Meet these African entrepreneurs who are leading the next-generation learning platform helping students understand the reality and practicality of things they learn in STEM subjects using the SmartDarasa app and website utilizing 2D, 3D & AR technology. Students can practically learn what they learn in class on STEM subjects, do conceptualized questions, perform 2D & 3D simulations, and AR learning as if things are in their environment.
Elias Elisante is the CEO of SmartDarasa. He’s a full-stack app and web developer with 5+ years of experience working with 3D, AR & VR technologies. Inclusive in his professional experience is software development and software quality assurance which gave him the opportunity not only to work with Tanzanian-based software companies and also with American and European-based companies which shaped his professional abilities to fit in the global market.
Kusiluka Aginiwe Justice is the CSO of SmartDarasa. He’s responsible for driving the long-term strategic direction of Smartdarasa in order to shape the company’s future towards our long-term vision. He has a background in business administration and management, having graduated from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and the University of Dar es Salaam.
Tell Me More About Yourselves and the Journey That Led You People into Entrepreneurship.
Elias: My name is Elias. I’m the CEO of SmartDarasa. I became an entrepreneur because of the challenges I faced when studying STEM subjects. This is one of the core things that made me get knowledge about programming to see how now I can solve the challenges, which were facing me back then.
Kusiluka: I’m Kusulika. I’m co-founder of SmartDarasa and I joined the team because I could relate to the problem. Having studied in government and private schools, you know, access to even STEM laboratories in private schools is limited. So it’s worse in government schools.
And when Elias shared the vision, the dream and the product with me, I thought I would help champion the business side of it better because I actually relate to it. I switched my profession from being an engineer to business developer because I hated the concept of cramming STEM, not understanding it. So it became a personal mission.
What is SmartDarasa All About and What is the Problem You’re Trying to Solve in the Market as African Entrepreneurs?
Kusiluka: According to reports, Africa has over 70% of schools which do not have laboratories or have under equipped laboratories. So it’s with statistics like that that made us push SmartDarasa since inception up to now.
And with SmartDarasa we make it very easy and fun to understand STEM practically. Because you can cram your way to A’s and B’s, but you can’t cram your way to actually building a bridge, or building a road, a very good one, or to deliver a pregnant mother successfully.
You can’t cram your way out of that. So with SmartDarasa you practice what you learn in physics, chemistry, biology, and geography. So that is what we are trying to bridge in Africa. And we have a lot of incompetent STEM professionals.
That is why many of the major projects up to now, even the normal projects are taken by Chinese and other international companies. It’s because the locals seem incompetent to perform those particular activities.
With SmartDarasa, we saw that the problem starts from the early stage. How do these people learn? Not only what they can or what they can’t do, but with how they learn. And a large percent of them cram rather than understand. So that’s where we bridge the gap.
Describe the process of designing, prototyping and manufacturing your products?
Elias: Our product is education based. So first we have to review the curriculum, the targeted curriculum that we want to make an interactive something out of it. Because most of us are engineers and business people, we incorporate the teachers in the process.
After we have identified a certain topic that we want to make interactive. The teacher can put the teaching psychology into it before we take it to the next part. So after getting the curriculum and the teacher’s insights of how the student can be able to interact with that content easily. Then we take from the contents itself to the designing part.
There’s two stages of designing. The first stage of designing is the platform design and also the workflow design.
So when I talk about the workflow design is the story behind and the objective of how students or teachers must have after using our product. After creating the flow, then you go to design on how users can interact with that product.
We have two kinds of products. The digital products, which is the mobile application and the platform that you see online as a website. But also we have smart cards, which is the physical thing which goes with the mobile application.
In the designing part of the product, we design the mobile digital form and also design things which will be in the physical form. If we design the card, we design the illustration, then we print them out.
In our first prototype, we handmade the packages where we put our cards. So after designing those, then we come to the physical and we make them by hand. On the platform, the design platform, we code it so that it can be used on different digital devices, like mobile phones and tablets.
In a nutshell, that is the first and second stage. From collecting user data, then to the designing parts, and to the implementation where we make those things to actually come into the actual product where a user can use them.
