The Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship Expands to Five Additional Tech Hubs

Partners from new and existing tech hubs at an onboarding event in March 2024

April 3, 2024 – The Mastercard Foundation Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning is launching new, multi-year partnerships with five additional tech hubs in Africa to implement the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship. Launched in 2020, the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship is an entrepreneurship acceleration program designed to support promising, African EdTech ventures.

The five new tech hubs include EdVentures (Egypt), EtriLabs (Benin/Senegal), Reach for Change (Ethiopia), Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) Africa (Ghana), and Sahara Consult (Tanzania). They join Injini, Co-Creation Hub, and iHub, who are already implementing the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship in South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya, respectively.

The Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship is designed to provide growth-stage EdTech companies with business development support, the latest insight into the science of learning, and financial support to help them scale their products and offerings to drive inclusive access to education.

“Ensuring that all young people can access high-quality skilling and learning opportunities is a lynchpin of our efforts as a Foundation to catalyze dignified and fulfilling work for 30 million young people by 2030. In the age of digitization, technology is critical to that agenda. We get behind the innovators, entrepreneurs and technologists who democratize education while reshaping what, where, and how young people learn. At the same time, we work with our partners to create an enabling environment in which EdTech companies can thrive,” said Joseph Nsengimana, Director of the Mastercard Foundation Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning.

All eight tech hubs will now implement the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship and recruit and support 96 EdTech companies in 2024. Last year, the Fellowship supported 36 companies across South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya, whose combined products reached nearly 2.3 million learners. Overall, the Mastercard Foundation plans to partner with a total of 12 tech hubs to accelerate 250 EdTech companies by 2030.

About the Tech Hubs:

1. EdVentures [Egypt] is the first EdTech-focused venture in Egypt. In 2017, it was launched as the newest arm under the prosperous umbrella of Nahdet Misr Group, a pioneer in the education sector. EdVentures invests in EdTech start-ups in the pre-seed and seed stages, serving the sectors of education, culture, and innovative learning solution
2. EtriLabs [Benin] is an innovation hub committed to addressing the major challenges facing the African continent. To achieve this, EtriLabs implements programs that support youth and women innovators in creating transformative value on the continent. EtriLabs will accelerate EdTech companies in two countries in Francophone Africa – Benin and Senegal.
3. Reach for Change [Ethiopia] is on a mission to unlock the power of social entrepreneurs and their enterprises to create a world where all children and youth reach their full potential. By offering customized programs through a hybrid model of capacity building and ecosystem development, Reach for Change is empowering local entrepreneurs to transform their ideas into innovative solutions and sustainable enterprise.
4. MEST Africa [Ghana] is a software entrepreneurship Training Program, seed fund, incubator, and accelerator for technology companies in Africa.
5. Sahara Consult [Tanzania] collaborates with various partners to deliver innovative solutions and programs that support startups and SMEs with mentorship, investment, and growth tools across multiple sectors.

About the Mastercard Foundation

The Mastercard Foundation is a registered Canadian charity and one of the largest foundations in the world. It works with visionary organizations to advance education and financial inclusion to enable young people in Africa and Indigenous youth in Canada to access dignified and fulfilling work. Established in 2006 through the generosity of Mastercard when it became a public company, the Foundation is an independent organization separate from the company, with offices in Toronto, Kigali, Accra, Nairobi, Kampala, Lagos, Dakar, and Addis Ababa. Its policies, operations, and program decisions are determined by the Foundation’s Board of Directors and leadership.

About the Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning

The Mastercard Foundation Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning drives the innovative use of technology to improve access to quality education, particularly for the most underserved communities. The Centre works with a range of actors—including innovation hubs, EdTech entrepreneurs, policymakers, researchers, educators, and learners – to support the effective and impactful integration of technology in education, including the development, deployment and scale-up of promising EdTech innovations that boost learning and strengthen the education system.

Click here for more information about the Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning.

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 and 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 and supported 12 African EdTech companies from seven countries in its first year, reaching over 800,000 learners. The Centre aims to partner with 12 Tech Hubs to support over 250 EdTech companies and reach at least 1.8 million young people by 2025.

For more information on the Mastercard Foundation Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning, contact Joy Doreen Biira: jbiira@mastercardfdn.org

Learn more about our work in EdTech.