We build the systems, integrations and data solutions that help education initiatives scale — with soul, creativity and love for the work.
Founded in 2018 by Gavin Taljaard, Derren Page and Amanda Van Heerden, Meraki IT brings more than two decades of experience building complex IT solutions — now focused exclusively on advancing education in South Africa.
Before 2018, the three of us were the core architects and leads on South Africa's Data Driven Districts (DDD) system for the Department of Basic Education — the largest and most comprehensive education information system in the country, still in active use today across 24 000+ schools and 12 million learners. It was through that work, seeing the scale of the need through the data, that the education bug truly bit us. We left to found Meraki IT so we could spend the rest of our careers making a real difference.
Meraki (v.) — to do something with soul, creativity or love; to put something of yourself into your work.
From rescue and recovery to greenfield development — we deliver solutions that actually work in production.
Custom web and mobile applications built for the real demands of education programmes — reliable, scalable, and production-ready.
Connecting disparate platforms, data sources and third-party systems into coherent, seamless solutions — including interfaces to national data dashboards.
Strategic guidance for organisations navigating complex technology decisions — from architecture reviews to full systems analysis and roadmap planning.
Purpose-built technology for early childhood development, learner management, and education programme delivery at scale across South Africa.
End-to-end data pipelines, collection tools and visual dashboards that give programme managers the insights they need to make decisions.
A track record of delivering where others couldn't — rescuing stalled projects, building for production, and supporting programmes that matter.
Brought in to rescue three critical education platforms that were at risk of being shut down. We successfully delivered all three to production — with the multi-tenant ECD and community health platform going on to win Startup of the Year at Africa Tech Week.
Open access and white label versions of a platform supporting early childhood development practitioners and programmes across South Africa.
A healthcare-focused platform supporting pregnant women and babies, connecting families with critical health information and services.
A tailored ECD platform built for the SmartStart programme, enabling practitioners to register, track and report on learner outcomes.
Long-term support and maintenance of the ImpactBoard platform for Data Innovators — ensuring stability, performance and continuous improvement over five years.
A custom-built learner registration and reporting system — including third-party integration with the Data Driven Dashboard — managing all learner data for the Click Foundation's programmes, scaling from 30 000 to over 250 000 learners.
An offline-first mobile data collection system deployed across Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi — gathering sensitive health data for adolescents and young adults in clinics, schools, remote villages and prisons, with automated sync and country-partitioned BI reporting.
A full analysis of YearBeyond's current systems, reporting structures and data needs — laying the groundwork for a more effective, integrated technology landscape.
We take time to understand the education programme, its goals and its users before writing a line of code.
Whether inheriting a broken system or starting fresh, we assess before acting — avoiding expensive assumptions.
We deliver working software that performs reliably in the real world — not polished prototypes that fall apart at scale.
We stand behind what we build, providing honest guidance on what works — and what doesn't.
"We were the core architects and leads on South Africa's Data Driven Districts system from its inception in 2013 — helping build what became the most complete national education data collection and visualisation programme in the country. That experience showed us what was possible, and what was still missing. It's why we started Meraki IT."
— Gavin Taljaard, Derren Page & Amanda Van Heerden, Co-founders
Whether you need a rescue, a new build, or a long-term technology partner — we'd love to hear from you.