- The funding comes alongside other critical business support as well as insight into the science of learning to prepare them for scale, sustainability and impact.
- The fellows will also receive a post-program advisory support of up to 12 months.
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Payment card service firm-Mastercard in partnership with iHub has announced a $100,000 (Sh13.1 million) equity-free funding for learning startups in the country and Africa at large, to drive Edtech ventures.
The funding comes alongside other critical business support as well as insight into the science of learning to prepare them for scale, sustainability and impact.
The fellows will also receive post-programme advisory support of up to 12 months.
A total of 12 startups across the continent have been shortlisted for funding, they make up the second cohort for the fellowship programme that was established back in 2019.
The first cohort also saw a similar number of startups from seven countries and they managed to reach over 800,000 learners across the continent.
The five-year fellowship programme generally intends to support over 250 Edtech companies and reach at least 1.8 million young people by 2025.
It is specifically designed to support Edtech firms across the continent that are addressing learning challenges across K-12, tertiary education, vocational training and out-of-school learning.
Commenting on the programme, Joseph Nsengimana, the director of Mastercard Foundation Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning, said the partnership with tech hubs such as iHUB Kenya, has increased access to quality and relevant learning for Kenya’s and Africa’s underserved learners, through home-grown technology-enabled solutions.
"The EdTech solutions by iHUB Kenya’s 2023 cohort reached 32,000 learners, and we look forward to greater impact this year,” Nsengimana said.
On her part, Nissi Madu, the managing partner at iHub Kenya, said they are enthusiastic about the potential of the selected start-ups to enhance the face of EdTech in the region.
"After the success of cohort I in 2023, we are excited about the second cohort's potential to add to better education outcomes for learners in Kenya,” Madu said.
She added that this year’s cohort is inclusive of startups that are offering more diverse solutions compared to the previous cohort.
“This year’s call for applications received diverse technologies and solutions from those seeking to improve access to quality education and enhance learning outcomes through technology-driven approaches,” she said.
“We have startups dealing with PWD, more of women-led and ones attached to TVET offerings, unlike in the last cohort.”
She however expressed concern over the low funding directed towards Edtech in the past years, calling on investors to venture into the segment provided the potential it has for the country’s GDP prospects.
“Only about two per cent of the total capital flows in the continent went to Edtech in the past year,” she said.
Kenya's education system also recently received a funding boost from the US to be channelled towards Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related fields.
The US pledged close to $32 million (Sh4.2 billion) of investment to support new partnerships between the two countries’ universities and industry.
It includes a commitment from Microsoft and the Mastercard Foundation to support STEM education through higher education partnerships, and a commitment from US universities to partner with Kenyan institutions to build mutual capacity in related courses of study.
The funding announcement was made during the strategic partnership signing event in Atlanta, US, during President William Ruto’s four-day US visit.