Eight ed-tech startups from five African countries have been chosen to take part in the latest Injini accelerator programme in Cape Town, securing access to various support services and ZAR100,000 (US$7,000) each in grant funding with the opportunity of securing equity investment.
The cohort, which will be announced at a launch event this week, is the 3rd after previous editions of Injini, which claims to be the first and only dedicated ed-tech incubator on the continent, in 2017 and 2018.
Eight startups have been chosen to take part in the four-month programme, which provides participating businesses with funding and dedicated support from industry experts and skilled business mentors.
Aside from the grant funding, Injini will have the option to make equity investments of up to ZAR1 million (US$70,000) in the most promising startups at its discretion.
They include two from South Africa, in the form of textbooks marketplace Quillo and developer training service Zaio, and two from Nigeria, namely medical learning startup OTRAC and technical skills platform Traindemy. Zambia is also represented by two startups – agricultural education platform Agricomm Media and computer-based adaptive learning programme Smartzed.
The rest of the cohort is comprised of Kenyan student engagement platform Swaiba and Tanzanian student training service MyJobPass.
Phase one of the accelerator has already begun in Cape Town and will last until early July, featuring workshops on topics including strategy, pitching and branding, after which startups will return to their home countries, where they will receive continuing support. They will return to Cape Town for the final phase in September.
