Kidato YC Application

Winter 2021Active

Kidato went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2021 batch as a Education company. Below: what the company does, who founded it, and its application to YC, reconstructed question by question in the real YC form.

YC batch: Winter 2021
Industry: Education
Team size: 15
Status: Active
Launched: 2021

Founders

Sam GichuruFounder

What Kidato does

Parents in Africa face either public schools with student-teacher ratios as high as 50:1 or private schools with tuition fees as high as $7500 per year, per child. Kidato classes have student-teacher ratios of 5:1 and teach the same rigorous international curriculum as other private schools - but at a fraction of the price. In our second semester, Kidato has enrolled more than 30 students into our learning-from-home program as a replacement for brick-and-mortar schools. We expect to triple this enrollment by our third semester.

Kidato's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Kidato, Winter 2021 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Kidato

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Online school for K12 education in Africa

What is your company going to make? Please describe your product and what it does or will do.

We've built an online school that offers K12 education to African students. Our platform delivers a rigorous international curriculum with small class sizes capped at 5 students per teacher. Parents currently faced with overcrowded public schools or expensive private options use Kidato as an affordable, quality alternative to in-person schools.

Where do you live now, and where would the company be based after YC?

We live and operate primarily out of Nairobi, Kenya, with a remote team. We plan to base the company in Nairobi after YC as well.

Explain your decision regarding location.

Nairobi is home to our users and market. We are embedded in local education challenges and operate directly with African parents and students, so being close to that market is critical.

21 more answers in the full application

Founders, Progress, Idea, Equity, Curious, Batch Preference are in the full version. Create a free account to open it in YC Insights, next to every other YC batch.

See full application

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the real Kidato YC application?

No. Y Combinator keeps submitted applications private. This is a reconstruction: the real YC form questions, answered from Kidato's public data (launch notes, founder backgrounds, product description). It shows how a company like Kidato would present itself to YC, not the text they submitted.