January 25, 2021

#21: uLesson - How the EdTech platform is bridging the educational gap across Nigeria & Anglophone Africa

1 hour 43 minutes

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about uLesson - the African EdTech platform. We'll start with some context about education in Africa & Nigeria, talk about uLesson's early history, fundraising, product strategy & end with our views on its future outlook. This episode was recorded on Jan 24, 2021.

Companies discussed: uLesson, Byju’s, School Visual, WhiteHat Jr, Yuanfudao & Owl Ventures

Business concepts discussed: Education technology, monetization strategy, African expansion, product localization, new product development, growth/profitability trade-offs & equity fund raising

Conversation highlights:

(01:30) - Why we are talking about uLesson

(04:15) - Nigerian / African educational context

(22:08) - Sim Shagaya background, work experience

(24:20) - Entrepreneurial ventures: e-Motion, DealDey, Konga

(32:16) - uLesson founding and seed round

(40:02) - $7.5M Series A overview

(45:30) - Expansion to other African countries

(50:45) - uLesson product & pricing strategy

(1:02:45) - uLesson user growth and engagement

(1:03:26) - uLesson competition across Africa

(1:18:14) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook

(1:28:45) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

(1:36:55) - Recommendations, small wins & open questions

Olumide’s recommendations, small wins & open questions:

Recommendation: The Chicken or the Exit (by Osarumen Osamuyi), Africa tech summit & How to make friends as an adult

Small win: Spent Birthday singing (Airbnb experience) with Broadway star (Stephen Carlile). Beyond Amazing!

Other content: Techpoint tweet summarizing Sim's exits & Sim's uLesson announcement

Other content: Blitzscaling: How not to go off the rails (David Sacks)

Open question: What are the biggest challenges uLesson could face in 1-3 years?

Bankole’s recommendations, small wins & open questions:

Recommendation: Ask Your Developer & Gravity visualized - YouTube

Other content: Sequoia funded companies tweets

Small win: More walks, and been trying this new thing where I only play video games one day a week

Open question: Question for Sim - What did you know at the start of Konga, that by the end of it, you realized you were wrong about?

We’d love to hear from you. If you have feedback, topics you’d like to hear, or just want to say hello, please email [email protected] Find more episodes at Afrobility.com

...more

View all episodes

By Olumide Ogunsanwo and Bankole Makanju

3939 ratings