There are over 2,000 languages in Africa, but roughly 12% of these languages are at risk of extinction.
There are a few reasons for this, chief of which is colonialism. Colonial governments typically enforced their languages as the major means of communication in the colonies, and this often meant indigenous African languages were restricted to being used in informal settings.
Closely related to colonialism is globalisation. With over a billion speakers, English is the most widely spoken language globally and is often the preferred language in business settings. Naturally, that has meant that anyone wishing to participate in the global economy has prioritised learning the English language.
As many Africans leave the continent in search of better economic opportunities and need to get assimilated in their new locations, there's the risk that many African languages would be lost.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) predicts that 40% of the world’s languages are at risk of extinction, with African languages making up a significant portion.
Beyond being a means of communication, languages embody a people's culture, and while many Africans have no qualms leaving their native languages behind, many others are keen to hold onto this important part of their identities.
Lingawa (formerly TopSet) hopes to cash in on the desire of the African diaspora to achieve fluency in their local languages and now has $1.1 million to fuel this mission. Investors include Voltron Capital, Zrosk, WEAV Capital, MasterCard Foundation, Kaleo Ventures, and Dara Treseder, CMO of Autodesk and ex-CMO of Peloton.
A passion for capacity development
Before launching Lingawa, Frank Williams helped companies raise capital at Morgan Stanley, Helios Investment Partners, and most recently, Actis.
The idea for Lingawa came in 2022 as he was reflecting on his next career move, but its roots go back much further.
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As a young boy, he was accepted to study medicine, only to realise he had no interest in building a career out of it. As a result, he dropped out of medical school uncertain of what to do next, but with guidance from mentors, he returned to education and graduated with a first-class degree from the University of York.
During his time there, he worked with SEO London, creating training programs to help ethnic minorities break into finance.
After a brief period at Morgan Stanley, he was headhunted to join Helios Investment Partners, spending over two years there before joining a portfolio company where he rediscovered a love for entrepreneurship. However, he went on to get an MBA from Harvard Business School before joining Actis in 2018.
"I did this exercise at the time where I reflected on the different things that I loved doing in my previous roles even if I wasn't paid to do them. What I realised was that it had a lot of stuff to do with human capital development, like setting up training programs and mentorship schemes ultimately targeting young Africans."
In addition to a love for capacity development, he wanted to build a business in a tough sector. Around the same time, his sister, Yvonne, was toying with the idea of a tutoring platform that focused on Africa, which she shared with him.
Both siblings had worked together in the family business, a real estate business, and had complementary skills. Yvonne has over a decade of experience as a tutor and is currently finalising her thesis for an MSc in Teacher Education from the University of Oxford.
She has also held project and product management roles, and in her role as chief operating officer drives efficient operations ensuring the quality of tutors and building out the curriculum.
The third co-founder and chief technology officer, Uche Azinge, is a second-time founder and brings over nine years of experience to the startup.
In its first iteration, Lingawa provided one-on-one lessons for African students, which was good enough to get it into the inaugural class of Techstars Miami. But that goal has changed, hence the rebrand.
"What we found was that we were solving a real problem, but ultimately, there was a bigger and more exciting opportunity that very few people were really addressing in the language learning space given what we see as a cultural revolution taking place right now."
Lingawa’s value proposition now builds on the one-on-one tutoring model of TopSet, but with a focus on African languages. Starting with Yoruba and Igbo, it plans to expand its offerings with additional languages using the new funding.
Igniting cultural pride
Lingawa targets members of the African diaspora who wish to learn an African language but also targets Africans on the continent.
Since the pivot, it has taught over 3,000 learners and now has 100 tutors. Tutors are native speakers residing in Africa, and Frank shares that there's a skills gap the startup must fill before they are ready to become tutors.
"We realised fairly early on that there's a bit of a skills gap when it comes to language teaching. What we do is find high-potential native speakers of African languages and train them to become world-class language teachers, which involves soft skill training, learning science training, and basically making sure that students are carried along in the lesson and that the lessons are delivered in a fun and engaging way."
Lessons by tutors are supplemented by online resources such as flashcards, immersive games, and virtual immersion sessions to aid their ability to speak fluently. So far, its students are primarily located in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Meanwhile, lessons can be accessed for $10 per hour. Tutors receive payouts weekly, and Frank shares that tutors currently earn ₦500,000 a month on average, more than six times the newly approved minimum wage in Nigeria.
In a bid to ensure it only has the best tutors, tutors go through a two-step hiring process. The first stage is an online language test, while the second stage tests their suitability for the role where their teaching and language skills are tested.
Progress and plans for the future
With more money in the bank, Frank shares that the startup plans to improve its unit economics, add more languages – it plans to include Zulu, Arabic, and Swahili in Q1 2025 – and launch a gamified app for learners who cannot afford a subscription.
In the last year, it has gone from facilitating a hundred lessons monthly to over 3,000. It’s also joining the AI train.
"We already have AI at the core of what we have built in terms of student-tutor matching, but in the background, we've also started working on our African large language models. The whole purpose of these AI models is to ensure that initially, in between lessons, students are able to basically do homework and basically practice as effectively as possible."
