Barely a few months into its founding, Nigerian startup uLesson, founded by serial entrepreneur and founder of Konga Sim Shagaya has raised a $3.1 million seed round led by TLcom Capital. uLesson is integrating mobile platforms, SD cards, culture-specific curriculum and a network of tutors to bridge educational gaps for secondary school students in Nigeria and broader Africa.
‘‘We have this massive gap…We’re adding more babies in this country nominally than all of Western Europe…Even if the [Nigerian] government was super efficient, it couldn’t catch up with the educational needs of the young people that are coming up,” Shagaya said.
Here Is The Deal
- This round of financing was led by TLcom Capital. As part of TLcom’s lead on the investment, partners Omobola Johnson and Ido Sum will join uLesson’s board.
- According to Sim Shagaya, uLesson carries greater meaning than his previous startups.
- uLesson has been in development phase and plans to go to market in February 2020 in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Gambia — Shagaya told TechCrunch on a call.
“We’re targeting Anglophone West Africa…for a market of effectively 300 million people,” he said.
- uLesson could count having Shagaya as CEO as one of its advantages in the edtech space. The venture marks the founder’s return to the startup scene after a hiatus. Shagaya earned a Harvard MBA and worked for Google before repatriating to Nigeria to found several digital companies.
- His best known venture, Konga, went head to head with online retailer Jumia in pioneering e-commerce for Nigeria and Africa. Konga was sold in a distressed acquisition in 2018.
- In both Nigeria and Kenya uLesson will face competition from existing ventures. Edtech in Africa doesn’t have as many companies (or as much VC funding) as leading startup sectors fintech and e-commerce, but there are a number of players.
- Nigeria has online edu startups, such as Tuteria. Feature phone based student learning company Eneza Education has scaled in Kenya and expanded to Ghana.
- Shagaya successfully exited his digital advertising venture E-Motion this year, after it was purchased by Loatsad Promedia.
“If you drill down to it all, all our problems in Africa are tied this problem of education…If we do this right, our impact will be huge. For me this is probably the most important work I’ll do,” Shagaya said.
Source: Briter Bridges
Why The Investors Invested
Lead investor TLcom Capital has been taking a huge bet on African startups. The VC has previously participated in Twigga Foods’ $23.7 million a Series B round led by US investment bank Goldman Sachs.
It also participated in Kobo360’s US$30 million debt and equity Series A funding also led by the American multinational investment bank and financial services company Goldman Sachs. From afar, it would appear that it always compliments Goldman Sachs.
Since its founding in 1999, TLcom Capital LLP has invested and exited leading-edge companies in the technology, media and telecom (TMT) sector targeting businesses that address core customer or technology issues in either large established global markets, or in the development of emerging markets with the potential for global scale in the broad TMT domain.
A Look At What uLesson Does
- Founded in 2019 by Shagaya — who also founded Nigerian e-commerce startup Konga and ad venture E-Motion — uLesson is headquartered in Lagos with a production studio in Jos.
- uLesson attempts to place priority on education across West African households vs. structural deficiencies — such as student teacher ratios as high as 1:70 in countries such as Nigeria.
- uLesson offers an app-based home education kit for students with an up-front yearly subscription price of around $70 and the option to pay as you go. The startup’s product pack will contain a dongle, SD card, and a set of headphones to connect to Android devices.
- Curriculum on the uLesson program will include practice tests and tailored content around math, physics, chemistry, and biology. The venture has already created 3000 animated videos for core subjects, according to Shagaya.
- To leverage high android mobile penetration in Africa — and minimize data-streaming costs — uLesson content and performance assessment will come via a combination of streaming and SD cards.
- Parents and students can connect online temporarily to update the app and sync curriculum and results, while operating off-line for the bulk of lessons.
- Shagaya likened the use of SD cards to the old Netflix model of sending and returning DVD’s by mail, prior to faster and more affordable internet service in the U.S.
- The uLesson program will also package a human component. The startup plans to deploy a network of counselors in major distribution areas to instruct on how to use app and follow lesson plans.
- uLesson is to be a supplement to secondary school education and a more affordable and effective alternative to private tutors, explained Shagaya.
- After taking uLesson to market in Africa’s most populous nation — Nigeria — and other countries in the region, Shagaya and team plan to adapt the product for a future East Africa launch.
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