iHub Kenya announced a new partnership with the Mastercard Foundation under the Mastercard Foundation Ed-Tech Fellowship Program. This is part of a broader initiative that also involves iHub’s sister company, Co-Creation Hub, in Nigeria.
Through the collaboration, iHub is launching an accelerator program to support and amplify the impact of 36 EdTech startups in Kenya over the next 3 years. Selected Ed-Tech startups will receive funding and advisory services towards scaling their current operations for further impact.
The Mastercard Foundation Ed-Tech Fellowship Program, seeks to support Ed-Tech companies across Africa that are addressing learning challenges across K-12, tertiary education, and in vocational training. The expectation is that these solutions will be part of the urgent and critical response in addressing many of Africa’s long standing challenges that have affected enrollment, quality and availability of effective educational options for the continent’s young population.
iHub has now launched its own call for applications to its own version of the accelerator program. Successful participants will go through rounds of screening to determine fit for solutions and founders before being further assessed for scalability and long term potential. The partners are also encouraging female-led startups to apply. Interested organisations can apply through the iHub website.
In addition to initial funding to the selected startups, iHub will be providing dedicated expert teams to support participants in product development, government relations, pedagogy and learning science.
The iHub, as part of its wider group philosophy, remains committed to increasing prosperity across the continent through increased adoption of technology and innovation even as the foundation seeks a world where everyone has the opportunity to learn and prosper.
iHub Kenya is a globally recognized innovation centre that has been the main catalyst for regional technology acceleration and a role model for tech hubs in emerging markets since 2010. iHub is committed to playing a critical role in leapfrogging the African technology entrepreneurship scene by creating an environment of trust and experimentation that facilitates growth of entrepreneurs and their companies. The iHub is part of a wider collective of pan-African innovation enablers including the Co-Creation Hub in Nigeria, CcHub Design Lab in Rwanda, eLimu in Kenya, Growth Capital by CcHUB and CcHub Syndicate. All these partner companies contribute to stimulating innovation and technology application towards achieving social impact across diverse sectors.
The Mastercard Foundation works with visionary organisations to enable young people in Africa and in Indigenous communities in Canada to access dignified and fulfilling work. It is one of the largest private foundations in the world with a mission to advance learning and promote financial inclusion to create an inclusive and equitable world. It was established in 2006 through the generosity of Mastercard when it became a public company. The Foundation is an independent organisation, and its policies, operations, and program decisions are determined by its own Board of Directors and senior leadership team. It is a registered Canadian charity with offices in Toronto, Kigali, Accra, Nairobi, Kampala, Lagos, Dakar, and Addis Ababa.
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