CcHUB, Mastercard Foundation launch $100k fellowship for EdTech startups

CcHUB is accepting applications for the fourth cohort of its Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship, offering $100,000 in equity-free funding to twelve early-stage Nigerian startups.

The fellowship focuses specifically on EdTech companies building products for learners that mainstream education technology has ignored, such as people with disabilities, refugees, rural communities, and young girls and women.

Applications close April 10, 2026. Selected startups get $100,000 each plus a 12-month incubation programme that includes mentorship, technical support, and connections to ecosystem partners.

The funding doesn’t require the startup to give up parts of its company, and the program helps startups improve their products to handle growth.

Why this cohort is different

Most African EdTech has been built for stable conditions: reliable internet, predictable school schedules, and families that can afford devices and subscriptions. Cohort 4 deliberately targets solutions with messier implementation requirements but deeper inclusion potential.

The fellowship supports startups that create solutions for areas with poor internet access, disrupted school schedules, and ineffective payment systems. This includes educational tools for displaced people, adaptive learning for students with disabilities, and systems that work in under-resourced rural schools.

CcHUB is also looking for startups developing education data systems designed to fit actual school workflows rather than theoretical ones, tools that help teachers and administrators make real decisions, not just collect data for reports nobody reads.

What CcHUB wants to see and how startups can register

Nissi Madu, Managing Partner at re:learn (CcHUB’s education practice), said the fellowship is looking for evidence, not just vision. “We love bold ideas, but Cohort 4 is for teams that can show how the product performs under real constraints, how it reaches learners, and what changes because it exists,” she said.

That means startups need to demonstrate their product already works in challenging conditions, not just pitch what it could do eventually. The emphasis is on founders who understand that EdTech doesn’t truly work until it works for the most vulnerable learners.

Since launching, the fellowship has supported 72 startups across Africa. Those companies have collectively reached over 700,000 learners, 89% of them children and youth, with a nearly equal gender split of 49% female and 51% male.

The fellowship runs in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, which established the EdTech Fellowship programme in 2019 to expand access to technology-enabled education for underserved and marginalised communities.

Eligible Nigerian EdTech startups can apply at futureoflearning.cchub.africa. The application window closes on April 10.

Similar read: Nigeria, Japan sign deal to back startups with $50m innovation fund

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