This archive report was first published on 26 November 2019.
uLesson Secures $3.1M Seed Funding Ahead of Market Launch ¶
Edtech startup uLesson has secured $3.1 million in seed funding to launch its platform, which aims to revolutionize the way students learn and prepare for exams in Africa. The funding round was led by TLcom Capital, with participation from Sim Shagaya, the founder of uLesson.
Launched this year, uLesson is a platform that seeks to build a learning experience unprecedented in its richness, scope, interactivity, and effectiveness for the African market. The startup has been in development and beta testing for 12 months and will officially launch in February 2020.
uLesson has built technology to deploy curriculum-relevant content via smartphones, allowing learners to use the product without concern for internet limitations and costs. The platform allows learners to experience personalized learning, practice tests, region-specific mock tests, and assessed performance and progress for students and parents.
Speaking on the investment and upcoming launch of uLesson, CEO Sim Shagaya says, “Education systems across Africa are in crisis, and uLesson has been developed to radically shake-up the system and bring better access to high-quality curriculum-relevant educational content to learners across the continent.”
As part of the seed round, Ido Sum and Omobola Johnson, partners in TLcom’s executive team, will join the board alongside former Konga CEO, Shola Adekoya. Speaking on the investment, Ido Sum adds, “In uLesson, we found a company that fitted perfectly with our ethos – an entrepreneur-led startup building affordable, mass-market mobile first solution tackling one of Africa’s largest challenges.”
The global edtech market is projected to reach $341 billion, and Africa will be a key market fuelling this growth, due to rising smartphone adoption on the continent combined with a high youth population. At present, student to teacher ratios in some parts of Nigeria are 1:70, compared to an average 1:10 in the United States.
