Melvyn Lubega’s Go1 online learning platform, which allows businesses of all sizes to give their staff access to the world’s largest learning and development library for one low subscription, is the first South African tech scale-up to be valued at more than $1bn, bringing Africa’s unicorn-count up to 5.
Lubega co-founded Go1 in 2015 with Andrew Barnes, an Australian classmate at Oxford, while he was studying towards an MSc in Education (Learning and Technology) and Public Policy.
The duo spotted a gap in the enterprise training market and spent time in Silicon Valley with Y Combinator, a top incubation programme and early investor in Dropbox and Airbnb. That year they were recognised as the best new e-learning management by industry experts.
Go1 is an e-Learning eco-system that gives customers access to the world’s largest learning and development library from any web-enabled device. Subscribers from across the world have access to content in 17 different languages and content formats that range from video tutorials and classroom lectures to audiobooks and structure assessments.
“What we offer is essentially like a Netflix for corporate training, where we combine over 100 000 learning items into our ecosystem,” said Lubega.
The IT entrepreneur commended the school for its values and is very big on community. Lubega was the head boy in 2007 and today services on the Council of St John’s College.
Lubega is adamant that attending St John’s College has been the most prestigious path of his career journey and credits his education to his success today. According to him, it is traits such as discipline, time management and focus that led him to the importance of understanding a community and serving it.
“My time at St John’s not only taught me the importance of diligence and hard work – it also taught me the importance of community and serving one’s community. This was in the different leadership roles I held at school. The same applies in business, by listening to the needs of our stakeholders including our customers and understanding how we can better serve them, we have been successful.”
His international software company currently serves clients in more than 20 countries and has offices in seven countries.
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