South African startup Lightbulb Education is providing tailored learning management systems to both B2B and B2C customers, and has its sights set on pan-African expansion.
Founded by Allan Mushabe in 2015, Lightbulb Education offers its services through a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, offering customers access to customised, white labelled, managed and mobile learning management systems.
Mushabe told Disrupt Africa most African companies lacked the skills to set up and manage their own learning management systems. Lightbulb, meanwhile, allows subject matter experts and trainers to reach and teach any user regardless of geographic location.
“We saw an opportunity to not only tailor services specific to the client, but also to assist them in understanding their digital transformation journey,” he said.
The immediate uptake has been strong. The startup currently has six B2B clients with a current combined users base of around 1,800. It also has a B2C offering with around 7,300 users.
“It’s been good so far,” Mushabe said. “We are looking to expand further with our services as we grow. We have had a decent spread of educational and industry segments using the platform.”
Lightbulb, which raised a pre-seed round of ZAR1.1million (US$76,000) in 2018, has taken part in the Injini and I’M IN accelerator programmes, and is seeing strong revenue growth from user subscription and license fees.
“Profits have been good so far – we are on course for larger returns this year and the spike in usage has increased,” said Mushabe.
Currently only operating in South Africa, Lightbulb has plans to expand.
“We are hoping to expand to the rest of Africa and possibly Europe and Asia,” Mushabe said.
