Injini Opens AI Venture Builder for African Edtech Founders
Injini Opens AI Venture Builder for African Edtech Founders. Injini has launched an eight-month AI for Education Venture Builder and Incubation Programme to help early-stage African edtech founders develop artificial intelligence solutions aimed at addressing education challenges.
Supported by funder Coefficient Giving, the programme will work with pre-formed teams as they develop AI-powered education ideas into market-ready ventures. It will also test AI tools directly in African classrooms to assess their practical value, with the strongest projects receiving further support to scale accessible, low-cost solutions for students, teachers and founders.
Injini executive director Krista Davidson said the initiative was created after years of engaging with people who understand education challenges but lack the teams, capital or pathway needed to develop solutions.
The programme will support 12 teams, representing more than 36 African change-makers, across five themes: foundational learning; teacher capacity and classroom support; learner pathways and futures; inclusion and access; and ecosystem and engagement.
During the first five months, all 12 teams will work through problem validation, customer research, solution design and development of a functional AI-powered minimum viable product. Teams will also conduct live pilots to generate real-world usage and value data, with support covering user testing, business modelling, branding, and monitoring, evaluation and learning.
Five teams will then progress to a three-month incubation phase running from April to June 2027. These ventures will focus on developing market-ready products, strengthening their business models and creating go-to-market strategies. Each of the five selected ventures will also receive $25,000 in equity-free seed capital.
Applications are open to small teams, with three or more co-founders preferred. Teams must collectively cover product development, education context and commercial or operations expertise.
Applicants must be based in South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia or Zimbabwe. Each team member must have at least two years of relevant work experience, while the venture must still be at the ideation stage.
Applications opened on 7 September 2026 and close on 27 September 2026, with applications evaluated on a rolling basis.
