Lagos, Nigeria – Thursday, 30 July 2026
Co-creation HUB, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, has selected 12 startups for Cohort 4 of the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship in Nigeria.
Cohort 4 introduces twelve founders selected not only for the strength of their solutions, but for the depth of their understanding of the populations they are building for. Focused on solutions for learners with disabilities, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and underserved or rural communities, increased participation and learning outcomes for young girls and women, and education and skills data systems that strengthen decision-making and system performance, the cohort reflects a deliberate commitment to backing founders who are addressing the barriers that prevent millions of learners from accessing quality education and ensuring that innovation is designed for those most often left behind.
The startups span across four thematic areas. In the area of Learners Living with disabilities, TrainDTrainer Ltd, Talktu, DAWN AI STUDY, and Efiwe are developing solutions that improve accessibility, teacher capacity, and inclusive learning experiences. Addressing barriers faced by learners in underserved, rural, and displacement-affected communities, Ileemore Technologies Limited, Skillup Africa and Lena are expanding access to quality learning in low-resource environments. Heels and Tech, NursePadi, Skilladder AI, and Lalitah are focused on improving participation, skills development, and economic opportunities for girls and young women. Strengthening education and workforce data systems, Ribara Analytica is building data-driven platforms that support better decision-making and improve pathways from learning to employment.
“Cohort 4 was designed around the belief that the most important decisions about inclusion are made at the earliest stages of innovation,” said Nissi Madu, Managing Partner at CcHUB.
“This cohort represents founders who are building with this understanding at the core of their solutions. These founders are tackling some of the most persistent barriers to equitable education through solutions designed with inclusion at their core. Our role is to help them test, refine, and generate evidence for their solutions while building sustainable businesses that can scale their impact. Through this support, we are working to ensure no learner is left behind and that these solutions contribute to more inclusive education systems and Africa’s long-term prosperity”
Each startup enters an 18 month programme that provides up to $100,000 in equity-free funding, structured technical assistance across product development, communications, and business strategy, access to CcHUB’s established ecosystem of sector relationships, and a dedicated pilot framework for building and documenting evidence of impact. The Fellowship also equips founders with media readiness support and stakeholder engagement infrastructure, ensuring that the work they do over the next eighteen months is visible to the partners, funders, and communities it is most relevant to.
“At its best, EdTech does not just digitize education; it redistributes opportunity, and that’s where the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship comes in. The Fellowship sits at the intersection of three powerful forces – education system transformation, inclusive technology-enabled solutions and sustainability of Africa’s EdTech entrepreneurship”, said Wariko Waita, the Director of the Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL) at the Mastercard Foundation.
Since its launch, it has supported 72 companies across Africa, reaching over 700,000 new learners, 89% of them children and youth, with a gender distribution of 49% female and 51% male. To follow the journey of the Cohort 4 startups over the next eighteen months, visit the Future of Learning website: About Us – Future of Learning
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About CcHUB
Co-creation HUB (CcHUB) is Africa’s leading innovation centre, driving social impact through technology and creativity. Founded in 2010 in Lagos, Nigeria, CcHUB connects technologists, entrepreneurs, government, and investors to co-create solutions for Africa’s most pressing challenges. With operations across Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, and beyond, the hub supports startups across education, health, governance, sustainability, and the creative economy. Through research, incubation, acceleration, and funding, CcHUB nurtures early-stage ventures from idea to scale. Its portfolio includes several transformative African startups and ecosystem-shaping initiatives. At its core, CcHUB champions inclusive innovation, youth empowerment, and technology-driven economic growth across the continent.
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 organizations to advance education and financial inclusion to enable young people in Africa and Indigenous youth in Canada to access dignified and fulfilling work. Established in 2006 through the generosity of Mastercard when it became a public company, the Foundation is an independent organization separate from the company, with offices in Toronto, Kigali, Accra, Nairobi, Kampala, Lagos, Dakar, and Addis Ababa. Its policies, operations, and program decisions are determined by the Foundation’s Board of Directors and leadership.
For more information on the Foundation, please visit 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.