The Cape Town-based Injini, an ed-tech incubator, accelerator and think tank, has launched its AI for Education venture builder and incubation programme, which takes pre-formed teams from the ideation stage to launching market-ready, impactful ed-tech startups.
Founded in 2017, Injini, which is a member of the UVU Africa Group, is a registered non-profit company that exists for the sole purpose of improving educational outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa. Its programmes and research via the Injini Think Tank contribute towards its mission to increase the quality, accessibility, and relevance of education in the region. It announced its latest cohort earlier this year.
Injini has now launched its AI for Education venture builder and incubation programme, supported by philanthropic funder Coefficient Giving. The eight-month initiative, which will support 12 pre-formed teams, has a simple goal – to test AI tools that work in African classrooms, then back the most promising with funding and support to grow.
Phase one, which lasts for five months, is the Venture Build phase, where the teams will move month-by-month from problem validation and customer research through solution design, building a functional AI-powered MVP, and executing a live pilot to generate real-world usage and value data. Phase two is the Incubation phase, which lasts for three months, and will see the top five teams work on developing a market-ready product, strengthening their business model canvas, building a go-to-market strategy, and receiving MEL support.
These five ventures also receive equity-free seed capital of $25,000 each to continue their journey.
“We’ve spent years engaging with brilliant people across the region who understand education problems intimately, but lack the team, capital, or clear path to build a solution,” said Krista Davidson, executive director at Injini.
“Add to this that Africa is significantly underrepresented in the data training AI tools. If we don’t build our own solutions now, we risk ed-tech that simply doesn’t work for African classrooms. This venture builder is aimed at closing these gaps.”
Applications are open to small teams, with three or more co-founders preferred. All team members must be based in South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, or Zimbabwe. Applications are open here until September 27.