This year’s cohort reflects a growing commitment to gender diversity and inclusion within Africa’s innovation ecosystem.
With 50% of the startups led by women, the Fellowship continues to challenge the gender gap in technology and entrepreneurship.
In a powerful display of what inclusive innovation looks like, the third cohort of the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship announced today by CcHUB features an equal split of male and female founders, each driving solutions to improve the future of learning in Nigeria and across Africa.
The versatility of the selected solutions highlights how African EdTech startups are rising to close critical education gaps, ranging from AI-powered learning platforms and digital financial literacy tools to virtual science labs that reach rural classrooms, even without internet access.
These innovations, many led by women, exemplify the Fellowship’s vision for scalable, inclusive, and future-forward learning across the continent.
“As we welcome our third cohort, we are especially excited by the innovative, high-impact solutions these startups are bringing to the table. This year, the process was more competitive than ever, as we were intentional about identifying ventures that address critical gaps in Africa’s education ecosystem. Our goal is to equip young people with the skills they need to thrive and lead in a rapidly changing world. These startups represent bold steps toward shaping the future of learning and driving long-term prosperity across the continent.” – Nissi Madu, Managing Partner at CcHUB.
Building on the success of its first and second cohorts, the fellowship has collectively reached 676,145 learners in Nigeria. Notably, 84% of the beneficiaries are children and youth, reflecting the program’s core objective of expanding access to quality education for young people. Encouragingly, the initiative has also achieved 53% female representation among learners, underscoring its commitment to gender inclusion in education.
“The CcHUB and Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship collaboration has been a cornerstone in our journey, providing us with the resources and insights necessary to deepen our understanding of our consumers. It has allowed us to tailor our app more effectively to meet the needs and preferences of our audience, making our content more accessible and engaging for children and families globally. They’ve helped us improve our digital offering and equipped us with a deeper understanding of how to create impactful, educational content while maintaining the highest standards of user safety and privacy.” – Louisa Olafuyi – Co-founder, Kunda Kids, Cohort 1 startup.
Frank Williams, CEO of Lingawa, shared how transformative the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship has been for the company: “With support from the Fellowship, we’ve reached several major milestones. We closed our $1.1M pre-seed round, rebranded to Lingawa, and set the foundation for our strongest sales yet. The program also helped us strengthen our team with key hires and connected us to a vibrant network of ambitious, impact-driven founders. It has played a big role in our journey, and we’re excited to see how the new Cohort 3 will continue shaping the future of education in Nigeria.”
Following an extensive screening and selection process, the 12 successful applicants to the 2025 Cohort 3 are:
- AI Teacha, an educational platform that enhances learning by equipping teachers with AI-powered tools to deliver personalized lessons, save time, increase engagement, and improve student outcomes.
- Blue and Sand, STEM Lab provides virtual science labs that empower secondary schools across Nigeria, including those in rural areas without internet access. Featuring a student-friendly interface, real-world lab simulations, and intuitive teacher tools, the platform enhances retention, improves academic performance, and promotes equitable learning nationwide.
- Cloudnotte, an all-in-one educational platform that enables flexible learning for students and seamless connectivity for educators—anytime, anywhere, across all education levels.
- Flexisaf (Distinction), an AI-powered learning platform developed by FlexiSAF that enables schools and universities to track student performance, uncover learning gaps, and make data-driven decisions through predictive insights and personalised interventions.
- HiPrep Online a virtual after-school platform for K–12 students, delivering personalised, bite-sized learning sessions led by expert tutors. It helps students build consistent study routines and improve academic performance in core subjects like math, English, and science.
- I-Train Africa, an impact-driven edtech organization that empowers African youth, women, and professionals with in-demand digital and workplace skills. By offering remote-first programs, it bridges the gap between formal education and the global workforce, boosting employability and career advancement.
- Kryptr, an AI-powered platform addressing Africa’s workforce gap by training and connecting job-ready youth to employment opportunities. Focused on individuals aged 18–35 and MSMEs, Kryptr offers role-specific training, AI-driven talent matching, and work-integrated learning.
- Mavis Computel tackles educational inequity in underserved Nigerian communities with its innovative “Talking Books”, an interactive, audio-visual learning tool designed to improve literacy and numeracy by delivering content in students’ local languages.
- Smart Steward Academy, a digital edtech platform that empowers young people, particularly women, with essential skills in financial literacy, financial planning, and entrepreneurship through structured courses, interactive modules, and practical training.
- Tespire offers a mobile and web application that empowers primary and secondary school owners in semi-urban Africa to increase school income and leverage data-driven insights for personalized learning. The platform includes free tablets with internet access, making digital education more accessible.
- Sproutly Inc. offers seamless payment processing for K–12 schools, universities, colleges, and edtech platforms—combining efficient invoicing, streamlined accounting, and accessible credit solutions tailored to the needs of both schools and families.
- VarsityScape offers an end-to-end solution that enables experts and institutions to launch online academies in under 60 minutes. Through expert-led courses, the platform equips learners—especially African youth—with the skills and mindset needed for independence and future opportunities.
Rodwell Mangisi, the Acting Director at the Mastercard Foundation Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning, emphasised the need to “accelerate solutions that serve even those out-of-school young people who are constantly left out of the education ecosystem”, adding that “it is when we design with the end user in mind that the business case for the solution is more scalable, sustainable and impactful.”
Over the next 6 months, CcHUB will support the 2025 cohort in their efforts to not only scale their solutions but also build capacity and stronger networks and partnerships while also remodeling their innovations for better impact on the future of learning in Africa.
In addition to advisory and mentoring sessions with a pool of subject matter experts, the Fellows will also receive up to $100,000 in non-equity grants and continued advisory support for an additional 12 months upon completion of the accelerator program.
The Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship seeks to support EdTech companies across Africa that are addressing learning challenges across K-12, tertiary education, and 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 enrolment, quality, and availability of effective educational options for the continent’s young population.
For more information about the Mastercard EdTech Fellowship, visit https://futureoflearning.cchub.africa/
About CcHUB
Co-creation HUB (CcHUB) is committed to advancing Africa’s economic prosperity by accelerating the application of social capital and technology. Founded in 2010 as Nigeria’s first innovation centre, CcHUB has evolved into the largest technology innovation centre in Africa, with a physical presence in Lagos, Kigali, Nairobi, and Windhoek. Its transformative programs have reached over 40 countries, including South Africa, Morocco, Tanzania, Zambia, Senegal, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
For more information on Co-creation HUB, kindly visit www.cchub.africa.
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.
For more information on the Foundation, please visit www.mastercardfdn.org.
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, as well as 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 to partner with 12 Tech Hubs to support over 250 EdTech companies and reach at least 1.8 million young people by the end of 2025.
For more information, reach us at edtechfellowship@mastercardfdn.org.
