hen South Africa headed into a national lockdown in March 2020, Meg Faure saw the writing on the wall. The nation’s COVID-19 lockdown was more restrictive than many countries’ – all outdoor exercise was banned, alcohol sales curbed and the doors of all non-essential businesses closed until further notice. Preschools and early childhood development (ECD) programs were among many industries and initiatives that were hugely affected.

Luckily, Meg and her business partner Lara Schoenfeld had seen the way the wind was blowing. Both occupational therapists and early years experts, they founded Play Sense in 2016. The company offered training for early childhood teachers as well as a physical learning program that prioritized optimal emotional development in two-to-four-year olds. This focus on “play” set it apart from the purely skills-based school readiness programs taught in other, more traditional preschools.

Play Sense’s model was based on small groups of children in a home environment with a certified teacher, following a play-based methodology that aims to give toddlers a foundation for all other learning. Its first group opened in Cape Town in January 2016, and in June 2017 it expanded to Gauteng. The business was slowly but steadily growing, bootstrapped by its two founders, who worked long hours.

Then, everything changed.

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Pivoting to online classes‍

“In late February, early March, I had returned to South Africa from the UK, which was already talking about going into a lockdown due to COVID-19 numbers, which were escalating,” Meg says. “Arriving in Cape Town, I could sense that South Africa would head the same way soon. I realized that parents would not be happy to pay for school fees if teachers were not working, so I galvanized the team to take our existing teachers’ curriculum and trim it down to an easily accessible program for parents to do with their little ones.” 

In just 72 hours, the company fully pivoted its business to an online platform. Meg says that Play Sense had considered adding an online component in the past, but the idea of switching to a fully edtech model was not on the horizon until COVID-19 hit.

“We did not plan to go online initially, but in 2019 we started to discuss the option of offering a program for parents who want to homeschool their children,” she says. “The idea of having a teacher lead this was born out of lockdown.”

How to adapt to teaching online‍

Meg puts the speed of the transition down to a hardworking team and speedy decision-making. “We gathered the entire team in a boardroom and brainstormed and sketched out how the platform would look and how it would be accessed,” she says. “I evaluated two platforms for delivery of content and made a quick decision on which was easily accessible and merited the investment in time.” 

“Our team is a can-do group of women and they were inspired to create an offering which would ensure our business could survive,” she continues. “I think there was an element of passion and an element of survival. We had to do this and we could.”

Play Sense hasn’t merely survived – with its new online approach it has prospered. Meg says that parents have recognized the need for change to the traditional schooling and childcare system, and that people were moving towards home-based learning through play in any case. The lockdown only sped up a process that was already underway, and Play Sense has benefitted. “We have had more than thirty per cent growth since pre-lockdown, over a very tricky time,” Meg says.

As life returns to some semblance of normality after restrictions were lifted, most of Play Sense’s business remains offline. “We find that most parents still want the in-home offering,” Meg says. “So while all our groups were online during lockdown, now ninety percent are in-home and only ten percent are online. We believe that for the ECD sector, the in-home offering will be more popular in the long term.”

Play Sense’s main challenge has been providing an online education model for children younger than four years old. “We have realized that parents of children this age are not just looking for education but childcare too,” Meg says. “So while online works for some, many find the online program does not meet the parents’ need for childcare.”

Scaling beyond South Africa‍

Play Sense’s online component has big potential for scale. The company now has a footprint all over South Africa and is planning expansion to the UK, the Middle East and the United States. 

These expansion plans have been boosted by significant investment, which Meg says Play Sense could not have hoped to have obtained as a purely offline offering. At the time of the pivot, Meg and Lara applied for support from Enygma Ventures, a US-based VC firm founded by award-winning entrepreneurs Sarah and Jacob Dusek. In 2019, it launched an SADC-based fund with a focus on investing in female entrepreneurs.

The Duseks were excited by Play Sense’s potential and the edtech platform became Enygma’s first investment. Sarah Dusek says she was excited about how Play Sense had successfully pivoted its business, adapting its model to serve parents and children during unprecedented times, and backed the company to the tune of ZAR8.25 million ($458,000 at the time). 

Rethinking financial plans‍

Meg says that Play Sense initially sought investment for other purposes. “In October 2019 we took on a COO to run the business, and her salary meant we needed to scale quickly or seek funding,” she says. “We heard about Enygma’s gender-lensed Africa-focused fund and felt it was worth pursuing. The funding was to be used for her salary and to hire a head of sales, as well as ramp up marketing to scale our school offering.”

COVID-19 forced the company to rethink its plans, but the funding and support provided by Enygma Ventures allowed Play Sense to pivot without mishap. “They meet with us monthly and provide guidance to focus us on key initiatives for the business,” Meg says. “Sarah Dusek hosts town halls, which we also find are useful.”

Play Sense monetizes the two parts of its business in different ways. It receives income from physical classes through its franchise offering, which includes training and fully supporting teachers in setting up their own preschools for a one-off fee plus monthly royalties. Its online programs are offered internationally on a subscription basis.

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The challenges of moving online‍

The move to a model that includes online content has not been without its challenges. Meg says that the Play Sense team and teachers have had to be extremely adaptable.

“Our teachers had to learn a whole new skill set for online teaching, especially to engage little ones on Zoom,” she says. “Our admin team has grown and each person has had to be flexible as we have found new roles within the new business structure and with the new focus. The world is changing at a hugely rapid rate, and as part of our business is online we have had to be agile and persistent to refine the offering to meet changing needs.”

At its core, Play Sense is a non-traditional business. It takes an innovative approach to early childhood development, based on the idea that traditional childcare does not optimize development in children, with large classroom environments creating anxiety for many and inhibiting them from learning language and soft skills. 

Play Sense’s approach encourages children to learn through play, and this remains its core method in online classes. The only real change is in the delivery.  Though Play Sense’s main business focus remains on in-home micro-schools, Meg believes the change of approach during lockdown has been the making of the company. “It has been a very good move,” she says.