Nairobi-based incubator iHub has announced the 12 startups selected for the Kenyan leg of the first Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship Programme, which offers selected companies access to funding and other types of support.
Disrupt Africa reported in February Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) – which owns iHub – has announced a new partnership with the Mastercard Foundation under the Mastercard Foundation Ed-Tech Fellowship Programme to launch a US$15 million ed-tech accelerator initiative in Kenya and Nigeria. Injini is running a similar programme in South Africa.
iHub has now announced the first set of 12 startups that will make up the first cohort of its Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship in Kenya. These companies have gone through a rigorous selection process over the last three months.
The selected companies include Arifu, an interactive learning platform that supports small businesses and job seekers in Africa; Virtual Essence, a self-paced learning content offering; Kidato, an interactive online learning platform for the entire family; FunKe Science, which offers online and offline content that makes science fun and relatable for African children; and Lemfundo Technologies, an online platform providing K-12 learning content and exam prep for students.
Also involved are Ntemata, a learning management system supporting teachers to deliver more efficient assessments for students; Angaza Elimu, an adaptive and interactive platform that leverages technology to improve access to quality and relevant education on demand; Silabu, which connects students with qualified tutors; and Smart Brains Kenya, which empowers schools to independently provide quality coding and robotics lessons in schools.
The cohort is completed by Loho Learning, which delivers personalised and interactive contents in various digital formats to the schooling generation; Snapplify, which works with students and teachers to roll out e-learning contents and materials; and Elewa, an education innovation solution focused on supporting teachers, schools and large training audience to deliver cost-effective and highly-scalable continuous professional development.
The fellowship is part of a broader goal of the Mastercard Foundation under its Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning to support the growth of an impactful African ed-tech ecosystem that will catalyse innovation and advance promising practises in the use of technology in learning and teaching to benefit African learners, education and edtech innovators across the continent.
