Co-Creation Hub has announced a new partnership with the Mastercard Foundation under the Mastercard Foundation Ed-Tech Fellowship Programme to launch a US$15 million ed-tech accelerator initiative in Kenya and Nigeria.
Co-creation Hub (CcHub) launched Nigeria’s first open living lab for technologists, entrepreneurs, tech companies, investors and hackers in 2010 to accelerate the application of social capital and technology for economic prosperity.
The hub has since expanded to include an umbrella of pan-African innovation enablers that includes the CcHub Design Lab in Rwanda, iHub and eLimu in Kenya, Growth Capital by CcHub and CcHub Syndicate.
Through its collaboration with Mastercard, Co-Creation Hub is launching an accelerator programme to support and amplify the impact of 72 ed-tech startups in Kenya and Nigeria over the next three years. Selected ed-tech startups will receive funding and advisory services towards scaling their current operations for further impact.
In addition to initial funding to the selected startups, CcHub will be providing dedicated expert teams to support participants in product development, government relations, pedagogy and learning science.
The partnership is part of the broader Mastercard Foundation Ed-Tech Fellowship Programme, which 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.
CcHub has now launched a call for applications to its accelerator programme, and 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 for the Nigeria programme here until March 17 and the Kenyan one here until March 21.