But before we get everything into the user, we have to test it so that we can get feedback on whether there’s a glitch or something on a certain device. This way we can modify it and publish the version which will work on most devices.
How Did You Guys Meet And What Convinced You People That You Can Work Together?
Kusiluka: Before 2021 we had never met. And before May 2021 we had met twice. The first time that we met, we were both under the same incubator. So in 2020, I had my startup called Compass Plus. Elias was running SmartDaras.
So we had a meeting to talk about the challenges we are facing and the like. Then after that it was over in February, 2021, we met again. There was this event organized by one ESO in the ecosystem called Innovate Ventures. And it was a focus group where we got to discuss the challenges and everything. So one of the things we had to do is present our findings and Elias drew really nice graphs to present the data that we had.
And I did a good presentation of the data that we had. So together we did the best presentation that was there that day. With Alias being the techie behind it and me working on the presentation.
After that, I think it was three months down the line in May, 2021, it’s when I got to see Elias’ product and I told him this is revolutionary. And after a few times, he gave me a proposal to be a co-founder in his company.
So it’s as simple as that, I can say, not a longstanding friendship.
What Qualities Did You See in Him that Made You Agree to be a Co-founder?
Kusiluka: Elias has a bachelor degree in Telecom Engineering and also is a Full Stack Developer with an experience in using those different technologies. I have a bachelor degree in Business Administration, so I’m more on the business side.
Understanding those dynamics of experience and expertise. It’s then I got to dive into the character. Personal character because that’s one of the things I observe. And yeah, he has the qualities that you can work with. The kind of openness and transparency that is easy to work with a person.
You can have the best person, but if he’s not open or he’s shady in his ways and moves, it doesn’t work well. But with Elias it was the opposite of it, and I saw this was a good fit together with his technical experience and expertise.
Funding is often a challenge for African Entrepreneurs and Can You Share Insights on How Raise Capital For SmartDarasa?
Kusiluka: SmartDarasa started by bootstrapping. So it took like two good years of experimenting with the technologies because they are new. Not only to Tanzania, but to the world. You know augmented reality and the like. So he was experimenting with them for three years bootstrapping.
And in 2019, um, there was funding from COSTEC, The Commission of Science and Technology in Tanzania. After participating in the competition, he got his grant – $10,000 with the team that was there at that moment. And that was to push the product from a prototype to a better MVP.
So he put the funds to work, and in 2020, there was an MVP of a website and also a SmartDarasa application. We launched our product in July 2021, and we started getting revenues from there.
In 2022 we got another round of funding from the Commission of Science and Technology in Tanzania. And on top of that, we also won the Diamond Groups, UPG Biashara last year.
And yes we haven’t got an investor per se, but we’ve got this funding from different commissions and organizations that have met SmartDarasa, you know, stand out.
Building a Customer Base is Key. What Startegies Are You Employing to Establish and Grow the Customer Base of SmartDarasa?
Kusiluka: Being a startup you have to commit resources to different areas of the business. And we chose to allocate our efforts much on research and development and less on marketing and sales. Because SmartDarasa is a content creation company. So you have to have content to have people on board.
So we wanted everything to move organically and to use what we call a very cheap way of marketing instead of making it expensive. We haven’t dedicated any amount of money in marketing. But we have been able to strategize and partner with people, organizations that help us with,let’s say airtime or exhibitions or, you know, like this.
Okay, right now we are having a session. Probably some people will hear about SmartDarasa and they’ll get to visit our website and the like. That is how we have been able to raise our clientele. Also social media and even the print media. We have some newspapers and also participation in competitions.
It’s a chain effect. When we participate in exhibitions and competitions, people get to know about us, then the media chases to feature SmartDarasa. Then after that, it’s a chain effect. So exhibitions make people get to know us more in that way.
So it is a very effective and efficient way of even getting to know if people like your product, while we are still building on the product.
Elias: To summarize what my co-founder has said here. So we’ve been growing organically by identifying the pain point of our customers and then providing the solution. And when they hear about us, they taste it. So we grow more by word of mouth.
That Means You Create Content About Your Products?
Kusiluka: Let’s say for example, give an example, we put things in 3D. So we have a brain in 3D or laboratory apparatus in 3D. Have them on our app and also our website. So that’s the content we produce.
