Nigerian startup LockBook describes itself as the “Netflix, or Spotify of books”, helping publishers, lecturers and authors publish encrypted e-textbooks in a way that readers aren’t able to illegally share, print or screenshot.
Founded in May 2021, LockBook allows students to purchase and immediately access e-books at prices 20 per cent cheaper than elsewhere, while also protecting authors and publishers by ensuring these books are encrypted and cannot be pirated.
“Authors don’t have to spend a fortune like they would for physical books to distribute their e-books across geographical locations. Authors can quiz readers, use flash cards, grade quizzes, build a leaderboard, and track readers’ study patterns. At the moment we are working on a hardware contract to give special users Glare-free paper like devices,” co-founder and CTO Oyerinde Enoch told Disrupt Africa.
Currently, LockBook has over 11,500 readers, and earned NGN110 million (US$72,000) in revenue, paying local authors over NGN70 million (US$46,000). Originally bootstrapped by Oyerinde, the startup has secured access to non-equity funding via some competitions, and is planning on expansion.
“We are operating in some states in the western part of Nigeria currently, We hope to cover the entire western region and country before the second quarter of 2026. We also hope to expand our reach to more universities and bring more e-textbooks and authors onto our platform,” he said.
LockBook takes a 25-30 per cent share of each e-book sold, depending on the features the authors use from its suite of products.
