Empowering schools
in the year ahead
Some reflections on 2024 as a new EdTech service provider and highlights of new features available in Google Education to try out in 2025.
2024 was a big year for the Rechargeables, as it was our first year of trading as a fledgeling, startup private company, initially only serving customers in South Africa, but we quickly expanded to supplying products and services to customers in the UK and USA, who are setting up remote work satellite offices in South Africa and Kenya as well as persuading some of these to buy and sell from and to us, depending on who had stock of the increasingly popular Chromebook Plus devices that they are buying for frontline workers, such as the Acer 514.
Apparently, 94% of startups fail in their first year of operation - perhaps this applies to private and independent schools too - and of those that succeed, it's apparently as challenging for them in years 2-3, so we are extremely thankful, grateful and humbly proud - if that makes sense - to still be here, having survived our first year in the startup grind, and are extremely motivated and excited about the path and challenges that are to come.
We are in the process of registering to be a VAT Vendor, having exceeded the turnover threshold of R1M (after our first 7 months of trading), and have been approved by SARS as a local importer and exporter, which means that we can supply our products and services to anyone in the African continent - with zero-rated VAT for all exports - ensuring great value!
In addition, once we have been registered as a VAT Vendor, we will be able to claim back input VAT on our purchases related to zero-rated or standard-rated sales. Similarly, other South African VAT-registered businesses that we supply with products and services (for their own zero-rated or standard-rated sales) will be able to claim back the VAT they paid to us. This should generally be beneficial for business going forward, as we aim to pass on these savings to our customers, and we look forward to contributing to the fiscus in a more tangible way, as a growing African EdTech company.
We are now an authorised ASUS Business partner, which means that when you need any of their amazing devices, we can order those directly from the factory in Taiwan, at the very best possible prices, and you will benefit from this direct distribution arrangement, and be guaranteed to get authentic, legitimate products and guaranteed support services, such as their 3-5 year extended warranties, with full local support through their designated service providers.
Importantly, we managed to cover all of our costs to date, and even made a small profit according to Zoho Books, which is part of our completely integrated Zoho One system, which includes native accounting, inventory, and ecommerce apps (amongst many others)as well as some very clever 3rd party apps, that we are using to enable some deep integrations with our suppliers, distributors, couriers and more. Notably, Zoho is well connected to our Shopify Stores, simplifying and automating and expediting many of our fulfillments.
Our portfolio of eCommerce stores has grown from one to three this year, and now includes Chromebooks for Africa, ExpertBooks for Africa, Rechargeables for Africa, with another in development in the Rechargeable Labs, and will be revealed in due course. All of these are intended to help you find your next (Chromebook, ExpertBook, Rechargeable, etc.) so do bookmark the sites above and review them next time you need some affordable, reliable, quality EdTech with after-sales support and a solid warranty. What can we say, but: Watch this space!
In 2024, we also launched Edventures in EdTech, as our Corporate Social Responsibility contribution to help schools that don't have a budget to engage with Education Technology, in partnership with some like minded companies, such as d6, Octotel Fibre, Google, Matific, MeMeZA and ZADNA. So, we've been building some healthy professional relationships, keeping good company and planning various collaborations with others in the EdTech space, some of which will be announced in the near future, once we dot the I's and cross the T's on our plans.
My personal highlight of 2024 was being invited to exhibit at theSA EdTech Week, hosted by the amazing team at Injini, all of which was generously sponsored by the MasterCard Foundation, where I met fellow founders and innovators, many of whom have broken through the startup phase, and are now well established companies with hundreds and even thousands of customers, within their first few years of operation. See photos here.
We also applied to become one of the 12 Fellows in the Injini EdTech Fellowship Programme for 2025, but were sadly unsuccessful, and will most likely apply again towards the end of this year, knowing much better how to pitch to satisfy the stringent selection criteria.
