Shuriii joins Siakam's EdTech Engine, eyes global growth

Toronto-based educational technology startup Shuriii has been selected as one of six North American companies to participate in the Siakam EdTech Engine programme, co-founded by former NBA champion Pascal Siakam's PS43 Foundation and technology incubator DMZ.

Curtis Carmichael, founder of the non-profit social enterprise behind Shuriii, will lead his team through the 12-week virtual accelerator. The programme aims to support early-stage EdTech startups from Canada and the United States that are developing solutions to transform K-12 education.

The accelerator culminates with a Demo Day, where participants will present their projects to a panel of judges, including Siakam. The event will offer a total of CAD $50,000 in grant prizes.

According to Carmichael, the programme represents an important step towards expanding the reach of Shuriii. "When we heard about this initiative, we knew it was the perfect fit for us," he said. "Multiple school boards in Canada are already using our platform. Getting into this accelerator program will give us the tools to scale to the global level that we envision for shuriii."

Shuriii is described as a three-in-one platform designed for K-12 teachers in high-priority schools. It streamlines and analyses teacher plans and student data, providing real-time weekly insights that identify areas of success and highlight where intervention is needed.

The platform offers tailored, data-driven recommendations for culturally responsive interventions and resources to support students' holistic needs. Its aim is to accelerate the progress of students who are multiple grades behind, helping them return to grade-level proficiency.

The company highlights the significant administrative load on teachers, who typically manage over 1,000 lessons, 15,000 instructional materials, and over 150,000 case notes and pieces of student assessment data each year—distributed across more than 40 internet tabs and over 10 different software tools. The fragmentation of this data often results in missed opportunities to identify issues early, with many problems only coming to light during report card periods, which occur twice a year.

By integrating and analysing data in real time, Shuriii aims to help teachers identify and address challenges as they arise. The solution is positioned as not only a time-saving tool for educators but also as a means to provide more accurate assessments to students and parents, with potential cost savings for school boards.

Shuriii is currently in use by several Canadian school boards, including the Toronto District School Board, Grand Erie District School Board, Peel District School Board, and Kenora Catholic School Board.

Carmichael's personal history includes formative years in the Toronto housing projects in Scarborough and time spent as a child drug dealer. He has since dedicated himself to advocating for Black and racialised youth in disadvantaged communities, both locally and internationally.

He is also the founder of Source Code Academy, which he describes as Canada's first culture-focused academy. It prepares children and youth for future work and the digital economy by offering courses in entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and technological innovation for K-12 students.

In 2022, Carmichael released what he terms the world's first augmented reality memoir, "Butterflies in the Trenches", for which he developed a mobile app to accompany the book. His educational background includes a Bachelor's degree in Physical and Health Education from Queen's University and a Bachelor of Education in STEM from Ontario Tech University. He is currently pursuing a PhD in STEM at Hampton University.

Carmichael once gave up a professional football career to undertake a bicycle trip across Canada, during which he raised CAD $100,000 in 60 days for Toronto Community Housing after-school programmes. He was featured in the documentary "Ride for Promise".

He currently holds several roles, including STEAM education expert, young adult author, STEM educator, keynote speaker, and former athlete, and was included in the Forbes Top 30 Under 30 List for 2023.