On Tuesday 10 October at 5.30pm at the Jameson Hall, University of Cape Town, Injini – the first EdTech dedicated incubator on the African continent – will unveil its first ever cohort.
In the historic hall that has hosted speeches by Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama and John F Kennedy, each of the 8 companies will give a lightning pitch on how their innovation will change African education.
The 8 companies are from 5 countries across Africa, with innovations ranging across technologies and stages of education, but united in their applicability to the most in need students, teachers and communities. There is more detail on them here.
They include:
- A South Sudanese entrepreneur based in Juba who believes spreading reading via e-books and an online store can help heal a nation divided by civil war;
- A team of young South African engineers who have abandoned jobs at firms like Amazon to solve the higher education and youth unemployment crisis highlighted by #feesmustfall ;
- A Tanzanian team in their early 20s who have built an offline artificial intelligence search engine for students without internet access;
- A Kenyan company with the first adaptive learning software for feature phones on the African continent.
The programme is a partnership between Jamie Martin – a former Special Adviser to UK Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove – and the Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative, the oldest technology incubator on the African continent.
Based in Cape Town, South Africa, it is open to EdTech entrepreneurs from across the African continent. At 6 months with follow on support it is longer than programmes in more developed markets, and builds on CiTi’s expertise in local business incubation. It places a strong emphasis on trialing ideas and measuring impact. It has established partners across South Africa, Africa and outside, ranging from government and business to education institutions and over 60 expert mentors and speakers.
Click here to book your free ticket.