Tshaamano Mabuba, a South African education technology entrepreneur, has won the latest edition of a pan-African STEM innovation pitch competition, underscoring a growing shift towards locally built, technology-driven solutions aimed at closing Africa’s persistent education access gap.
WomHub announced that Tshaamano Mabuba, founder of Buddy Learning, has emerged as the winner of the Visa STEM is Everywhere Cohort 3 Pitch-Off, part of a broader initiative designed to accelerate women-led innovation across science, technology, engineering and mathematics on the continent.
Her win, while significant, reflects the rise of African entrepreneurs building scalable solutions to systemic inequalities in education and opportunity.
A Solution Born from Constraint
Mabuba’s company, Buddy Learning, was built in response to fact that high-potential students across Africa are routinely left behind, not due to lack of ability but because of limited access to quality learning support.
“She saw brilliant learners falling behind in STEM, not from lack of ability, but lack of access and she could not unsee it,” WomHub said in its announcement.
The platform integrates technology, data-driven decision-making and artificial intelligence to improve learning outcomes while reducing costs in markets where affordability remains a defining constraint.
At the centre of the model is BuddyAI, described as Africa’s first WhatsApp-based multilingual AI tutor. The tool leverages the continent’s high mobile penetration and the widespread use of WhatsApp to deliver accessible, low-bandwidth educational support at scale.
The approach reflects building for infrastructure realities rather than replicating Western models.
Mabuba framed the company’s mission in direct terms: “Buddy Learning exists so that the next young girl, sitting in a classroom without support, never has to believe that brilliance is reserved for the privileged.”
A Programme Targeting Structural Barriers
The STEM is Everywhere programme, backed by the Visa Foundation is positioned as a flagship effort to address entrenched barriers facing women entrepreneurs in Africa’s innovation economy.
These include limited access to funding, constrained professional networks and a lack of tailored technical and commercial support, factors that continue to suppress the growth of women-led startups despite mounting evidence of their economic impact.
Across Africa, less than 3 per cent of venture capital funding goes to female-founded startups, according to multiple industry estimates, even as women make up a significant share of the informal and small business economy.
Programmes such as STEM is Everywhere are designed to rebalance that equation.
By providing structured acceleration, mentorship and exposure to investors, WomHub and its partners are attempting to convert high-potential ideas into fundable, scalable enterprises.
The Rise of STEM-led Entrepreneurship
The Pitch-Off forms part of Cohort 3 of the programme, reflecting a growing pipeline of women founders operating at the intersection of STEM and social impact.
This comes at a critical moment for Africa’s digital economy. The continent’s tech ecosystem has expanded rapidly over the past decade, with startup funding peaking above $5 billion in 2022 before moderating amid global capital tightening. Despite the slowdown, sectors such as edtech, fintech and climate tech continue to attract investor attention due to their large addressable markets and structural relevance.
Education, in particular, remains a high-impact frontier. Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to have the world’s largest working-age population by 2050, yet learning poverty, defined as the inability to read and understand a simple text by age 10, remains above 80 per cent in some countries.
Against this backdrop, scalable, technology-enabled learning solutions are increasingly viewed as both a social necessity and a commercial opportunity.
From Recognition to Scale
For Mabuba, the Pitch-Off win signals more than validation, it provides a platform for expansion.
Buddy Learning has already secured partnerships with leading education brands, positioning it within a broader ecosystem of public and private sector actors seeking to improve learning outcomes.
The next phase will likely focus on scaling distribution, deepening AI capabilities and expanding into new markets, an ambition aligned with the programme’s wider objective of building pan-African, investment-ready companies.
A Signal to the Market
The outcome of the Cohort 3 Pitch-Off sends a clear signal to investors and policymakers. Africa’s next wave of innovation is increasingly being led by women building context-specific, technology-driven solutions to foundational challenges.
More broadly, it reinforces a shift in narrative, from Africa as a recipient of external solutions to a generator of globally relevant innovation.
As digital infrastructure expands and capital gradually returns to growth markets, initiatives like STEM is Everywhere could play a decisive role in shaping the continent’s entrepreneurial landscape.
For now, Mabuba’s trajectory offers a case study in what is possible when access, technology and purpose converge and a reminder that Africa’s innovation economy is still only at the beginning of its scale curve.