We talk about it on social media and exhibitions so people get into our site or application to see what we talk about in those spaces.
Elias, as Someone With a Deeper Understanding of 3D AR or VR Technologies. How Do You See These Technologies Shaping the Future of Education and How is SmartDarasa Leveraging Them to Stay Ahead in the Market?
Elias: There is research which has been done. And it has been shown that the information which is in 3D form is the information that can be interpreted easily with the human brain. So even that is a daily way of how we are living every day. You go outside, you see a car, it is in 3D.
You see anything, it’s in 3D. So that is how our brain can interpret the information easily When it comes to education and we bring 3D interaction to the way students can learn different concepts. That means we make their brain interpret those concepts much easier.
So they can not only cram, they can understand, they can remember easily. And also, they can relate them to their daily environment. Because with AR technology we take different digital information and put it into the actual environment of the student.
We augment them. Also with virtual reality technology, we make the student be in that experience, in that digital experience. So instead of a student to physically travel to Serengeti, for example, to see different animals.
They use the technology, you can just wear the device and you can experience that. So for that, you can say the future education is with this technology, 3D, VR, and AR. And we are pioneering it to create more content, which has high quality.
As well as they can serve the curriculum first so that we can stay ahead in the market. So this is how the future of education will be.
How Do You Envision Integrating Real World Applications into SmartDarasa to Enhance the Understanding of STEM Subjects Among Students?
Elias: The class curriculum that we’ve started with is like the starting point for how we can use this technology to make STEM subjects more understandable. But our future focus is to create the learning path.
The learning path which I am talking about is when someone goes to our website. They can select maybe the neuroscience doctor path. So that will be a specific path where the student will get the content from understanding about how neuron works from the lower level of like we can say the primary neural level understanding up to the advanced level.
With that, we want to create specific paths on different STEM careers. So that in the future when students come to our website, they can select a specific specialization and start to learn using our technology from the lower stages up to the more complex way of learning this specific subject.
Kusiluka: Yes. Adding on top of that is it will also move to other subjects. For example, history, like understanding how Shaka Zulu was fighting the war and the like. So something that can be done with 3D animations and the like. So probably physics, chemistry, biology and geography, and some other subjects such as history and other arts and crafts. Things that can be brought to life using 3D and AR technology.
Marketing Plays a Vital Role. How Do You Guys Approach Marketing and Can You Highlight the Tactics that Have Been Successful for the Company?.
Kusiluka: Another way of marketing and getting known is through partnerships. We also work with different STEM players. For example, in Tanzania, we work with Project Inspire. The rest of them in Zambia, Namibia, we work with NOI Coding Kids.
So with partnerships, the product extends to places where we are not physically available yet, and also it gets to the hands of many people that we could not touch. So that’s another way we’re on how we do our marketing.
Another cheesy way is through competitions. We are in a lot of national and international competitions. That is just to get the brand known in front of investors, customers, and other interested partners. So those are the two other ways that we market SmartDarasa.
Let’s Talk About SmartPay. Can You Tell Me More About this SmartPay?
Kusiluka: Yes. We had a simple study and from understanding our customers better. And one of the ways that people can pay for Smart Arasa is by subscribing for it. But a lot of people live hand to mouth in Africa, not only Tanzania.
So we developed SmartPay and SmartPay is a financial solution that helps a customer to pay with as low as 0.2 cents it’s less than one dollar. You can pay any amount and get access to content that you know matches with the value of your money.
So SmartPay helps you instead of just paying for a whole year and you’re going to boarding school. For example, you don’t need to pay for 12 months or 6 months or 3 months. But with SmartPay, when you come back in the holiday season, you can pay daily, even let’s say $0.5 per day, and you get access to content that matches the value of your money.
That is to make SmartPay accessible to all. Because what we’re creating is expensive, not only in accessing, but in creation, you have to use powerful machines. You have to have top-notch talents to create everything.
The product without even being greedy has a high market price. But with SmartPay, it provides access to anyone including the hand-to-mouth model, who is a person who gets income per day. So with the little you get per day, you can pay little and learn what you need to learn that day.
