The award-winning entrepreneurial project Lenokids from the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) has gone global.
Computer Science Masters’ student Sange Mafinyongwana represented LenoKids in Nigeria as an international finalist at the 2024 Switzerland-Africa AIT Annual Conference on 28 February 2024. The start-up he co-founded has also been selected as one of 12 businesses to participate in the Swiss Residency Week in May 2024.
Lenokids is a gamified English learning platform that mainly strives to help improve children's reading literacy across Africa. It’s an AI-driven WhatsApp application that creates an engaging learning environment for the children to interact with a robot friend. It offers interactive classes, games, storytelling, and handwriting activities to make learning enjoyable and engaging for children.
Mafinyongwana explained that the origins of the project are born out of a desire to assist with the education crisis in South Africa: “How it came about is that when we were doing research, we found that 82% of Grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning. When we did research, we found that the problem mainly starts at the foundation phase. There are not enough educational resources to assist and equip our learners to be able to read English for meaning.”
Children can interact with Lenokids, either on their own or under adult supervision, and parents or educators can track the child’s progress.
“What makes Lenokids different from other learning resources is that this is a guided way of learning…not needing a parent or someone else to guide you towards most of the platforms that we are taught at school. Here you have a friend, an automated chatbot, that will guide the child throughout the learning journey in a comfortable, fun way with no criticism.”
The Swiss Residency Week is an opportunity for networking, business development, and visits to esteemed Swiss institutions.
This experience will allow LenoKids to showcase its business in Switzerland, tap into global markets and forge invaluable connections crucial for entrepreneurial success.
Computer Science Masters’ student Sange Mafinyongwana represented LenoKids in Nigeria as an international finalist at the 2024 Switzerland-Africa AIT Annual Conference on 28 February 2024. The start-up he co-founded has also been selected as one of 12 businesses to participate in the Swiss Residency Week in May 2024.
Lenokids is a gamified English learning platform that mainly strives to help improve children's reading literacy across Africa. It’s an AI-driven WhatsApp application that creates an engaging learning environment for the children to interact with a robot friend. It offers interactive classes, games, storytelling, and handwriting activities to make learning enjoyable and engaging for children.
Mafinyongwana explained that the origins of the project are born out of a desire to assist with the education crisis in South Africa: “How it came about is that when we were doing research, we found that 82% of Grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning. When we did research, we found that the problem mainly starts at the foundation phase. There are not enough educational resources to assist and equip our learners to be able to read English for meaning.”
Children can interact with Lenokids, either on their own or under adult supervision, and parents or educators can track the child’s progress.
“What makes Lenokids different from other learning resources is that this is a guided way of learning…not needing a parent or someone else to guide you towards most of the platforms that we are taught at school. Here you have a friend, an automated chatbot, that will guide the child throughout the learning journey in a comfortable, fun way with no criticism.”
The Swiss Residency Week is an opportunity for networking, business development, and visits to esteemed Swiss institutions.
This experience will allow LenoKids to showcase its business in Switzerland, tap into global markets and forge invaluable connections crucial for entrepreneurial success.
