Helpful Resources for African EdTech founders

A brief list of resources to help African founders and startups build and grow their ventures in the EdTech space.

🚀 Incubators & Organizations that support EdTech companies 🚀

👩🏻‍💻 Incubation

• Injini: an EdTech accelerator based in Cape Town, South Africa. Join their mailing list here
• EdVentures, an EdTech VC and incubator in Egypt
• SuperCharger Ventures, now recruiting for their third cohort
• WISE Accelerator by the Qatar Foundation, also focused on EdTech
• Amazon AWS EdStart Accelerator, 100% virtual
• Grindstone Accelerator, also based in South Africa
• Village Capital runs a Future of Work accelerator in South Africa
• Impact Lab also runs incubation programs (based in Morocco but incubates all over Africa)
• Kat Pattillo’s list of 65 organizations that support Education and EdTech entrepreneurs on the continent
• GSV’s 100% free and virtual bootcamp
• MasterCard Foundation’s EdTech fellowship
• Google for Startups Accelerator, for Africa
• Transcend Network, an early stage fellowship that has supported African start-ups

💵Financing

• A list of US-based investors that invest in EdTech by Mercedes Bent, here. Read carefully to identify which ones would be most helpful to you.
• A list of US-based angel investors, here (not EdTech focused, so please read through to see which ones invest in EdTech).
• A few African Venture Capital firms that have made at least one investment in an African EdTech company: Imaginable Futures, Partech Africa, Kepple Africa Ventures, Launch Africa, Maroc Numeric Fund

🔥Get out there and Pitch! Below are opportunities for you practice your pitching, participate in competitions and win grants 🔥

• Apply to the Global EdTech Startup Awards (Applications close on August 31)
• Sign up for the weekly EdPitches (beware that this is in US Pacific time)
• Keep an eye out for the GSV Cup Competition. Applications for this year are closed. You should definitely apply next year for a chance to win some $$$ and global support
• List of award competitions focused on education and EdTech

📚Other helpful resources

• Attend the ASU+GSV Summit on August 9–11(you can attend virtually this year)
• Kat Pattillo’s 12-step to fundraise for education venture in Africa, here
• Stay on top of HolonIQ, especially the yearly competition to identify the top EdTech companies by region. Here’s an example for MENA
• If you don’t already have a pitch deck, use this website to make one
• Do not be afraid to use LinkedIn to cold email people at organizations you might be interested in

Did I miss anything that might be helpful? Please comment below! 🙏🏼