Call for EOIs: Mastercard Foundation Edtech Fellowship (Cohort III)

Deadline: 3 February 2025

The ihub and Mastercard Foundation are partnering to empower edtech startups who are building tools that enhance learning outcomes and accelerate access to equitable and quality education for Africa’s next generation.

Benefits

Startups that make it into their accelerator programme enjoy the following benefits:
- Support & Mentoring
  - Startups can tap into their multidisciplinary experts for design, product, and tech optimization.
- Investor Network
  - Startups, through this programme would be exposed to investors to help scale their products
- Marketing Strategy
  - Their team of experts will help startups align their market strategy to enable them hit PMF
- Discount & Deals
  - Startup through this programme can enjoy special deals from tools and service providers they have partnered.

Funding Information

Equity Free Funding
- Qualified startups are entitled to $100k in equity free funding over the course of the accelerator programme.

Eligibility Criteria

Startups must be Africa focused and incorporated in Kenya. They should be building solutions that address challenges across K-12, tertiary education and vocational skills training.
Your Edtech Solution must posses these two qualities:
- Inclusive Teams
  - Applicants should have a balanced team, passionate about education. Female founders of EdTech solution companies are strongly encouraged to apply
- EdTech Solution Based
  - Must have verifiable users aligned with their accelerator’s focus: education access, student learning, school management, and teacher/trainer effectiveness.

Review Criteria

Applications will be reviewed in 3 stages
- Interested innovators are to apply below. In this stage, the Edtech solutions will be assessed on the following criteria
  - Problem/Solution Fit
  - Founder Potential
  - Business Model Fit
  - Traction
- Selected EdTech solutions from the first stage will be assessed based on the following criteria
  - Scalability
  - Long-term
  - Plan/Vision
  - Competitive Advantage
  - Team Potential
- The final stage will be an interview with applicants who have successfully gone through the assessment stage. A final selection will then be made, subject to due diligence.