Edukoya, an African edtech platform that secured $3.5 million in seed funding in 2021, has closed down. The company attributed the decision to unfavourable market conditions and infrastructure limitations.
In a letter to stakeholders, founder Honey Ogundeyi, former Google Nigeria head, explained that Edukoya’s vision was ahead of its time, encountering significant hurdles in achieving scalability within its target markets.
“The infrastructure and economic conditions needed to support our vision at scale simply aren’t yet in place across our target markets,” a letter seen by Condia said.
“After exploring partnerships, M&A, and business model pivots without viable solutions, we’ve chosen to wind down operations and return capital to investors rather than deplete resources chasing scale in a challenging market. “
The note explained that the shutdown though counterintuitive was the best way going forward for everyone, investors included. “Our investors can redeploy capital, our team can transition with dignity, and we preserve our vision’s integrity instead of compromising to survive.”
Edukoya’s shutdown reflects a shift in the edtech sector from K-12 to adult learning. The Edtech sector achieved so much scale during the COVID-19 pandemic because many innovators thought learning patterns would change from physical classrooms to online learning forever.
Between 2020 and 2021, funding for the edtech sector on the global scale grew from $14.7 billion or 831 rounds in 2020 to $20.3 billion or 1,050 rounds in 2021—the highest peak in the sector. However, by 2021, the use case for edtech began to fumble everywhere. Africa’s rising edtech startups like Foondamate, Edukoya and Orca had to re-organize their use case. By 2022, the funding dropped, and in 2023, only 1.4% of the funding was allocated to edtech startups by venture capital.
This ripple across the ecosystem was equally felt by Ulesson in 2024 which slashed educational software subscription fees by half indefinitely. The world had returned to school but the edtech use case pivoted to adult learning. A lot of working professionals began to upskill to in-demand skills like data analysis, project management, coding and the creative economy. This contributed in no small measure to the rise of skill-driven education for working professionals, for example, AltSchool and Miva Univeristy.
Edukoya’s note acknowledges extreme traction. The note claims that over 80,000 students used their platform, and more than 15 million questions were answered.
However, Edukoya’s shutdown underscores the reality that K-12 learning models may no longer be viable. Egyptian Orca was acquired by Baim, another edtech in 2024 showing a shift in model. So also, Lingawa which pivoted from live classes of subject teaching to language learning. The reward was a raise of $1.1 million in 2024. Investors will need to reevaluate their support for traditional K-12 edtech models.
