Teachify has been named as the Education & Training StartUp of the Year at the Midlands StartUp Awards 2024

Birmingham-based startup Teachify (@UKTeachify) has been named as the Education & Training StartUp of the Year at the Midlands StartUp Awards 2024. 

Teachify embarked on its journey to simplify lesson preparation for teachers through AI software in early 2023. Founder Ikum Kandola had a lightbulb moment while teaching in a local secondary school, realising he could streamline lesson planning using AI. Ikum set out to create an easy-to-use and accurate tool for teachers to generate accurate exam board-specific lesson materials in seconds – something that would previously have taken hours to produce. The platform instantaneously generates lesson plans, question sheets, presentations and more using the Teachify Large Language Model.

Supported by the University of Birmingham’s Elevate Business Incubator, Ikum and his co-founder Frank Crossley have supported hundreds of teachers in cutting down lesson preparation time by up to 70% and has provided schools with training on the use of GenAI in education. The co-founders are now looking for partnerships with teacher-training institutions to support the next generation of teachers.

On winning the award, Ikum said:  “This is a significant milestone for us as a startup. Being recognised with this award reflects the hard work and commitment of the Teachify team in improving the lives of teachers through reducing workload induced stress. We look forward to expanding our reach to keep reducing teacher workload and revolutionising the EdTech space!”

The UK StartUp Awards were established to highlight the success of startups across ten UK regions and celebrate the achievements of entrepreneurs in all sectors of the economy. 

Supported nationally by Starling Bank, Airwallex, Chime Agency, Development Bank of Wales, EvaBuild, ForrestBrown, GiftRound, GS1 UK, Join Talent, OVHcloud, Project Simply, ScoreApp, SFC Capital and Welsh Government, Harriet Rees, CIO at Starling Bank says: 

“Turning an idea into a successful business takes a lot of courage and dedication. Congratulations to Teachify on winning Education & Training Startup of the Year in the Midlands and making it to this year’s UK national final. Start-ups need certainty to plan ahead. It’s great to see so many thrive, especially in these challenging economic times.”

Over 114,000 new firms were created in the Midlands in 2023 and according to Professor Dylan Jones-Evans OBE, creator of the awards, this demonstrates the growing importance of entrepreneurs to the regional economy. He is also excited that the awards are, yet again, recognising the best new firms and celebrating the amazing entrepreneurial talent from every corner of the region.

He said: “Start-ups are the life of any economy and that is especially true in the Midlands where new businesses are contributing to job creation, innovation, and prosperity across the whole of this entrepreneurial region. It’s been an honour and a pleasure to read the stories of those founders who have spotted the opportunity and taken the risk to launch their own venture. All of the winners have demonstrated that they deserve to win their categories and I’m looking forward to having the ‘best of the best’ from the Midlands competing at the UK final later this year.”

As a regional winner in their category, Teachify will now progress to the UK Startup Awards final being held at Ideas Fest on September 12th, dubbed ‘the Glastonbury for Entrepreneurs’.