Many teachers and parents in Indonesia rely on WhatsApp to keep in touch, creating “multiple groups that often become messy and highly ineffective, and result in confusion or lost threads,” says Rizky Aniez, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Gredu. The Jakarta-based startup was created to give everyone involved in the educational process—school administrators, teachers, parents, guardians and students—apps that let them keep track of everything and communicate with one another. Today it is announcing a $4 million Series A, led by Intudo Ventures, an Indonesia-focused venture capital firm, with participation from returning investor Vertex Ventures.
While some teachers use Google Classroom, Gredu was created to work with Indonesia’s K-12 National Curriculum and Islamic Curriculum programs, used in both private and public schools. The startup is also developing new verticals, including software for preschools and university programs.
Founded in September 2016, Gredu is now used by more than 400 schools, with a total of 400,000 users. Its Series A will be used to expand in the Greater Jakarta Region and into major cities throughout Indonesia, plus product development and hiring.
Gredu’s subscription software is centered around a management system that lets administrators and teachers keep on touch of all their their tasks—including syllabuses, teaching schedules and communicating with parents and students. Aniez told TechCrunch that the onboarding process is simple, and “in an ideal solution, it can be done within hours.” Gredu was designed to be modular, so it can be customized to a school or district’s needs.
The platform currently has four main parts. Gredu School Management System was created for administrators, while Gredu Teacher lets educators track student attendance, create and score exams and arrange class activities. Gredu Parents enables parents and guardians to keep track of their kids’ performance and talk to teachers. Gredu Student, meanwhile, lets students look up their test scores, attendance records and school activities.
Gredu launched an Online Assignment feature before COVID-19 and during the pandemic, it added Interactive Class to enable remote learning. Aniez said the company plans to add new features and adapt Interactive Class for other uses once in-person schooling becomes the norm again. “We believe that many of the digitization in schools adopted during the pandemic will continue to be used for the future, changing the way administrators manage schools and improving transparency for local education authorities, teachers and parents,” he added.
Gredu is part of a crop of Indonesian edtech startups that have recently raised funding, including tuition platform InfraDigital; homework help and tutoring app CoLearn; and ErudiFi for education financing.
In a statement, Intudo Ventures founding partner Patrick Yip said, “Working with school districts and administrators, GREDU provide innovative solutions specifically tailored to enhance the quality, transparency and effectiveness of Indonesia’s education system. We are proud to support GREDU at this critical juncture as they help more schools digitize their operations and create positive impact for students throughout Indonesia.”