SchoolTry Builds School Management Software for Africa

In Short

• SchoolTry is an education management platform that helps schools run day-to-day operations in one place.
• Founder Ismail Eleburuike started it after pushing a mentee to build a “digital school”, then deciding to serve many schools instead.
• The company says higher education deployments have generated more revenue in one year than three years in K-12.

What Happened

SchoolTry is being built as an “operating system” for African schools, meaning software that handles many core school workflows in one system. It started from a personal moment.

Ismail Eleburuike, a Sweden-based Nigerian, moved to Sweden in 2008 and later earned two Master’s degrees, one in Electrical Engineering and another in Project Management and Operational Development. He wanted to give back to education in Nigeria.

That opportunity came when a mentee, who had taught in Katsina State during Nigeria’s NYSC programme, asked for financial support to start a school. Eleburuike agreed, but only if the school would be digital. He then researched how schools are digitised in places like the US, UK, and Sweden, and compared that with what existed in Nigeria.

Instead of building one school, he chose to build a platform for many. SchoolTry now offers tools for administration and teaching. Students can access courses. Teachers can set assignments, mark attendance, and grade performance. Administrators can manage teachers and student records and handle communication.

In additional context shared alongside the story, SchoolTry’s higher education rollouts have performed better commercially. Within a year of deploying SchoolTry for higher education, the startup generated more revenue than it made in three years deploying SchoolTry for K-12.

Why It Matters

Many African schools still rely on paper, spreadsheets, and manual processes. That slows down reporting, parent communication, fee tracking, and even basic attendance.

A school management system can centralise these tasks, similar to how a business uses an ERP, which is software that keeps finance, people, and operations in one place. If SchoolTry keeps proving stronger revenue in universities and colleges, it could shape how other African EdTech vendors prioritise higher education versus K-12 markets.

For founders and operators, the revenue split is a signal. Institutions with larger budgets, clearer procurement processes, and urgent admin needs may be the fastest path to sustainable EdTech SaaS (subscription software) growth in Africa.