This year, African edutech startups have seen much of investment, compared to their counterparts in fintech, logistics or transport. Cape Town-based edtech startup Digemy seems to be the latest on the scene. The startup has now raised R 1 million in new investment, bringing its total valuation to R40-million.
Here Is The Deal
- This is the second round of funding and it came from Greenwold Capital.
- The latest investment follows a R2-million investment previously made by Greenwold Capital in the startup in 2017.
- However, this would be the end of the road for Digemy’s co-founder Carl Wallace, who Digemy CEO and co-founder Kobus Louw said had been replaced on the startup’s board by an investment representative after Wallace was diagnosed with lupus and Crohn’s disease.
- With the recent investment Greenwold Capital now holds a slightly smaller stake, of 24.4%, while Digemy CEO holds a 48.9% stake and Vigo, which allows users to create their own websites, holds the remaining 26.7%.
Wallace’s stake in Digemy was formerly represented by Vigo (which has two tech subsidiary companies — Digital Drawing Room and Wapp). - However effective from 1 September, Wallace was replaced on Digemy’s board by Stocks & Strauss director and co-founder Wayne Stocks, who has previously helped SA tech startup JUMO to expand in East Africa.
- Louw said the funding from this second round will be used to expand the Digemy team, launch the besmarta financial literacy platform, and to pursue entrepreneurial development.
What Digemy Does
Digemy was founded in 2016 by Wallace and Louw. The startup’s platform provides corporates with in-depth insights into the knowledge levels of employees, from course-level to the most granular level of every syllabus. Training material is delivered in bite-size chunks.
Despite the disruption around Wallace’s departure, Louw said the startup had signed four listed companies as clients, and had grown its valuation five times in the last 18 months. It has also just finished a proof of concept with one of the top banks in South Africa.
While he could not reveal who the bank was, he said the listed companies include pharmaceutical giant Cipla and Transaction Capital’s software firm Principa. The startup is currently working to conclude a deal with Deloitte too, he added.
Last year, Digemy placed in the top five for the Best Enterprise Solution at the AppsAfrica Awards, won an MTN Business App of the Year award for their besmarta financial literacy solution, and has now been named the second best tech start-up in Africa in 2019, according to Africa Tech Week.
The company has also partnered with Kevin Horsley, New York Times best-selling author and the World Record Holder for the matrix memorisation of 10 000 digits of Pi.
Through this partnership, the startup hopes to develop and launch an app that helps children memorise times tables.
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Digemy is currently partnering with corporates to roll out its besmarta platform in their organisations.
The platform provides learners with access to microlearning modules and quizzes on financial literacy that aim to decrease financial stress and help them gain financial independence.
The startup is also helping organisations to create their own online academies to assist in employee and consumer education solutions. They also create specialist courses and offer their platform as a SaaS solution.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.