Founded in 2017, BAG Innovation is a digital support system that helps university students acquire market-relevant experience and exposure. With curricula struggling to keep up with the evolving marketplace and career centers not always serving students as they should, the startup uses a combination of AI and gamification to simulate virtual challenges posed by organizations. Students submit solutions and receive feedback from both the employer and BAG’s AI-driven career-development tool. “This results in BAG delivering highly relevant experience-based learning throughout the whole student journey,” says cofounder Yussouf Ntwali.

In its early days, BAG sustained its operations by charging for offline talent placement. It has since built out its tech and is now partnered with the majority of Rwanda’s universities. More than eight thousand students have used the platform. “BAG Innovation has increased the market readiness score of students by between thirty and sixty percent,” says Gabriel Ekman, the startup’s managing director. The company has also partnered with the creators of Candy Crush to build its gamification API and further improve the user experience. Gabriel says that “Kigali is becoming a hub for the edtech ecosystem in East Africa and is focusing much effort on supporting the growing tech startups in the country.”

BAG was bootstrapped before receiving $150,000 in seed funding to scale its technology in 2019.

Main Photo by: BAG Innovation