2024 also saw the loud and noisy arrival of the 5th Industrial Revolution, whichhuge competition from Alexa, ChatGPT, Gemini, MetaAI, xAI, and others competing fiercly for our collective attention.
AI has quickly become the noisiest baby in every online space, and will most likely continue to grow into a more understandable adolescent throughout 2025, asArtifical Intelligence becomes more familiar, increasingly commonplace, as it permeates every facet of our online, connected and now AI-empopwered apps, websites, systems and learning spaces.
As a Google Cloud Partner, its been a steep learning curve for the Rechargeables, as we have had to quickly learn how to use new tools such as Gemini's Help me writeand Ask Gemini prompts, which are now available in GMail, Drive, Docs,Slides and Sheets, as well as how to trial these for customers, and even as we begin to sell these new subscriptions to the early adopters.
One of my Google Workspace for Business customers recently shared this feedback with me, after she purchased a subscription forGemini Business in her work as a copywriter, editor and publisher of various presentations, slideshows and annual reports for her corporate customers:
"Geminiis super useful and takes the edge off many of my hectic emails"
and
"TheGeminihandbooks on how to talk to AI ...
were absolutely invaluable... and have transformed my life.
I am enormously grateful.
Thank you.Kay"
Here are two images generated using text prompts using Gemini, to illustrate what's possible using this amazing new technology.
Well, that's surely enough said about the Rechargeables, so let's move on to the main subject of this post: Google Workspace for Education.
In 2024, educators continued to bring their incredible passion to classrooms. To help them do their best, the Google for Education team rolled out more than 65 updates based on feedback from millions of educators and students.
Let’s explore the top six ways you can implement some of the sixty-five updates launched in 2024, as we get into the full swing of things in 2025.
1. Bring the power of Gemini to your entire school community
Teach and learn with Gemini, your AI-powered assistant for education. Your educators, staff, and students can chat with the Gemini app free of charge to brainstorm ideas, get in-the-moment feedback, summarise content and more. Unlock productivity gains like never before with Gemini for Google Workspace, which embeds Gemini across your Workspace apps and gives you access to Gemini Advanced using Google for Education’s most capable AI models.
2. Build your AI knowledge with no-cost training
Google partnered with learning science researchers, AI experts and child safety and development specialists to offer new training programmes. Now, you can take the Generative AI for Educators course, Get Started with Gemini for Workspace and check out Google for Education’s AI literacy guide to help you teach students how to use AI responsibly. Find these and other training resources in one place on Education Navigator.
3. Provide more active, insightful and personalised learning tools
Google introduced LearnLM, models fine-tuned for learning and informed by educational research that powers many product experiences, like the Learning coach in Gemini Advanced. And with Read Along now available in Google Classroom, students can get more personalised literacy support while educators get deeper insights into student performance.
4. Engage students with multimedia tools
Finding new ways to inspire and engage students has remained a key focus for us this year. So Google launched Google Vids, a collaborative video creation app – perfect for you to create instructional videos, introductions, video assignments and more. And now your students can be more creative too with Chromebooks’ new built-in multimedia apps like the Recorder app.
5. Choose from more device options and admin controls
To help your IT admins streamline device management, Google launched a central Device Hub in Google Admin console to control and secure devices at scale more easily. Fifteen new Chromebook models are now available – from feature-rich Chromebooks for students, to AI-powered Chromebook Plus for educators.
Want to learn more about teaching with a Chromebook Plus device?
Join the webinar interest list.
6. Simplify educator workflows
Google introduced new integrations with learning management systems and student information systems, expanded our App Hub of third-party learning tools and made app management even more seamless.
Every day, we’re amazed by how leaders and educators like you are putting these tools to work and we’re excited to partner with you for what’s ahead in 2025.
If you haven't found your perfect fit Google Partner for Education yet, why not give the Rechargeables an opportunity to impress you with their attention to detail, readiness, availability, sincere service, honest guidance and advice?
Sincerely, Sean
SA Rechargeable (Pty) Ltd
