COVID-19 has closed schools for millions of students worldwide, and the pandemic disproportionately threatens developing countries – not only as a health crisis but also as a devastating social and economic crisis. The UN recently reported that 166 countries have closed their schools and universities to limit the spread of the coronavirus. One and a half billion children and young people are affected, representing 87 per cent of the global enrolled population.

In this live online panel discussion, we discussed the impact of COVID-19 on the EdTech start-up portfolio within the GSMA Innovation Fund. The founding teams of education organisations, Ruangguru (Indonesia), PrepClass (Nigeria) and Eneza Education (Côte d’Ivoire) discussed what working as a start-up means in the midst of a global pandemic; how they have each evolved and adapted their services to address the new needs of their users; and what impact the pandemic has had on their business and partnerships.