Do You Have A Business Or Idea Around Educational Tech? Here’s Your Chance To Get $50K Funding

The first thing I should say is that you need to apply by next week Tuesday (3 April 2018)- sorry for the short notice. Now pay attention so you can apply and possibly get the funding and support that will increase your chances of scaling your solution for education across the continent.

Injini is Africa’s first education technology (EdTech) incubator. Their job is simple: every six months they pick 8 startups from across the continent and they fund them directly with $50 000 as well as house them in their Capetown incubator for 5 months helping them develop further and scale.

Injini was founded by Jamie Martin a former Special Adviser to UK Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove. The incubation programme is in partnership with the Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative, the oldest tech incubator on the African continent. It has the support of both the Western Cape Government, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and UBS.

Who has gone through this before?

This July, Injini will be taking their second cohort through the cycle. Their first cohort started last October. The startups that formed that cohort include:

• A South Sudanese company – Yo Books –  who believe spreading reading via e-books and an online store can help heal a nation divided by civil war, have expanded into Uganda since Joining Injini;
• Uthini – a team of young South Africans who are teaching Zulu and Xhosa via an app which cuts tutoring costs by 90% – have won a contract with Wits University to train medical students in Zulu
• Mtabe – A Tanzanian team in their early 20s who have built an offline artificial intelligence search engine for students without internet access – are on the brink of a deal with a major telco which could see them reach one million students;
• Syafunda, who provide audio and video content to students in STEM and technology  without great teachers, have won deals to reach more schools across South Africa

What should you expect?

Here’s what the second cohort has to expert or more accurately what you as the EdTech entrepreneur should expect:

• Direct funding of $50k or R600k per company
• Workshops and mentoring dedicated to developing great education technology products and building a business that can expand across Africa
• Events with EdTech funders and institutions from across Africa and the wider world
• The Injini team, who act as a consultancy to help the teams on bespoke projects to help them grow
• Office space, accommodation and flights to Cape Town and a stipend

Who gets to apply?

Any one with the next big solution for education really. You could be a teacher, a disgruntled student, a parent or just a smart kid with an idea. As long as you have a tech solution to an education problem. The problem could be anything from numeracy to languages to vocational skills and you could be working with any age of learners, from pre-school to adults. They are looking for startups at almost any stage of maturity, from new start-ups to successful businesses ready to scale.

How to apply

Remember you just have a few days till application window closes. You can apply here. All the best