Nigerian ed-tech startup WinApay is gamifying the learning process for its users and allowing them to win cash prizes for answering questions correctly.
Founded in December 2017, WinApay allows users to try out its platform for free before they take up a paid subscription to play games and answer questions in categories such as sport, technology, health, food and politics.
Co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Daniel Zimako told Disrupt Africa the startup had spotted a gap in the online learning space.
“We decided to carve out a niche in the sector using games and rewards to motivate people to learn,” he said.
Not surprisingly, such a concept has gone down well with users. WinApay has been gaining traction, with over 103,000 games played since its launch by over 80,000 users. Over 2,000 people have won rewards, with the startup so far having given out over NGN2.8 million (US$7,700) in prize money.
That figure, however, is offset by revenues of over US$20,000 over the last six months from subscriptions and advertising. WinApay has been bootstrapping so far, but now plans to raise a US$1 million funding round in order to expand its reach in Nigeria and move into new markets.
“Uptake and acceptability of the gaming platform has been incredible. We have had high acceptance and are working on improving our platform,” Zimako said.
“The funding will help the business expand its reach all over Nigeria, which has a prospect of more than 90 million internet users. WinApay will also expand to Kenya, South Africa and Ghana. We are mapping out plans for expansion to other Africa countries during the third quarter of the year.”
