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

01/25/21 • 103 min

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

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

Previous Episode

#20: Paystack - How the FinTech payments platform went from Y Combinator to a $200M Stripe exit in 5 years

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about Paystack - the African payments infrastructure company that was acquired by Stripe in 2020 October. We’ll give some context of the Nigerian payments sector before 2015, Paystack's founding, early history, acquisition by Stripe & end with our views on its future outlook. This episode was recorded on January 10th, 2021.

Companies discussed: Paystack, Stripe, Flutterwave, Interswitch & Y Combinator (YC)

Business concepts discussed: Payments infrastructure strategy, low-end disruption, product-market fit (PMF), capital fundraising (Angels, Strategic investors, VCs), Corporate venture capital (CVC) strategy, payments infrastructure & payments M&A strategy

Conversation highlights:

(01:00) - Why we’re talking about Paystack
(03:12) - Payments landscape before Paystack
(06:15) - Founders’ background - Ezra Olubi and Shola Akinlade
(17:00) - Paystack products and services
(22:46) - Paystack fundraising - Y Combinator, Angels, Seed & Series A
(31:18) - Broader payment ecosystem in Nigeria, transaction volumes, etc
(43:30) - Stripe’s acquisition of Paystack in 2020 October
(52:10) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and future outlook
(58:17) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and future outlook
(1:14:02) - Recommendations, small wins and open questions

Olumide’s recommendations, small wins & open questions:

Recommendation: Intelligence Trap (Why smart people make dumb mistakes)
Recommendation: Matt Levine (Money Stuff): Awesome Bloomberg columnist back from paternity leave
Small win: Using Project Gutenberg for free eBooks. Used it to get Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations.
Other content: Paystack fundraising, valuations & founders ownership (detailed spreadsheet estimates)
Other content: Paystack is joining Stripe video announcement
Open question: What will be the biggest impact of the Stripe acquisition on the Africa tech ecosystem when we look back in 2025?

Bankole’s recommendations, small wins & open questions:

Recommendation: Pinduoduo and Vertically Integrated Social Commerce , by Turner Novak
Recommendation: Wolf Warrior 2 the movie - highest grossing Chinese movie of all time
Recommendation: Shola's interview on the YC podcast link
Small win: First run of the year yesterday.
Open question: Re: Paystack’s exit to Stripe. Do you think the Paystack exit is the exception or a sign of more exits to come? It's tempting to think that this is validation, or a cynic would say - yes, it had to be them.

We’d love to hear from you. Please email [email protected] to share feedback or propose topics you’d like to hear.

Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes at Afrobility.com

Next Episode

#22: African Corporate VCs & Softbank - Why African corporates are not investing in tech startups

Overview: Today we’re going to talk about African Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) using Softbank as a reference point. We'll talk about Softbank's early history, transition from operational to investment company, and finally dive into the current state and future potential of CVC in Africa. This episode was recorded on Feb 7, 2021

Companies discussed: Softbank, Naspers / Prosus, MTN, Nedbank, Safaricom, Orange, Stripe, Visa, MasterCard, Tencent & Alibaba

Business concepts discussed: Corporate Venture Capital (CVC), M&A strategy, Internal vs External innovation & developing market investment strategy

Conversation highlights:

(01:05) - Why we’re talking about Corporate Venture Capital
(03:50) - Why we picked Softbank as a reference point
(07:30) - Masayoshi Son background Softbank History
(16:14) - Softbank acquisitions, investments & the Vision Fund
(28:24) - Southern Africa CVCs - current & potential candidates
(36:40) - West Africa CVCs - current & potential candidates
(43:00) - East Africa CVCs - current & potential candidates
(51:56) - North Africa CVCs - current potential candidates
(53:40) - Non-African CVCs investing in Africa
(59:30) - Bankole’s closing thoughts
(1:11:55) - Olumide’s closing thoughts
(1:23:38) - Recommendations and small wins

Olumide’s recommendations, small wins & open questions:

Recommendation: Billionaire's Build (Paul Graham): Wonderful article from PG about entrepreneur billionaires and how to get into YC.
Recommendation: ESI millionaire interview 220: Great article telling the story of a 57 yr old woman journey to become a millionaire. Very inspirational!
Recommendation: History of Japan video: Crazy 9 minute video. Fun!
Small win: 4hr dinner with friends by the ocean. :)
Other content: Techpoint Visa article & Packy McCormick's wonderful Tencent article (on Not Boring)
Open question: What African companies would you like to see invest more in startups? And why?
Special thanks: Ato Bentsi-Enchill

Bankole’s recommendations, small wins & open questions:

Recommendation: Text Expander
Small win: Fifa Seasons Division 2 -> 1 promotion
Other content: MEST Article on MTN investments in African startup ecosystem
Other content: GSMA report on Emerging Markets Corporate Venture Capital
Open question: Are you optimistic about the CVC investment in African startup ecosystem, or do you think it’s never going to happen.

We’d love to hear from you. Please email [email protected] to share feedback or propose topics you’d like to hear.

Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes at Afrobility.com