What it takes for a PH edtech startup to scale from 120 schools to 600

MANILA—A Philippine education technology startup is betting that bringing digital lessons, student records, grading, attendance and other school operations under one platform can help it win more schools — and turn a homegrown solution into a bigger business.

Cerebro Solutions says it has reached 120 schools and generated P117 million in revenue over seven years. Its next target is 600 schools by School Year 2030–2031, according to a company pitch deck shared with ANC.

The numbers mark a significant milestone for a business built around a problem its founders know firsthand: schools may already have technology, but teachers and administrators can still end up juggling disconnected systems and repetitive paperwork.

Cerebro recently won the inaugural Pinoy Tech Startup Competition, held last August, by the Department of Science and Technology’s Technology Application and Promotion Institute and the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry. It bested four other participating startups to take the top prize, a P500,000 investment package.

The company describes its product as an integrated school platform combining a learning management system, ready-to-use digital educational content and administrative tools. Rather than requiring schools to build separate systems for every function, Cerebro allows them to activate features and integrate other technology providers as needed.

In an interview with Ron Cruz on ANC’s Startup, Chief Technology Officer Nooky Umali Jr. said the company moved away from heavily customized products in favor of an open platform that could evolve with schools’ needs.

“So, Cerebro becomes the glue that stitches together every partner that a school needs,” Umali said.

That approach could help Cerebro reach more customers without having to develop every new capability in-house. But expanding from 120 schools to 600 will require more than a working platform. The company will need to keep delivering reliable implementation, training and technical support as its customer base grows.

Cerebro says its network has reached 120 schools in the school year 2026–2027, four times its original target of 30 schools for that period, and two years ahead of its original growth plan. The startup also projects income rising to P64.5 million in the coming school year ending 2028 and P211.5 million by 2031. 

For a business seeking to scale, the next challenge is converting its current school network into a dependable source of recurring revenue while keeping acquisition and customer-support costs manageable.

There is a clear market problem to address. In March 2025, the Philippine Department of Education cited an IDinsight study finding that 42 percent of teachers work more than 50 hours a week. The study found that teachers spend an average of 17.8 hours on ancillary duties and another 8.1 hours on program-related tasks. These figures help explain why school technology that reduces repetitive administrative work could appeal to educators and school owners. 

Chief Executive Officer Dr. Justine Itugot, who has 15 years of teaching experience, said the company designed its platform to help teachers manage their responsibilities without losing the human connection at the heart of education.

“As a teacher myself, I don’t want to see teachers being replaced inside the classroom,” Itugot told Cruz.

He said the objective is to give teachers more time to monitor students’ progress, communicate with parents and develop appropriate interventions for learners who need additional support.

That distinction is important as artificial intelligence becomes more prominent in education. For Cerebro, the value of automation is not simply producing more content or processing information faster. It is giving teachers and administrators more time to do the work that technology cannot fully replace.

Itugot also said AI has reduced the time needed to create a subject containing around 30 lessons, from a month to a month and a half, to just three to five days. He said teachers still review AI-generated material to check its accuracy and suitability. Demonstrating measurable improvements in teacher workload, operating efficiency and student learning would help strengthen its case to prospective customers.

Cerebro also identifies Canada as its first international market, and the company has a Canada-focused website. The overseas ambition offers a glimpse of what could follow if the company can continue building its school network at home and beyond.

For now, the immediate test is whether Cerebro can turn its reported traction into a larger, sustainable Philippine edtech business, one school at a time.