Inclusive Solutions, a South African company that supplies assistive technology and education resources, is developing a home-language learning tool aimed at early years and foundation phase literacy concepts. The company said the product is intended to address literacy challenges in South Africa.
Inclusive Solutions was founded in 2020 by a mother who began importing products for her daughter, who has a disability. The company was later acquired by Lisa and Ed Ellis, who returned to South Africa after years of experience working in the same industry abroad. Inclusive Solutions operates in the special needs education and health sector and also works with individuals who require assistive technology following an accident or illness, offering products, assessments, training and support to schools, hospitals and families.
Lisa Ellis told Disrupt Africa, a publication covering African startups, that the new tool builds on an existing product with a long track record: "The product is in development stage, though its predecessor has been used in South Africa for over 15 years in a wide variety of special needs schools. With the new translation and localisation, we hope to see better relevance and more value delivered to our local schools."
Inclusive Solutions operates as a for-profit company, but funding for the new product was awarded earlier this year through the Injini Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship, an education technology funding program operating in South Africa. Ellis said the fellowship's backing reflected recognition of the product's value: "They saw and agreed with the value of, and need for, our solution."
The company's work is concentrated in government special needs schools, where it intends to keep its focus, with eventual expansion into mainstream and early childhood development settings. Ellis described the company's core business and growth trajectory: "We import and distribute products for the educational special needs sector for profit. We are seeing growth year-on-year as awareness and need both grow."
