uLesson, an African learning technology platform, announced on Tuesday that it closed a $7.5 million Series A round led by Owl Ventures, with inclusion from existing investors, TLcom Capital and Founder Collective and participation from new investor LocalGlobe.
The Managing Director of Owl Ventures, Tory Patterson, would be joining the uLesson board to further strengthening the education start-up’s push to deliver affordable, high-quality and accessible education across Africa using technology.
Having scaled quickly to one million app downloads since its launch in March 2020, the start-up said funding would be deployed to power its expansion into Eastern and Southern Africa, as well as secure new talents and build its product development and production infrastructure.
uLesson curates personalised, curriculum-relevant content via mobile and PC devices for students in the K-7 to K-12 segment across the continent.
uLesson said its content is originally tailored for Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Gambia within the K-12 segment and now includes IGCSE curriculum, which is relevant for the other markets.
Discussing the Series A, uLesson Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Sim Shagaya said, “Africa is not one place. Different needs, cultures and curricula mean that uLesson has to carefully and deliberately think about how to design products and distribution channels to serve such a vast market.”
“The appreciation of the importance of education has always been there; the means of delivering digital, relevant education has previously been lacking.
“We are now witnessing an increased availability of data networks in Africa and with more affordable smartphones and the change in attitudes towards online learning accelerated by COVID-19, the foundations are now in place for an education revolution.
“At uLesson, we know we have a critical role to play in this ‘new normal’ and this funding will be crucial in our drive to fill the major gaps in Africa’s education system through tech.”
Patterson, an investor in leading edtech players, added, “Owl Ventures is honoured to be partnering with uLesson for their Series A. The company has quickly grown into the premier platform supporting students in Africa and we are excited to support their global expansion, as they seek to empower students around the world.”
The raise follows uLesson’s initial $3.1million seed round in November 2019, led by TLcom Capital with participation from the company’s Founder and CEO, Sim Shagaya.
Partner at LocalGlobe, Suzanne Ashman, stated, “We were hugely impressed by the foundational DNA of uLesson’s team in Nigeria. The team has purpose-built the product to make the learning experience significantly more engaging and effective than a large classroom experience. We are delighted to be part of uLesson’s journey.”
