Piloting a start-up incubator for Save the Children

Save the Children has a history of innovative thinking that changes lives. From the Declaration of the Rights of the Child , to building ‘model villages’ for refugees in the 1930s, For 100 years it has constantly looked for new ways to help children across the world.

But with cuts in government funding, it is exploring new ways to help children that are sustainable and don’t rely on fundraising to support programme costs. That’s where Magnetic comes in.

The big idea

In 2020 a staggering 9 in every 10 children were forced out of school as Covid swept the globe. There are fears 10 million children may never return to the classroom and those who have are already showing signs they have fallen behind.

But Covid also drove rapid digital acceleration globally. This has meant a shift in attitudes to ed-tech and digital education tools. In many countries paper and pen were seen as the only serious medium for learning, with computers and smartphones something children played games on.

Forced to adapt schools and organisations like Save the Children pivoted to using WhatsApp audio messages and digital platforms to deliver lessons. Many parents now see technology as an educational tool too. There is an opportunity for generational change in how education is delivered.

Save the Children wants to support sustainable local initiatives in the countries it works in. It already has decades of experience in education and in measuring the impact of its work. What if that could be applied to a start-up working in education?

What did we do?

We helped Save the Children’s Innovation Bubble to design and run a month-long pilot start-up incubator, giving access to Save the Children’s experts, business model and strategy advice from Accenture, and innovation and design support from Magnetic.

We set out to answer two questions:

1. Can Save the Children provide something valuable to start-ups? 2. Can Save the Children attract the right start-ups to partner with?

Rwanda was chosen as the first country to pilot this new approach. On top of Covid disruption, as in many countries, in Rwanda there are cultural barriers that make girls less to attend school (teenage pregnancy, obligation to do household chores) and they are less likely to return to school post-Covid too.

Rwanda is focused on supporting a new digital economy. The government has launched a Rwanda Innovation Fund , it is establishing a $300m start-up hub in Kigali , the capital, and it is bringing forward The Startup Act , legislation designed to encourage more investment and make it easier to start a new business in the country.

It is also pushing ahead with Connect Rwanda , an ambitious initiative to get a smartphone into every household as soon as possible (2020 was the target, but it was disrupted by Covid).

A successful ed-tech start-up that broadened the availability of teaching and learning could be transformational for children’s education in the country.

Finding a start-up partner

Magnetic worked with Save the Children’s country office teams to set up a recruitment process and assess potential start-ups. The eventual winner was O’Genius Priority, and their e-learning platform O’Genius Panda .

The company was founded by two friends who wanted to provide a platform for children to learn science through experimentation without expensive labs, which most schools can’t afford to build or run. Why? Because learning through experimentation is a much more engaging and effective way to teach.

They were invited to join our one-month Start-up Studio and work with Save the Children’s experts in education and impact measurement. In partnership with Accenture, Magnetic also helped them develop a scale-up plan and supported them with a product redesign.

We helped O’Genius develop a plan to measure the impact of its products on education outcomes, a crucial step to getting further investment. We helped them refine their product around parental engagement — a crucial factor in education outcomes for children, but also for customer retention — ultimately parents are the ones who will pay for the platform.

What next?

Nothing in education is solved quickly. This was a first step to a new way of supporting children’s education outcomes, but the pilot gave us confidence the approach can work.

We found a start-up partner and a technology that can improve education outcomes. We saw a positive impact on our start-up partner and we identified opportunities to scale this approach going forward.

In sub-Saharan Africa mobile internet coverage has doubled since 2014 . The cost of data is falling every year. Smartphone penetration is growing rapidly. The opportunities for Save the Children to lead in enabling local start-ups and their technology to drive education outcomes for the next generation look bright.

“Thank you very much for everything you’ve done. I can’t believe we managed to achieve so many things in very little time. Every session was unique and mind-blowing. The passion that everyone demonstrated in supporting us was also beyond our expectations.”

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