Coachli, an African all-in-one platform for creators, coaches, and freelancers, has facilitated over ₦1 billion in payouts to more than 23,000 creators across the continent, according to its founder and CEO, Sharon Onyinye. The platform, which started as a simple booking tool for coaches, has evolved into a comprehensive operating system for knowledge monetisation, addressing payment and infrastructure gaps that Western platforms have long ignored.
From Booking Tool to Creator Operating System
Coachli was born from a clear gap in the market: African creators struggled to accept payments across borders, run subscriptions, or host live classes without juggling multiple tools. International payment processors like PayPal, Stripe, and Payoneer were designed for businesses with US and UK bank accounts, leaving African creators unprioritised. Western platforms like Teachable, Kajabi, Skool, and ConvertKit assume mature payment infrastructure, accessible banking, and default currencies like Dollars or Euros, which do not hold true in Lagos, Nairobi, Accra, or Kigali.
The early days of Coachli were about solving one problem at a time. A coach needed bookings, so a booking system was built. An online tutor needed to get paid, so Paystack was integrated. A creator needed to sell digital products, so features for Ebooks, Audiobooks, and templates were added. Each addition revealed that creators were not just looking for isolated features but for an entire operating system for their business, eliminating the need to jump from one app to another.
"The MVP was incredibly simple, but our users showed us what they actually needed, and it turned out they needed far more than we initially planned for," said Sharon Onyinye, CEO of Coachli. "When we started, we were solving for one thing. We just wanted to make it easy for coaches to take bookings and get paid," she added in an interview. "But as we watched how creators were using our platform, we realised we were not just building a booking tool but infrastructure for an entire category of businesses that did not have it."
Comprehensive Features and Payment Flexibility
Today, Coachli's infrastructure includes digital product hosting, 1:1 sessions, live classes with up to 1,000 attendees, email automations, services listing, calendar integrations, invoicing, payment links, subscriptions, and integrations with Stripe, Paystack, and Flutterwave. These cover both international and regional payment methods that most Western platforms ignore. Freelancers can list services such as design, content writing, typesetting, ghostwriting, digital marketing, UI/UX, video editing, motion graphics, web development, and social media management.
Coachli eliminates the typical hassle of opening foreign bank accounts, getting virtual cards, or paying card maintenance and monthly fees. The platform is free to use and only makes money when creators do, avoiding exorbitant platform fees. Clients pay in their local currency, and creators receive payments in their own local currency. While the problems Coachli solves are not new, the infrastructure to solve them at scale on African terms—with African payment methods, currencies, and pricing power—did not exist until now.
Next Phase: Deeper Integrations and Scaling
Coachli is now at a point where the infrastructure is in place, the payment rails are built, and the user base is growing. The next phase focuses on helping creators go deeper, not just to run their businesses but to scale beyond what they thought possible. "We have built the foundation," Onyinye said. "Now we are thinking about how to help creators go deeper, not just use Coachli to run their business, but use it to scale beyond what they thought was possible. We want them to be able to integrate Coachli with the tools they already use, like TikTok, Meta, Telegram, Google Meet, Zoom, and the rest."
The platform is looking at deeper integrations with social platforms, better tools for audience building, and monetisation. The goal is to give users clearer pathways to go from side income to primary income. "Our motivation from Day 1 is still the same. We’re building the infrastructure for African creators, coaches and freelancers, built on African terms, designed for African economics," Onyinye added.
Building for African Realities
Coachli's evolution reflects a broader pattern in Africa's tech sector: successful startups are solving for African realities rather than copying Silicon Valley models. Paystack solved for African payment processing, Flutterwave for cross-border African payments, and Andela for African talent at global scale. Coachli is solving for African creators' access to business infrastructure. The approach is to identify gaps that existing solutions ignored and build for African economies first.
What emerged is a go-to platform for Africans seeking to monetise their knowledge, skills, and expertise. With over ₦1 billion processed and over 23,000 users, Coachli has proven its thesis that African creators will build sustainable businesses if given the tools to do so. The creator economy is still in its early stages, and Coachli's infrastructure is positioned to support its growth across the continent.
