• South African entrepreneur Aaron Bornmann founded Cleverly in 2025 to help schools and universities automate assessment grading while keeping teachers in full control of marking decisions.
• The AI-powered platform supports the entire grading workflow, from creating marking schemes to tracking correction progress and ensuring governance compliance.
• Bornmann also leads AI infrastructure startup Supascale and edtech company 123tutors, reflecting his broader focus on artificial intelligence and education technology.

Aaron Bornmann is a mechanical engineer and entrepreneur. He is the founder and chief executive officer of Cleverly, a platform that enables schools and higher education institutions to grade assessments more efficiently while allowing teachers to retain full control over every marking decision.

Founded in 2025, Cleverly supports teachers from the assessment preparation stage. Users upload the exam paper, marking memorandum, grading rubric and several sample scripts. The platform then generates a grading framework. Teachers review, modify and approve that framework before the marking process begins.

Cleverly allows educators to adjust the level of AI involvement according to their preferences. Teachers can review every graded script before approval, select an assisted marking mode or verify only a sample of graded papers. This flexibility enables schools and universities to align grading campaigns with their own assessment practices.

The platform also extends beyond automated grading by providing detailed dashboards. Academic teams can monitor marking progress, track turnaround times and analyze overall performance trends across courses and assessments.

In addition, Cleverly incorporates governance features that address the administrative and compliance requirements of educational institutions.

A Technology Career Focused on Innovation and Artificial Intelligence

Aaron Bornmann is a serial entrepreneur. He is the founder and chief executive officer of Supascale, a startup that provides artificial intelligence infrastructure. He also founded and leads 123tutors, an education technology company established in 2017. In addition, he serves as an innovation engineering consultant specializing in artificial intelligence and embedded systems at MultiChoice Group.

Bornmann graduated from the University of Pretoria with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 2017. He began his professional career in 2016 at the Golden Key International Honour Society. As education initiatives manager, he contributed to programs designed to develop the potential of student members.

He later strengthened his engineering expertise at Ryonic Robotics, where he worked as an intern from 2017 to 2019. More recently, he joined INALA as an embedded software engineer between 2023 and 2024.

This article was initially published in French by Melchior Koba

Adapted in English by Ange J. A de Berry Quenum