Meta has partnered with This Is Digital, a Nairobi AI training company, to run AI Academy Kenya. The programme launched on 11th September and has two parts: a startup competition called the Pitchathon, and an eight-week online course called the Masterclass. Two Pitchathon winners each get USD 5,000 in equity-free funding, or about KES 648,000. The Masterclass has 300 places. Pitchathon applications close at 23:59 East Africa Time on Wednesday, 30th September 2026.
What the Pitchathon is
A pitchathon is a competition where teams present their product live to a panel of judges. This one is for Kenyan startups and developers who build on Meta’s open-source AI models, tools or platforms. Open source here means developers can download the models and build their own products on them. Llama is Meta’s best-known family of them, and in 2024 we covered how Meta funded Kenyan projects built on Llama. A team can enter with an early-stage AI idea or a working product.
The application form has six steps, takes about 25 minutes and allows one application per startup. A panel reviews every entry and tells ten teams by Thursday, 8th October. Those ten pitch live in Nairobi on Friday, 16th October 2026. Two win.
Each winner gets USD 5,000 in equity-free funding, which means Meta takes no share of the company. That is USD 10,000 across the two winners, or about KES 1.3 million. Each winner also gets Meta advertising credits and a place at Meta’s AI summit in Istanbul in November. The programme’s pages do not give the value of the credits or the summit dates, and they do not say whether Meta pays for the Istanbul trip.
Applying and pitching cost nothing. Travel to Nairobi for pitch day is each team’s own cost.
Only teams building on Meta’s own technology can enter, so all ten finalists will have built on Meta technology. Meta is not the only AI company courting Kenyan developers. In June we reported that President William Ruto said Kenya was in talks with OpenAI to bring an OpenAI Academy to Nairobi.
What the Masterclass is
The Masterclass is an online course for Kenyan students, startup founders and small business owners, career professionals and developers. It runs every Tuesday from 7pm to 9pm for eight weeks from 3rd November 2026, with a break over the holidays. There are 300 places. The curriculum covers:
- AI fundamentals and prompt engineering, which is writing instructions that get useful answers from an AI tool
- AI for research and knowledge work
- creative AI for images and presentations
- AI for documents, reporting and communication
- AI for audio and video content
- AI for productivity and workflow automation, which is setting AI up to do repeated tasks
- responsible AI, governance and ethics
You apply for the Masterclass by 15th October 2026 at 23:59 East Africa Time. The form has five steps and takes about 15 minutes. Shortlisted candidates hear by 23rd October and accepted candidates by 30th October.
The Masterclass page and its application form do not state a fee. The Pitchathon pages say entry is free. This Is Digital sells its own online bootcamp for KES 25,000, also eight Tuesday evenings from 7pm to 9pm, so check the Masterclass price with the organisers before you apply.
Who is running it
This Is Digital is a Nairobi company that trains professionals and businesses to use AI tools, and it also does AI consulting. Gregory Wanjama, its CEO, and Grace Murugi, its chief AI strategist, founded it in 2025. It says it has trained more than 800 people in 11 countries, and its clients include Strathmore University and USIU-Africa.
Mercy Ndegwa, Meta’s Public Policy Director for East Africa, said the next wave of AI innovation in Kenya will come from local builders solving local problems. Meta organises the Pitchathon with This Is Digital, and This Is Digital delivers the training.
Pitchathon applications close on 30th September and Masterclass applications on 15th October. Pitchathon teams hear whether they are shortlisted by 8th October, and pitch day is Friday, 16th October.