Tigat is Building Ethiopia's Creator-Led Classroom

They were childhood friends long before startups, pitch decks, and payment systems entered their lives. Natnael Hailay and Bemnet Mitku grew up sharing ideas and a fascination with the digital world at a time when Ethiopia itself was only beginning to connect.

Before they co-founded their startup, Natnael was working in Ethiopia’s fast-growing creator economy. He worked closely with influencers and content creators and helped shape digital strategies, including developing online courses.

“That’s when I saw a gap,” Natnael explains to Shega. “Influencers and educational content creators have a massive audience, but their followers are not getting structured education. At the same time, the instructors themselves weren’t earning from what they knew.”

Knowledge was everywhere, freely shared across timelines and comment sections, but it wasn’t organized, and it wasn’t monetized. Audiences trusted these creators deeply, yet the founders did not see a system that could turn that trust into real learning or real income. The idea stayed with him.

His co-founder Bemnet, meanwhile, was building his own path through digital work, freelancing with international clients, and working on content strategy.

While both were deeply immersed in digital culture, branding, and online communities, and technology shaped their lives, neither of them were developers.

After some time, when the two finally sat down to revisit their old idea brainstorming sessions, Tigat was born. Tigat is a digital platform where teachers, professionals, and skilled individuals open online classrooms and reach students in their own language at affordable prices. Natnael became CEO. Bemnet took charge of strategy. What they didn’t have, however, was technical experience.

“We understood marketing and community,” Bemnet tells Shega. “But the tech part was completely new to us. It took time, money, and a lot of patience.”

In 2023, Tigat went live as a website. Later, a Telegram bot followed, allowing students to attend subscription-based classes. Digital books and videos were added. Progress was slow at first. Then in September, 2025, their first official course launched.

“After the launch, we crossed 1,000 signups almost immediately,” Natnael explains to Shega. “And at that early stage, we generated about 35,000 birr. It wasn’t huge money, but it proved that people wanted this.”

What made Tigat different was never just technology but was how the platform relied on user-generated content as well as credibility. Some instructors may arrive with small followers. Others may come with thousands of followers.

“Creators spend years building trust with their audience,” Natnael says. “Our role was to turn that trust into structured education and real digital income.”

On Tigat, instructors open profiles, upload video lessons, sell e-books, and teach directly to their communities. For creators who already have large audiences, the system provides a way to monetize their knowledge and skill. But for teachers starting with nothing, Tigat can become something bigger, a partner.

“We don’t just host courses and walk away,” Bemnet says. “We help teachers design curriculum, build communities, price their work, and market it. That’s why we say we’re not only a tech company.”

Today, Tigat runs with a team of eight developers, learning experience designers, and content community designers. The platform’s compass is fixed firmly on practical skills.

“We focus on what students can actually use in real life,” Bemnet says. “Language, technical skills, etc.”

One of those professionals who tuned to Tiagt lives in a small mobile repair shop in Dukem. Kemal Mobile, a technician with more than 200,000 social media followers, was constantly asked by his audience to teach. When he finally did, through Tigat, many students enrolled. Everyday repair skills become structured in digital education.

Another major transformation came through an English instructor known online as Bronq English, who has over 1 million followers on TikTok. Bronq advertises his premium content on TikTok and is the biggest instructor on Tigat, with over 800 people enrolled in his courses.

The platform runs on a revenue-sharing model with both local and international payments accepted. "There's no prepayment at all," Natnael explains. “We only earn when the instructor earns. That way, we grow together.” 

Tigat plans to partner further with TikTok creators and institutions whose physical classrooms are not enough to hold their students. The platform currently teaches in Amharic and English, but in the future, they are planning to add other languages like Afan Oromo, Tigrigna, and Somali.

Globally, online learning marketplaces have grown into significant players in the edtech space. These platforms focus on creative and business-related disciplines, offering accessible, on-demand education.

Skillshare is a prime example, establishing itself as one of the largest online learning communities specializing in creative categories. Its extensive library covers a diverse range of subjects, including music production, film and video editing, creative writing, illustration, graphic design, and photography.

However, such platforms also face several criticisms. These commonly include the uneven quality of courses due to lax quality control, a general lack of official accreditation, and the fact that instructors are not always recognized industry experts. Furthermore, many critics argue that the topics covered by instructors on these paid platforms can often be found for free on platforms like YouTube.

In contexts such as Ethiopia, however, the value proposition may differ significantly. The lack of readily available, relevant content in local languages means paid marketplaces could still offer a unique and essential educational resource to a domestic audience.

Recently Tigat was selected by the Ethiopian Artificial Intelligence Institute (EAII) to be part of its national AI support program.

“This recognition marks a big step in our collaboration with EAII, particularly in the development of Tigu, our AI learning assistant designed to strengthen digital education across Ethiopia,” Bemnet tells Shega.

Through the program, EAII has equipped Tigat with high-performance server infrastructure and computing resources that are essential for training AI models at scale.  The development team is also receiving advanced, hands-on training in machine learning and AI architecture from the Institute’s experts, enhancing technical capacity and accelerating the development timeline. Beyond this, EAII is opening pathways for strategic collaboration with key government bodies, including the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Skills and Labor, enabling Tigat to train Tigu using relevant and verified educational data.

Two weeks ago, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited Tigat. For two childhood friends who once argued over digital ideas for fun, it was a moment that felt unreal.

But none of this growth came easily. “The biggest challenge is budget,” Natnael told Shega. “Building a new idea in Ethiopia is very difficult. Localization is hard. Even selling courses takes constant effort.”

Demand is not their problem, he says with conviction. Structure is. “In this country, people are hungry to learn,” Natnael explains to Shega. “The demand is everywhere.”

Bemnet now manages the business and financial side with his international digital experience. Natnael leads partnerships and direction. Yet beneath the strategy, they say the real engine of Tigat remains their friendship.

“We were childhood friends before we were co-founders,” Natnael says. “That trust is the only reason we survived the hardest stages.