November 2024. Cape Town, South Africa — Following the outstanding achievements of the previous two cohorts, Injini has opened applications for the 2025 iteration of the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship.
- Growth-stage, impact-driven EdTech companies working to enhance educational outcomes in South Africa are invited to apply before 8 December 2024.
- Selected entrepreneurs will embark on a dynamic six-month program starting early April 2025.
Injini, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, is proud to announce the opening of applications for the 2025 Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship, which supports South Africa-based start-ups aiming to improve education through innovation. The Fellowship offers participating start-ups a unique combination of direct grant funding, product evaluation, tailored market research, skills development, mentorship, and market access opportunities.
Through the Fellowship, the businesses, and entrepreneurs of the first two cohorts were empowered with various tools and resources tailored to their specific needs. This included resources to boost sales and profits and secure future funding opportunities. Notably, the program emphasised collaboration and facilitated partnerships with the Mastercard Foundation and other ecosystem players. Fellows were supported in several ways to drive meaningful change in communities, especially among young people, women and girls, persons with disabilities, and rural populations.
Start-ups from South Africa's 2023 Fellowship cohort achieved exceptional outcomes, expanding their reach to impact over 1.9 million new learners during the acceleration phase. For 2023 and 2024, the program enabled Fellows to unlock substantial opportunities for scaling sales, increasing profitability, and securing funding. Collaboration was - and remains - a central pillar of the Fellowship, fostering strategic alliances, new networks through the Mastercard Foundation, and a spirit of teamwork among the participants. Notably, throughout the first two cohorts, the program delivered measurable benefits to critical groups, including individuals with disabilities, youth, women and girls, and communities in rural areas.
Krista Davidson, Executive Director of Injini, expressed her excitement for the upcoming cohort, stating: "The success of our 2024 EdTech Fellowship affirmed our approach to fostering innovation and collaboration in Africa's education sector. Through our partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, we have supported EdTech businesses in scaling their solutions while addressing critical challenges in education. As we look to 2025, we are eager to build on these achievements and invite another cohort of innovators to join us in shaping the future of learning across the continent."
The 2025 program will continue to provide:
- Comprehensive support from education innovation, fundraising, impact measurement, and business strategy experts.
- Pedagogical evaluation and certification through collaborations with EdTech Impact and Education Alliance Finland.
- Bespoke market research from Injini's education innovation researchers.
- Access to "Sponsored Skills," offering external consultant expertise for specific business needs.
- Networking opportunities and learning exchanges with leading ecosystem contributors and industry experts.
- Access to courses and office hours with Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute faculty.
- A chance to contribute to the growing evidence base on effective EdTech solutions in Africa.
- Equity-free venture funding exceeding R1,000,000.
Rodwell Mangisi, Acting Director at the Mastercard Foundation Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning, added: "This is part of our efforts to build demand-driven EdTech innovations that close the gap in access and quality to provide relevant learning for the most underserved. So far, 140 EdTech companies have been accelerated since the Fellowship kicked off in 2020. Through our ongoing partnership with Injini, our hope is that the next iteration will prioritize relevance, access, and sustainability for greater impact. While technology makes life easier for us all, it makes everything possible for those without access and opens pathways for them to learn and prosper.
EdTech entrepreneurs eligible for the Fellowship are encouraged to learn more about the Fellowship and apply here. Applications close on 8 December 2024.
Here are some testimonials from Injini's 2024 cohort of EdTech Fellows:
"When we joined the program, we had about 10,000 users, and now we have over 20,000. The Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship Program taught us about the importance of measuring our efficacy and outcomes. This allowed us to focus on delivering measurable outcomes. Over the past six months, we've grown our user base and increased our revenue." Pieter Heyns - Co-Founder, Mindjoy
"We've never been in a program that fully understood our needs and worked tirelessly with us to ensure we grew our business before this. The Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship helped us build and refine our sales strategy by organising a sales expert to come in and assist us. Through the new sales strategy, we signed new customers." Danei Rall - Co-Founder - Fintr
"The program also gave us structure; we are no longer just floating, hoping we might win. My advice for people who want to apply for the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship is to do so because they will get solutions that are specific to their challenges." Tshegofatso Dludla - CEO and Co-Founder, AfriCAN Code
For Media Inquiries, Please Contact:
Kelly FisherMarketing and Communications Head
Injini
Kelly.f@injini.africa
+27 (0)82 505 4411
About Injini
Injini is a registered Non-Profit Company that exists for the sole purpose of improving educational outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa. The company was founded in 2017 and remains the only EdTech specialised accelerator in Africa. Injini's various programmes and research contribute towards its mission to increase the quality, accessibility, and relevance of education in the region. For more information on Injini, please visit: injini.africa
About The Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship
The Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship is an entrepreneurship acceleration program designed to support promising, African EdTech ventures. Implemented in partnership with innovation hubs and EdTech accelerators across Africa, the Fellowship provides select EdTech companies with critical business and financial support, as well as insight into the science of learning, preparing them for scale, sustainability, and impact. The Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship was launched in 2019 by the Mastercard Foundation Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning with the goal to partner with 12 Tech Hubs to support over 250 EdTech companies and reach at least 1.8 million young people by 2025.