If I learned about the reproduction system in class this morning, I can just learn the reproductive system later at night, and that’s what I just need to learn for today. So that’s how SmartPay helps and revolutionizes education with finance.
Elias: To add a little bit on what he has said, it’s like if you have recharged your phone with like N1,000. You can only use it when you make your phone call or you send a message or you use the data. That is how we want our user to get that feeling when they consume our content.
What Challenges Have You Encountered as African Entrepreneurs in Running SmartDarasa, and How Have You Guys Addressed Them?
Elias: As the CEO, one of my main challenges which I had faced before was the formation of the team which can deliver the product to the market. As we are speaking right now, our current team is version three of the teams when I started to work on this product.
So the main challenge was to get the right people, to work with them, and so that we can get the synergy that will bring value to the product. Since I started the product, I met Kusiluka in 2021.
That is the point when I started to get the right team. That’s where he incorporated his business strategy and we have also boarded other members. Now we can say we have the best team that we have ever had since we started the campaign.
Kusiluka: Talk about teams. One of the challenges that you have to deal with is the fast expanding team. Because you have to act as fast as you can. Because you have to employ more people to get more content. So creating structures and management around the fast growing team, that was one of the challenges.
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Also, keeping the company afloat, we have to go through our own personal finances sometimes to just make ends meet for everybody in the company. Yes, funding is one of the challenges, and also our product is new. It’s a novel product. So there’s not a blueprint of what we’ve done in our environment, not Tanzania.
As you said Nigeria doesn’t also have a blueprint of something like this. So a lot of trial and errors are made during the process. And that takes time and also takes money to make sure that we hit the right path. So those are the main challenges that we have faced up to now.
Can You Share a Situation Where You Successfully Implemented a Strategy at SmartDarasa That Led to a Positive Outcome for the Company and for Your Goals?
Kusiluka: Yes. I think that what happened, the biggest change was in late 2022. We had a minor update on our website and championed by Elias himself. So we had a site that had our products, but it had little to say about what we do and how our product helps them.
We implemented a landing page that explains about SmartDarasa, our vision, what we are trying to do, and how it helps them. And with that minor change, our website visitors increased by over 500%. Our app downloads had increased by 1,000%.
We got to understand that a lot of people hear about SmartDarasa but we convert them less because people don’t know what SmartDarasa do. It’s something fancy, but how do you get it? How do you install? How do you go through the whole process? And that was the minor change, but it led to tremendous results.
Maintaining a Positive and Productive Work Environment is Very Crucial. Can You Share Specific Practices You Have Implemented to Foster Collaboration and Positive Culture in Your Company?
Kusiluka: I think one of the greatest tools is empathy. Empathy for the people working on the product, for the senior leaders and the like. Trying to put yourself in their shoes and how would you react and how would everything work. That has been the greatest tool because people understand or interact with you on a personal level.
Reducing those boss and worker types of relationships. So that has been a thing, but we also give people titles to live up to. And we really try to upskill our people. Because one of the tools governments use is ignorance. As many people who are ignorant are better for governance. It’s easy to govern a lot of people.
So with Smadarasa, we try to upscale our people. We had people who came to SmartDarasa with very little knowledge. But right now they are working on multiple softwares. Trying to upscale them and also we give them titles that they have to live up to.
You onboard somebody who is an expert and you tell them that one day you’ll be managing a department of these people beneath you. So how do you manage a department? So the way you manage one person is the way you’re going to manage 20, 50 people. And people try to live up to their role. That has also been one of the key things.
What are the Future Plans and Aspiration of Your Company?
Elias: I will start first to talk about the technical side. On the technical side, we are pioneering to have the best 3D content in the continent. So when we talk about interactive learning in Africa is when we will be talking about SmartDarasa. Where we are making everything practical and reality.
So we are working day and night to produce those 3D content so that they can make the practical need of African curriculum and the worldwide curriculum. Because science is the same everywhere. That is a major technical push that we want to make it possible.
Kusiluka: We want to be in at least 10 countries by 2029, including West Africa. At the moment, we have visitors from Nigeria, Ghana, India, Kenya, and we have seen some countries with similar educational curriculums that we can easily expand to. So at least 10 countries by 2029, that is our immediate goal. And at least serving at least 50 million students in 10 years.
