SchoolTry raises $1M in angel funding to expand African EdTech
What's the deal? SchoolTryDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Sweden-headquartered startup with operations in Nigeria and Kenya, has raised more than $1 million in angel funding. It runs an all-in-one platform for school administration, communication, and learning, and plans to scale that system while building an AI-powered job matching tool for tertiary students.
The details: The round was structured as angel investments over the past three years, with no disclosed lead investor or pre-money valuation. That protracted approach signals a reliance on individual backers rather than institutional capital.
Why now? SchoolTry has pivoted from K-12 to focus on tertiary institutions, a shift that drove its biggest revenue growth. It now powers all higher institutions in Oyo state, Nigeria, and serves clients including Obafemi Awolowo University and the University of Ilorin, generating more revenue in one year than in its previous three years in K-12.
By the numbers: The company claims 400,000 active students on its tertiary platform and more than two million total users, including lecturers and partners. But only 0.2% of users are paying customers, leaving a long path to profitability.
What's the endgame? Part of the capital will fund an AI job matching platform to connect students with remote and part-time roles based on data in the SchoolTry system. The aim is to bridge academia and employment for African graduates and improve graduate employability.
What could go wrong? The African job market is often informal, with varying skill demands and infrastructure limits that may hamper AI matching. Building the platform also demands talent and technology spend that could divert resources from the core product.
The signal: African EdTech remains a hard sector; EdukoyaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → shut down in 2025 over market readiness, connectivity, and device access. SchoolTry's raise lands in the 90th percentile for angel rounds in education tied to Sweden, a sign that focused, revenue-generating models can still draw backers despite the skepticism.
Read more: AU-Startups
