South African remote assessment platform, The Invigilator, has secured $11 million (over R195 Million) in international equity funding to fuel its global expansion and deepen its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.
The funding round was led by Kaltroco, a private investment company based in Jersey, Channel Islands, with investment professionals in Nashville, Zurich, and Cape Town. This milestone marks a significant moment for one of South Africa’s most successful scale-ups, as it looks to take its platform to new markets across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
The funding will be used to strengthen the platform’s artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, support multilingual functionality, scale operational teams in key markets, and deepen its partnerships with academic institutions and corporate clients worldwide.
The Invigilator CEO and Co-founder Nicholas Riemer hailed the deal as a landmark achievement for South African technology on the world stage.
“This transaction is testament to the hard work put in by The Invigilator team, over the last 5 and a half years,” said Riemer. “We always knew we were building something special, and the fact that South African technology is creating global awareness is fantastic to see.”
He explained that the funding will enable the company to accelerate its AI development, helping to improve global access to education while maintaining high standards of assessment credibility.
“The creation of our live AI monitoring technology means The Invigilator is moving to constant assessment monitoring through first of its kind AI models, while keeping the solution data light and inclusive. This technology as well as our strong team of developers gives us a great foundation to disrupt the Global proctoring market,” he added.
We are fortunate to be working with a large number of universities and schools across the world, and the company has never been more motivated to dominate the education technology space Globally”.
Launched in 2020, The Invigilator is a mobile and web-based remote assessment platform that provides secure, cost-effective, and scalable proctoring solutions for schools, universities and professional bodies.
Originally developed to help educational institutions conduct secure assessments during the COVID-19 pandemic, the app has since evolved into a full-service academic integrity solution. The platform supports mobile app proctoring, desktop-based assessments, web integration, learner management system (LMS) integration, anti-plagiarism detection, AI-driven fraud detection, and writing style analysis.
Most recently, the company launched its new in-venue functionality that includes facial recognition and digital script submission, helping professional bodies combat the use of ghostwriters and enabling instant marking.
The Invigilator has already partnered with more than 100 institutions, including UCT Online High School, IIE Advtech, Boston City Campus, Navitas Education Australia and Teneo Online School.
To date, the platform has over 850 000 registered students, and has processed more than 6 million results across over 75 000 assessments globally.
“UCT Online High School has used The Invigilator App (TIA) since we opened our virtual doors in 2022,” says Tessa Venter, Executive Head of School, UCT Online High School.
“TIA enables our online school to effectively conduct assessments with robust checks and balances. Its detailed monitoring detects potential assessment irregularities, tracks student website usage during tests, and provides comprehensive data insights, ensuring that academic integrity remains at the heart of assessment.”
The Invigilator’s growth reflects a broader trend in South Africa’s booming edtech sector, which continues to play a transformative role in enabling access to quality education and digital inclusion, particularly in underserved areas.
While the public sector has made progress in integrating digital learning, much of the innovation in South African edtech has been driven by the private sector and edtech startups, responding to challenges in access, affordability, and educational outcomes.
Key trends shaping the local edtech market include:
Lungile Msomi
As remote and hybrid learning models become more entrenched globally, demand for secure, AI-powered proctoring tools is expected to grow rapidly, creating a global opportunity for South African firms like The Invigilator.
With a strong local track record and now significant international backing, The Invigilator is positioning itself as a serious global contender in the digital assessment space.
For South African tech founders and investors, The Invigilator’s funding round serves as both inspiration and validation: that locally developed solutions - when built to solve real-world problems at scale - can attract global interest and investment.
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