In South Africa, an estimated one million children in low-income communities lack access to quality early learning, despite its proven impact on children's social, academic, and emotional development. Addressing this gap requires innovative, scalable, and sustainable solutions at population level.
Founded in 2015, SmartStart is a South African non-profit that has built the country's leading early learning social franchise, recruiting, training, and supporting women as entrepreneur practitioners to run quality early learning programmes from within their own communities. By partnering with a network of implementing organisations to scale recruitment and training, SmartStart has created a model that simultaneously expands access for children and builds sustainable livelihoods for women, improving long-term prospects for both.
We have invested in SmartStart as part of LGT Venture Philanthropy’s education strategy to address the ECD gap among low-income populations in South Africa. We provide comprehensive support across three areas:
children active
franchisees active
Early Childhood Development service providers
Partnering with LGT Venture Philanthropy to close the funding gap enables SmartStart to be the delivery platform that brings systems change for universal access to early learning.
Learn more about how SmartStart works in the field
