Sim Shagaya built Konga alongside Jumia in the early years of Nigerian e-commerce, and the competition between the two platforms, one more Nigerian in its infrastructure approach, one more globally templated, shaped a decade of the sector’s development. After divesting from Konga, he moved into education technology with uLesson, a mobile-first curriculum delivery platform targeting the quality gap in Nigerian secondary education. The pivot from e-commerce to EdTech looked arbitrary from outside; from inside, it reflected a consistent thesis about where Nigerian consumer internet opportunity actually lived.
After building Konga during the formative years of Nigerian e-commerce, he moved into education technology with the mobile-first platform uLesson. The pivot reflected a consistent thesis about where Nigerian consumer-internet opportunity actually lived. His willingness to start again after setbacks became part of his reputation.
His experience across e-commerce, education and other sectors has made him a respected figure. He is often cited for the lessons of building companies in a challenging market.
Fast facts
Full name
Simdul Shagaya
Born
2 April 1975, Jos, Plateau State
Profession
Tech entrepreneur, investor
Net worth (est.)
$10 million to $30 million
Companies
Konga, uLesson
Former role
Google Sub-Saharan Africa executive
Background and education
Simdul Shagaya was born on 2 April 1975 in Jos, Plateau State. He went through the Nigerian Military School and served in the Nigerian Army before leaving for the United States, where he read electrical engineering at George Washington University, took a master’s in engineering management at Dartmouth College and completed an MBA at Harvard Business School in 2003. The military years instilled the discipline and long-term planning orientation that informed the ambitious scale at which he later built Konga.
He worked in investment banking at Rand Merchant Bank, founded the Lagos out-of-home advertising company E-Motion in November 2005, and served as Google’s head of West Africa operations from 2007 to 2012, where he developed deep knowledge of the digital economy and internet infrastructure across the continent. E-Motion was sold to Loatsad Promomedia in 2019. His Google experience gave him insight into what internet-enabled businesses were possible in Africa and which consumer behaviours were ready to be addressed by well-resourced digital platforms.
Building Konga
Sim Shagaya founded Konga on 3 July 2012, backed by the Swedish investment firm Kinnevik, as Nigeria’s answer to Amazon, building a full-stack e-commerce operation that included product listing, payment processing, and a proprietary logistics and delivery network called KOS. Konga attracted significant venture capital funding and grew to employ thousands of people across Nigeria, making it one of the largest private employers in the Nigerian tech sector at its peak.
The company competed directly with Jumia for dominance in the Nigerian e-commerce market. The intense competition, combined with the challenges of building logistics infrastructure in a country with poor road networks and unreliable address systems, required enormous capital expenditure. Konga was eventually sold to Zinox Group in 2018 under circumstances that many in the tech ecosystem viewed as a distressed acquisition driven by cash constraints.
uLesson and subsequent ventures
After Konga, Sim Shagaya founded uLesson in 2019, an education technology startup that provides video-based learning content for African secondary school students. It raised a $3.1 million seed round led by TLcom Capital almost immediately and a $7.5 million Series A led by Owl Ventures in January 2021. He went on to found Miva Open University, where he serves as chancellor. uLesson represents a pivot from e-commerce to edtech, applying Shagaya’s entrepreneurial energy to one of Africa’s most pressing challenges: quality secondary education for millions of students who cannot access it through existing public infrastructure.
Net worth and career legacy
Sim Shagaya’s net worth is estimated at between $10 million and $30 million. His wealth reflects proceeds from Konga’s sale, his equity in uLesson, and investment activities. His legacy in Nigerian tech is significant as one of the first entrepreneurs to build a venture-backed e-commerce company at scale in Nigeria, proving that the model was viable even before it became commercially sustainable.
Personal life and advocacy
Sim Shagaya is a regular speaker at technology and entrepreneurship conferences in Nigeria and internationally. He speaks frankly about the challenges of building internet businesses in Nigeria, including infrastructure limitations, regulatory complexity, and access to capital. His candour about what went wrong at Konga alongside what went right has made him a valuable voice for the next generation of Nigerian entrepreneurs.
Key ventures
Founded Konga, a pioneering Nigerian e-commerce platform
Founded the deals site DealDey
Founded uLesson, an edtech company
Common questions
What is Konga?
Konga was a Nigerian e-commerce platform founded by Sim Shagaya in 2012, built as Nigeria’s version of Amazon. At its peak it was one of the country’s largest online retailers, with its own logistics and delivery network. The company was sold to Zinox Group in 2018 after facing intense competition and capital constraints.
What is uLesson?
uLesson is an education technology company founded by Sim Shagaya after Konga. It provides video-based learning content for African secondary school students and has raised venture capital to expand across Nigeria and other African markets. It aims to address the quality gap in secondary education through affordable digital content delivery.
Where did Sim Shagaya work before founding Konga?
He was Google’s head of West Africa operations from 2007 to 2012, and before that worked in investment banking at Rand Merchant Bank and founded the outdoor advertising company E-Motion in November 2005. His Google experience gave him deep knowledge of the digital economy across Africa and the understanding of which internet business models were viable in the region at scale.
Why was Konga sold?
Konga was sold to Zinox Group in 2018 amid intense competitive pressure from Jumia and significant capital demands from its full-stack logistics and e-commerce operations. Industry observers described the sale as a distressed transaction driven by the difficulty of sustaining Konga’s operational costs in a market where e-commerce profitability remained elusive despite strong growth.
Is Sim Shagaya still active in Nigerian tech?
Yes. Sim Shagaya remains active in Nigerian and African tech through uLesson and his advocacy work. He speaks regularly at conferences and mentors younger entrepreneurs, drawing on his experience building, scaling, and ultimately selling Konga to advise the next generation of Nigerian tech founders.
Conclusion
His education was an unusual pairing: the United States Military Academy at West Point, then Harvard Business School. He went on to run Google’s Sub-Saharan Africa operations, which showed him which internet businesses the continent’s infrastructure could actually support. Konga followed in 2012.
It was built full-stack, with listings, payments and a proprietary delivery network called KOS, in a country with poor roads and unreliable addressing. At its peak it employed thousands and was among the larger private employers in Nigerian tech. The capital demands of competing with Jumia on that basis proved unsustainable, and Konga was sold to Zinox Group in 2018 in what the ecosystem read as a distressed exit.
uLesson, his education technology company, delivers video lessons to African secondary school students who cannot get comparable teaching through public provision. He also founded the deals site DealDey. He talks about what went wrong at Konga as readily as what went right, which is most of his value to the founders who came after him.
Further reading
His birth on 2 April 1975 in Jos, the Nigerian Military School and army service, the electrical engineering degree from George Washington University, the Dartmouth master’s in engineering management and the 2003 Harvard MBA are recorded in his Wikipedia biography and in speaker-bureau records. E-Motion was founded in November 2005 and sold to Loatsad Promomedia in 2019; he served as Google’s head of West Africa operations from 2007 to 2012; Konga was founded on 3 July 2012 with Kinnevik backing. uLesson’s 2019 founding, its $3.1 million seed round led by TLcom Capital and its $7.5 million Series A led by Owl Ventures in January 2021 are from BusinessDay’s profile. Net worth figures are third-party estimates and are not verified.
Max Adeyemi is a Lagos-based writer covering Nigerian and African entertainment, sport, business, and culture. He has spent over a decade tracking the careers, controversies, and quiet achievements of the people who move the culture. He writes all profiles on Nolly.
