Nadya Eka Lestari
TechInAfrica — Shaw Academy, an Irish educational company has established a new shop in Cape Town as part of its global expansion. This makes the city the edtech’s first African venture and another record in the line of Irish companies interested in South Africa.
While the company associates the decision to launch in Cape Town to the nature of its business, the e-learning landscape of South Africa could also have imbued the expansion. The market has been expected to witness an increased number of entrants for long, most of which will focus primarily on providing LMS services.
Regarding the reason for diving into the South African e-learning sector, Shaw Academy CEO, James Egan, said, “Strategically and operationally, South Africa was a simple decision for us to make. Our global footprint ensures student support can be favorably operated in this market and this is reflective by the high-performing teams we already have in place.”
Egan also said the decision was enhanced by the caliber of educational professionals the edtech has met and now has in its employ. “Cape Town’s location offers favorable time zones for the many markets we have a presence in and would allow our student support team that is now located in Cape Town to assist thousands of our students.”
As it may seem, the e-learning industry of the Southern African country is portrayed to cross $490 million by the end of 2023. There are up to 20 players going head to head for a share of this rumor, such as Injinni, Digemy, Obami, Praekelt and Fast, among others.
The sector revenue for content services will increase at a CAGR of 10.9 percent from 2018 to 2023, according to a 2019 Ken Research report. The same report also projects that the e-learning revenue for technology will increase at a CAGR of 14.9 percent during the same period.
Shaw, which is headquartered in Dublin, develops online educational courses aimed at helping people build practical skills. In April 2019, the firm netted more than $7 million from a consortium of media, technology, and education investors.
With offices in Bangalore, India, and now Cape Town, the startup’s platform allows users to ask questions and get answers on webinars. They also get to interact with other users in real-time. The firm achieves over 300,000 new users globally every month.
John White, Shaw Academy chief strategy officer, said, “South Africa is an important market to Shaw Academy, with close to one million registered users. The impact of the Cape Town office and Shaw Academy’s continued growth globally will see us acquire close to nine million students globally by the close of 2019”.
Source: weetracker.com
