Prioritising inclusion: Injini announces fourth cohort for the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship
- Injini, Africa’s leading EdTech Accelerator and Think Tank, has selected its
fourth cohort for the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship. - This year’s intake marks a significant milestone with a dedicated focus on
enhancing accessibility and fostering inclusive learning environments
across the continent.
April 16, 2026, CAPE TOWN: Following a comprehensive selection process, Injini
is pleased to announce the ten EdTech companies joining the 2026 Mastercard
Foundation EdTech Fellowship. These growth-stage ventures will participate in a
specialised six-month acceleration program designed to scale their impact and
improve educational outcomes for all learners.
"As we enter our fourth year of this Fellowship, we are intentionally deepening
our commitment to equity in education," says Krista Davidson, Executive Director
at Injini. "This cohort represents a powerful shift toward ensuring that no learner
is left behind. By supporting entrepreneurs who are specifically addressing
accessibility, whether through assistive technologies for learners with disabilities
or inclusive platforms for marginalised communities, we are working to build an
education ecosystem that serves every child in South Africa and on the
continent."
The 2026 cohort includes a diverse range of offerings, from solutions that support
learners with barriers to learning to organisations that provide literacy and
numeracy software for special needs learners to low-data platforms designed for
rural accessibility. Each Fellow has been selected for their potential for impact
and dedication to dismantling barriers to quality education.
The 2026 Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellows are:
- AdvantageLearn.com: Advantage Learn is a digital platform providing
curriculum-aligned lessons and offline-enabled tools to South African
schools. By bridging connectivity gaps and resource shortages in rural
areas, they ensure learners at risk of being left behind receive high-quality,
consistent educational support regardless of their infrastructure.
Read more: https://advantagelearn.com
- Buddy Learning: BuddyAI is a multilingual, WhatsApp-based AI tutor
providing personalised support for Grade 1-12 learners. Designed for high
accessibility in underserved and rural communities, it offers on-demand explanations and past papers in all official languages,
removing barriers of cost and location for historically
marginalised students.
Read more: https://www.buddylearning.co.za/
- Dalza: Dalza is a secure, learner-centred platform that connects parents,
educators and professionals to support children with specific educational
needs. By maintaining a continuous digital record of a child’s progress and
assessments, it ensures that transitions between grades are seamless and
that support remains consistent and personalised.
Read more: www.dalza.com
- IncludEDU provides access to high-quality educational resources and
assistive technology frameworks designed to support learners, teachers,
and schools in the special needs education sector.
Read more: https://includedu.co.za/
- Inclusive Solutions: Inclusive Solutions is developing South African-led
literacy and numeracy software designed specifically for early years and
special needs learners. By offering culturally relevant content in all official
South African languages and prioritising accessible design for a range of
physical, visual and cognitive abilities, they ensure that early foundational
learning is inclusive for every child, whether in urban or rural settings.
Read more: https://www.inclusivesolutions.co.za/
- Khanyisa Developmental Centre: This platform uses video footage to
generate evidence-based reports and development templates that outline
individualised learner goals. Facilitating the creation of lesson plans
based on specific adaptations and SMART goals, it ensures that teaching
strategies are precisely tailored to each child's functional needs.
Read more: www.khanyisacentre.co.za
- Leva Foundation - Tangible: Tangible provides practical, game-based
tools that help teachers deliver coding and robotics lessons in any
classroom environment. By focusing on offline, hands-on activities that
don't require expensive devices or data, Tangible builds problem-solving
skills and teacher confidence, making quality tech education accessible to
schools in low-resource and disconnected areas.
Read more: tangible.levafoundation.org
- The Marking App: An AI-powered assessment tool that automatically
marks handwritten test papers, providing instant feedback without
requiring learner devices. By reducing marking time by up to 80%, the
solution combats teacher burnout and allows educators to refocus on
instructional time, while delivering data-driven insights to improve learner
outcomes.
Read more: https://themarkingapp.co.za/
- ThinkShift: ThinkShift provides an assessment
platform that generates verified 21st-century skills profiles alongside
traditional academic scores. By creating a cumulative Skills Passport that
tracks critical thinking and collaboration, the platform provides learners
with a portable record of their competencies to support their transition
into further education or the workforce.
Read more: www.thinkshift.africa
- Young Aspiring Thinkers (YAT): YAT is an AI-powered social enterprise
providing personalised career guidance and work-readiness programmes
to underserved South African youth. By intervening early with AI-driven
recommendations and pathwaying, they address structural
unemployment and high dropout rates, specifically empowering young
women and rural learners to transition into future-ready careers.
Read more: https://youngaspiringthinkers.org/
“Technology is accelerating how education can reach those who have historically
been excluded,” added Wariko Waita, Director, Centre for Innovative Teaching
and Learning at the Mastercard Foundation. “The EdTech Fellowship sits at the
intersection of three powerful forces – education system transformation, inclusive
technology-enabled solutions and sustainability of Africa’s EdTech
entrepreneurship that is responsive to real needs, and capable of reaching
millions across South Africa and Africa.”
The 2026 program delivered by Injini will offer various forms of support, including,
but not limited to:
- Mentorship from experts in assistive technology, pedagogical innovation,
capital raising, commercial strategy and impact measurement. - Global quality assurance via formal pedagogical evaluation and
certification from Education Alliance Finland and EdTech Impact. - Specialised market insights provided by Injini’s team of education
researchers to help navigate the regional landscape. - R1,000,000 in equity-free venture funding to accelerate growth.
“Our work with the Mastercard Foundation continues to prove that when we
invest in home-grown African innovation, we create sustainable change,”
concludes Davidson. “We look forward to seeing how these companies will
contribute to the evolution of inclusion in the EdTech space.”
About Injini
Injini is a registered non-profit company that exists for the sole purpose of
improving educational outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa. Founded in 2017, it
remains the only EdTech specialised accelerator in Africa. Injini is a member of
the UVU Africa Group. www.injini.africa
About the Mastercard Foundation
The Mastercard Foundation is a registered Canadian charity and one of the
largest foundations in the world. It works with visionary organisations to advance
education and financial inclusion to enable young people in Africa to access
dignified and fulfilling work. www.mastercardfdn.org
The Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship
The Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship is an entrepreneurship
acceleration program designed to support promising, African EdTech companies.
Implemented in partnership with innovation hubs and EdTech accelerators
across Africa, the Fellowship provides select EdTech companies with critical
business and financial support, as well as insight into the science of learning,
preparing them for scale, sustainability, and impact. The Mastercard Foundation
EdTech Fellowship was launched in 2019 by the Mastercard Foundation Centre
for Innovative Teaching and Learning with the goal of providing access to
technology-enabled, inclusive, quality education to all, especially young people,
underserved, under-resourced and marginalized communities
For more information, contact edtechfellowship@mastercardfdn.org
