision to switch schools, with families switching roughly every three years. The founders then built a digital homework tool on the thesis that digitising and mapping assessment to surface learning gaps early would be the building block for personalised learning.

Business model

Gradely sells subscriptions and tutoring to families and licenses a learning/school management platform to schools. Consumer plans in Nigeria start from ₦6,000 per month, while UK families can book private tutoring at £20 per hour; a free trial is offered to new users. For schools, the product bundles an LMS with live classes, an assessment builder drawing on a 100,000+ question pool, auto-graded computer-based exams, reporting, and a fee invoicing and accounts management module. Microtraction described a model in which personalised homework and periodic tests generate recommendations of further actions, products and services for parents and teachers to buy.

Recurring consumer subscriptions (from ₦6,000 per month in Nigeria), paid one-on-one and group tutoring (£20 per hour in the UK), and school-facing software including LMS, assessment, examination, reporting and fee-collection modules. The company reported 1,500 monthly student subscriptions as of July 2021.

Traction

Growth reported by the company and press: about 69–70 schools in April 2020 with 4,500+ maths practice questions and 80+ video lessons; 112 schools signing up in the first week after the February launch; and, by July 2021, 700 schools being onboarded, 10,060 students and 1,500 monthly student subscriptions. The current website reports 92,000+ students, 4,000+ teachers, 500+ partner schools across the UK and Nigeria, 25,000+ lessons completed, 4,500+ videos watched and 80,000+ practice exercises taken.

Latest developments

The company's current website markets to both Nigerian and UK families, advertises a library of more than 3,000 interactive video lessons and reports 92,000+ students, 4,000+ teachers and 500+ partner schools across the UK and Nigeria, along with 25,000+ lessons completed and 80,000+ practice exercises taken. Gradely is also listed as a participant in the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship cohort directory operated by CcHUB's Future of Learning programme, which records a 2019 founding, a Lagos location and Boye Oshinaga as founder.