Trarrk, an AI-driven platform transforming how children with learning and developmental differences are assessed, supported and tracked across home, school and therapy settings, has emerged as the winner of the Lagos Region Social Impact Track at Wema Bank Hackaholics 7.0.
Hackaholics is Wema Bank’s flagship open innovation programme designed to support startups, innovators, creatives, problem-solvers and technology enthusiasts across Africa.
The programme offers up to ₦200 million in cash prizes, alongside industry mentorship and direct access to banking APIs, to help founders scale their ventures and refine their business models.
Hackaholics’ Social Impact Track recognises and supports solutions that improve lives while creating sustainable impact across communities. Trarrk, an edtech company backed by NVIDIA Inception, emerged as the winner of the track in Lagos.
Following Trarrk’s emergence as the winner of the Social Impact Track at Wema Bank Hackaholics 7.0, TechMedia Africa interviewed Nnanweobi Ikechukwu Augustine, CEO of Trarrk, and Boluwatife Oladejo, CTO of Trarrk, about the company’s journey, its work in special needs education, the Hackaholics experience and what lies ahead at the grand finale.
Bridging the gap in special needs education
Millions of children with developmental and learning differences face barriers to receiving timely assessment, coordinated support and effective educational interventions. At the same time, professionals working with these learners often have to navigate fragmented systems for assessments, learner records, Individualised Education Plans (IEPs), progress monitoring and communication.
Trarrk was built to address this fragmentation by bringing key processes and stakeholders into a more connected digital environment.
The company was born from what its founders describe as a simple observation: special education systems around the world are often fragmented and inefficient, making it difficult for the different stakeholders involved in a child’s development to work from the same information.
The team of educators, accessibility experts and technology specialists behind Trarrk set out to build a platform that could help unify the special education ecosystem, empower stakeholders and ultimately improve outcomes for students with special needs.
“For Trarrk, the central issue has always been bigger than simply creating another education technology product,” Nnanweobi said.
He explained that special education professionals often work across complex processes involving assessments, learner records, IEPs, progress monitoring and communication with other stakeholders. Where these processes remain fragmented or heavily manual, professionals can spend significant time managing information instead of focusing on the learner.
“Trarrk was built to address that gap by bringing these workflows into a more connected digital environment and using AI where it can meaningfully support professionals,” he told TechMedia Africa.
Nnanweobi said the team’s core belief is that technology in the disability sector should not simply digitise existing processes. Instead, it should make those processes more efficient, improve access to information and ultimately help professionals make better decisions about the learners they support.
A Social Impact Track that reflected the mission
Speaking about what the team took to Hackaholics 7.0, Nnanweobi explained that the experience provided an opportunity to put an already-built solution and its impact proposition in front of a wider innovation ecosystem.
He said the Lagos regional stage of Wema Bank Hackaholics 7.0 was particularly significant because Trarrk competed in the Social Impact Track.
“For the team, the recognition was meaningful because it acknowledged the social problem behind the technology and the potential impact of the solution,” he said.
Winning the Lagos Region Social Impact Track therefore represented more than a competition result for the team. It provided external validation of the problem they have been working to solve and the direction Trarrk is taking.
Oladejo, CTO of Trarrk, also highlighted the value of the experience from a technology and product perspective.
“The competition challenged the team to communicate not only what Trarrk does, but why it matters, how it is being implemented and what a scalable future for the platform could look like,” he told TechMedia Africa.
According to Oladejo, Hackaholics 7.0 gave Trarrk an opportunity to receive feedback, engage with other innovators and test how effectively the team could communicate its work to people outside its immediate ecosystem.
From pilot to scale
With the regional Social Impact Track win secured, Trarrk now moves forward to the Wema Bank Hackaholics 7.0 grand finale.
TechMedia Africa reports that participants stand to win a share of ₦200 million in cash prizes and non-equity funding to refine, launch and scale their solutions.
For Trarrk, the team is approaching the finale with a clear objective: to demonstrate the progress already made with the platform and show how it can scale beyond its current pilot stage.
“The finale is not simply about competing for another recognition,” Nnanweobi said. “Rather, it is an opportunity to place disability technology in front of a larger audience and potentially connect with organisations, investors, technology partners and other stakeholders who can help accelerate the platform’s reach.”
The team is particularly interested in strategic partnerships, mentorship, ecosystem support and access to resources that can help Trarrk expand its pilots and move towards wider adoption.
Looking beyond the competition
While winning the national finale would be a major milestone, the Trarrk team sees the Hackaholics journey as part of a much larger mission.
Recently, Trarrk announced the first edition of the Nigeria Disability Tech Summit (NDTS) 1.0, a new national platform focused on bringing together technology, disability inclusion, innovation, policy and the wider ecosystem to explore how technology can create a more accessible and inclusive future.
The company is therefore focused on building technology that can improve the systems supporting special needs education and ultimately contribute to better outcomes for learners with disabilities.
For Oladejo, that means continuing to improve the technology based on real-world feedback from the professionals and institutions using it.
For Nnanweobi, it means ensuring that inclusion remains central as the company grows.
The team believes social impact technology should not be limited by the assumption that products serving underserved communities must remain small.
Instead, it believes solutions can address genuine social problems while remaining technically ambitious, commercially sustainable and capable of scaling.