What Advice Can You Give to a younger African Who is Looking Start Their Business?
Kusiluka: I would just tell them they’re sitting on a huge potential. And as Newton said, every action is an opposite reaction. So the bigger the problems, the bigger the opportunities to solve. And when you start now, start early, you have the whole track ahead of a lot of people who will start later.
You will have a better understanding of the market. You will be solving problems. But at the same time, creating a very big channel for you to also earn from the problems that you are solving. So that will be my advice, is they’re sitting on a lot of potential and we are bright, we are capable. We just have to do it. The world is now a community. You can learn things from Harvard while you’re in Africa.
And you can do things that even the people in Harvard can do. So that will be my message to young Africans thinking of doing something today.
Elias: I will add a little bit. So one of it is consistency is the key. I’ve this personally. When we started to deal with digital technologies in Tanzania. It was by the time where even the police was not allowing to incorporate these things in the curriculum.
By keep doing it, it also has been giving us a way. And the consistency has made us to make the product to see its value for the future. So I will advise someone if they started or if they envision something, they have be consistent on what they do.
Also there’s other advice, which is not mostly talked by many. But you can say business is not separated by faith. It doesn’t matter you’re a Muslim, a Christian or any kind of religion. The things that we learn from our faith is how we can be trustworthy, how we can be good and how we can provide love and serve a community at our best.
So it’s something which is inseparable. So if we have those qualities, we can be faithful to what we believe in the humankind and provide good for the community. It’s something that will help you create the better solution that you offer to people and they will use it.
And in return, you will get different awards. One of it is the revenue. That is one of the things which I will advise other young Africans like me that we can keep doing that so that we can shape our community for the better future.
Six Quick Questions with Kusiluka – One of SmartDarasa African Entrepreneurs
1. What is the African country that you want to visit this year and why?
I would love to visit Namibia. We have partners there and what they share is beautiful, the landscape and everything. So, Namibia would be one of the countries I would love to visit.
2. What is the most underrated Tanzanian food?
People don’t love much eating a meal called chips mayai. Whereby chips are fried with eggs. It has a signature of Tanzania all over it. And that’s for health reason. Butit’s a good food.
3. How do you look after yourself in your free time?
I’m an avid reader, so I read books and also in the watch documentary.
4. What has been the most humbling moment in your journey as an entreprenuer?
Closing my startup. That was the humbling moment.
5. Do you watch football and what’s your favorite team?
Liverpool.
6. What’s one thing you would like people to know about you?
I’m unstoppable.
Six Quick Questions with Elias – One of SmartDarasa African Entrepreneurs
1. What is the African country that you want to visit this year and why?
I can say Zambia. For me it’s for more touristy reasons. Yeah, so there’s a place called Victoria Downfall, where the three African countries met. You have the border for only two countries. But there’s a border for three countries. You can find it in Zambia near Victoria Waterfalls. So it’s the place I want to visit.
2. What is the most underrated Tanzanian food?
I can say it’s yams. They are very healthy. But for no reason people don’t eat it much.
3. How do you look after yourself in your free time?
When I’m spending time with my family, we dedicate ourselves to learn things more so that we can make our understanding better than it was yesterday. So we can choose different topics from personal development to faith to different things so that we can have better understanding compared to yesterday.
4. What has been the most humbling moment in your journey as an entreprenuer?
To give up my shares because when we started the company. I created the mindset to have 100% of shares. But it’s not worth it if it does not produce anything. It is better if I have even 5% of something which I started. Then collaborate with other people in stockholders to take it to the next level. Because that 5% with more revenue it’s worth a lot.
5. Do you watch football and what’s your favorite team?
No. I play games. I play football.
6. What’s one thing you like people to know about you?
I want people to know me as an understanding person.
To find out more about SmartDarasa African entrepreneurs. Visit the company’s website and social media platforms:
- Website: https://smartdarasa.com/
- Email: [email protected]
- LinkedIn: https://tz.linkedin.com/company/smartdarasa
- X: https://twitter.com/SmartDarasa
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smart_darasa/
Thank you so much for honoring my invitation. You created time in your busy schedules to honor my invitation. I really appreciate you guys and I wish you all the best in your business.
