About
EDUFREM was born from a simple conviction: a child growing up in Yaoundé, Dakar or Abidjan should not have access to a weaker education than a child growing up in Lyon or Paris. And a student who leaves to seek training abroad should not pay for that journey in scams, hidden fees or family sacrifices.
The genesis
Steve Tiambo gets a call from his aunt in Cameroon: she needs money to pay his cousin's school fees. He sends the amount. A few weeks later, his aunt calls again with the same request. The first sum was used for something else. The school fees were not paid.
This is not a story of bad faith. It is the story of a system where money sent between two continents loses all traceability the moment it lands in a family account. The diaspora funds the education of its relatives, yet has no way to verify that the money goes where it was intended.
The observation is not isolated. Almost everyone Steve tells this story to lives through the same thing, or knows a version of it. The need for trust and traceability in education spending is not a comfort, it is a necessity shared by millions of families.
Léonie Paris, co-founder of EDUFREM, completes the story in mirror image: on the French side, the engineering schools and universities that welcome international students face the same difficulties, in reverse. International payments that do not arrive, files that are hard to verify, chaotic arrival journeys. The education credit makes sense in both directions.
Our conviction
Steve Tiambo
"I personally lived the difference in education between Cameroon, an emerging country, and France, a developed one. EDUFREM exists to build an ecosystem that narrows that gap, at the source. So that emerging countries can offer quality training at home, and that mobility, when it does happen, is no longer a headlong flight."
Léonie Paris
"Every day, as Head of International Relations, I see the difficulties international students and the schools that welcome them run into. I want conditions to improve for everyone: the student who arrives, the family who funds, and the institution that integrates them. EDUFREM is the tool that makes that possible."
Our 10-year vision
If EDUFREM succeeds, in ten years we will have helped build an ecosystem where quality education is accessible to all, in emerging countries as in developed ones. Not a perfect ecosystem, but one where the gap in education resources is no longer a fatality.
International mobility will no longer be a headlong flight, by default, because countries of origin will be able to offer quality education services on their own soil. Studying abroad will once again be a choice for enrichment, not a necessity to escape.
The mobility that still takes place will be ethical and responsible. No more grey zones, no more scams, no more opaque intermediaries. It will genuinely serve the interests of both sides, the student who leaves and the institution that welcomes. And beyond that, it will serve the circulation of skills between regions.
The founding team
Co-founder and CEO
Before EDUFREM, Steve worked in information security. Building solutions that solve concrete problems is what he has always loved doing. An active member of several non-profits, he puts people at the centre of his commitment. He experienced the gap between education systems from the inside: first through his own move from Cameroon to France, then confirmed by a university year in China and many other travels.
Co-founder and COO
A graduate of ISIT, Léonie is today Head of International Relations at ENTPE (the French national school of public works engineering, Lyon). Day to day, she steers academic partnerships between France and francophone Africa, and sees first-hand the difficulties faced by international students and the schools that welcome them. Engaged beyond her role, she is vice-president of a non-profit that puts people at the heart of its action.
They support us
Building EDUFREM means relying on incubators, a startup studio, a training institute and networks. Each brings a precise skill at the moment it is useful. Without them, the project would not have the rigour and maturity it has today.
Startup studio
Sisuu supports EDUFREM's structuring and sits on the startup's strategic committee. A real commitment, present in the key trade-offs.
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Impact startup programme
Live for Good helps shape the impact-startup posture. The right questions are asked from the start: usefulness, community, impact measurement.
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Lyon incubator
Novacité, the incubator of the Lyon metropolitan area, supports the structuring of the offer, the entrepreneur's posture, and challenges the business model.
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Incubator
Innoverie rounds out the Lyon incubation ecosystem with a focus on entrepreneurial maturation and project structuring.
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Incubator
The Lyon Saint-Étienne Entrepreneurship Centre brings together the Lyon universities and provides academic and entrepreneurial support at the seed stage.
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Startup network
The French Tech network opens introductions to quality profiles, funders and partners, with relevant recommendations to move forward.
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Diaspora network
The Africa Business Club connects the project to the African diaspora network in France and Europe. A community of practice that is precious for understanding real-world usage.
Learn moreWe answer everyone: families, schools, companies, institutions, journalists, curious students. The best way to start a conversation is to book a meeting directly.