A few years ago, Nigerian edtech startup Edukoya boldly promised to change the landscape of online learning across Africa. Today, it’s shutting down—despite raising $3.5 million in pre-seed funding, one of the largest rounds in African edtech history. What went wrong?
Edukoya faced hurdles from the start: a broken infrastructure, unaffordable services for its target audience, and an economic crisis that no amount of venture capital could fix. While the platform attracted thousands of students, it couldn’t escape the harsh reality that African edtech startups are, for the most part, doomed to fail.
What Was Edukoya?
Edukoya set out to transform K-12 education across Africa, offering a blend of digital content and live, on-demand tutoring. The platform promised students the ability to:
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Join live classes with expert tutors.
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Access curated materials for school and entrance exam preparation.
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Ask questions and get instant answers from teachers.
The idea came from founder Honey Ogundeyi’s own frustrations with Nigeria’s education system—crowded classrooms, underfunded schools, and a scarcity of quality teachers. After studying in the UK, she returned to her homeland with big dreams of offering something better.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: no matter how visionary Edukoya’s platform was, it didn’t stand a chance. And the question remains—was it a problem with the platform itself, or was the entire African edtech model fatally flawed from the start?
The Numbers
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Founded: 2021
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Funding: $3.5 million (record-breaking pre-seed investment)
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Users: 80,000+ students
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Engagement: 15 million+ questions answered, daily live classes
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Shutdown: 2024, after almost three years of operation
The Harsh Reality Behind the Failure
Market Readiness? Or Market Inaccessibility? Edukoya’s biggest problem wasn’t about finding the right audience—it was about whether that audience could actually afford the product. Let’s face it: in most African households, education isn’t a luxury—it’s a survival tool. When most families are struggling just to pay for basic schooling, paying for a digital platform becomes an afterthought. Even with inflation and a collapsing naira, the cost of Edukoya’s service was just too much for the majority of its target market.
And let’s not sugarcoat it: Edukoya’s target market wasn’t just poor—it was impoverished. While Africa’s middle class is growing, it’s still a long way from being large enough to sustain digital education platforms. Most Nigerian students lack the stable internet access or affordable devices that would make online learning even remotely viable. Edukoya may have had a great product, but it was completely disconnected from the economic realities of the families it was trying to serve.
Monetization: A Pipe Dream The question that every edtech startup must answer is: Who pays? Edukoya’s answer was the freemium model, which should sound familiar to anyone who has followed the struggles of similar platforms. Most students attend public schools where families are already sacrificing essentials to pay for basic education. Freemium models rarely convert free users into paying customers, and Edukoya was no exception. Even with the promise of personalized tutoring and curated content, Edukoya couldn’t convince enough users to pay. Traditional home tutoring, which has a longstanding cultural presence in Nigeria, or free resources like YouTube, proved to be more accessible alternatives.
The truth? There simply isn’t enough purchasing power among the masses to make African edtech sustainable. Edukoya was trying to create a premium product for a population that can barely afford essentials.
Infrastructure: The Elephant in the Room In Africa, infrastructure is not just an issue—it’s a barrier. Edukoya’s failure is a glaring example of why the African edtech dream is flawed. High data costs, unreliable electricity, and a lack of basic infrastructure make scaling digital education nearly impossible. How do you run an online learning platform when students don’t have constant access to the internet or power? How do you build a sustainable business when your core audience can’t even afford the tools to use your product?
Edukoya wasn’t just competing with other edtech startups—it was up against a deeply broken system. The platform’s promise to offer a seamless, high-quality learning experience was simply unattainable in the face of such widespread infrastructural gaps.
Why This Should Matter to Everyone
The failure of Edukoya—and countless other edtech startups—isn’t just about poor business models or overhyped ideas. It’s a reflection of the fundamental flaws in how we approach innovation in emerging markets. African edtech is dead in the water unless we face the ugly truth: the market isn’t ready for digital learning at scale.
Edtech ventures in Africa often receive a shiny coat of venture capital and glowing headlines, but beneath the surface, the reality is brutal. Infrastructure gaps, unaffordable products, and lack of market readiness make it incredibly difficult for any edtech startup to thrive in Africa. The model, as it stands, simply isn’t working.
It’s time to rethink the entire approach to edtech in Africa—because the way things are going, startups like Edukoya won’t just be outliers. They’ll be the rule.