Cape Town-based digital learning startup Snapplify has raised $2 million to accelerate its international expansion initiatives and advance its data analytics capabilities to enhance classroom teaching effectiveness.
The funds were raised from venture capital firm Knife Capital’s SARS section 12J Venture Capital Company, KNF Ventures, and empowered African investment manager Hlayisani Capital’s Hlayisani Growth Fund.
Founded in 2011 by Wesley Lynch, Snapplify enables digital learning for individuals and institutions. It has established a marketplace for digital education content, mostly related to educational services and devices. The company currently offers elearning solutions to over 1,400 schools, colleges and universities that are striving towards digital learning and the use of e-books in the classroom. It gives more than 200,000 students digital access to integrated learning tools and empowers teachers to embrace blended learning and teaching methods.
Snapplify is Africa’s largest ebook aggregator and distributor. It offers over 350,000 titles from over 250 publishers. Through Snappbox, its hardware distribution solution for ebooks, Snapplify allows schools with limited or no connectivity to access learning materials, saving data and download time.
The fund will enable Snapplify to gain more customers and increase its market footprint through business development, grow its team and refine customer-led product features.
Speaking on its mission and the investment it received, Wesley Lynch, Founder and CEO of Snapplify, said,
“Snapplify is looking to change the way student access content in both developed and developing countries. We are excited to have Knife Capital and Hlayisani on board to enable this vision, particularly because in addition to financial backing, we also need expert guidance from an aligned shareholder base to expand more aggressively into new markets in our next growth phase.”
Snapplify is at the forefront of edtech innovations in Africa. It works with various governments and education departments to roll out elearning solutions and materials to classrooms across the continent.
Expressing the various challenges faced by Africans to its partnership with Snapplify and his optimism on the potential of the company, Andrea Bӧhmert, co-managing partner at Knife Capital, said,
“We’ve been following Snapplify’s impressive growth journey since inception and it is a privilege to finally partner with the company and its stakeholders. Africa faces a wide range of social and economic challenges, from access to affordable tertiary education to a skills shortage across a number of key industries. Though it would be over optimistic to say that elearning alone can overcome these challenges, the impact is clearly measurable.”
“At Knife Capital, we believe in investing in companies that solve real problems and in doing so generate meaningful returns to stakeholders and shareholders alike. Snapplify is such a company and we look forward to being part of the next growth phase.”
Snapplify was originally backed by AngelHub Ventures in its seed and Series A-rounds, alongside international investors. The company currently has offices in South Africa, Nairobi, Amsterdam and New Jersey. Knife Capital’s London presence will help capacitate Snapplify’s expansion initiatives in the UK.
