Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB), Africa’s first open living lab and pre-incubation space designed to be a multi-functional, multi-purpose space where work to catalyze creative social tech ventures take place, has recently announced that it is launching a $15 million accelerator program, which will be called EdTech Fellowship Program to back and support 72 startups in Nigeria and Kenya in the next three years.
According to the company’s statement, the accelerator program will support and amplify the impact of EdTech startups across Africa and support founders offering tech solutions that will address learning innovation in an educational sector riddled with a plethora of issues.
Accelerators are known for offering full support to startups, and CcHUB is similar in its approach. The program will provide expert support across product development, government relations, pedagogy and learning science, portfolio management, communication, instructional design and community building to the selected startups.
Commenting on the latest development, Co-founder & CEO of CcHUB, Bosun Tijani, said:
If we invest intentionally in a very structured EdTech inclusive ecosystem of government, teachers, investors, foundations, and even in some cases, the students and their parents, we believe that we can begin to gain a better understanding of how to use technology to improve learning in schools.
Tijani further added:
Over the next three years, we will have 72 EdTech companies launched into the market. We believe this will kickstart the ecosystem and reboot it afresh because out of that number, at least you’re sure about half or 20-30% of them would live for another three to four years. And that will allow us to know if technology can genuinely work for education in Africa.
CcHUB aims to support startups that drive learning outcomes. To achieve this, the incubator will work with in-house research teams tasked to work with startups in testing products, launching, and helping them upscale.
According to Tijani, there is also a provision for follow-on investment to the tune of $50 million that will cater to the seed and Series A stages for the startups, to which an anchor investor has already contributed $5 million.
Founded in 2010 by Bosun Tijani and Femi Longe, Cc-HUB is a technology-oriented centre that provides a platform where technology-oriented people share ideas for solving social problems in Nigeria. The platform’s methodology is hinged on engaging a community of progressive stakeholders (end-users, subject matter experts, government agencies, businesses, academics, civil societies etc.) who bring their creativity and knowledge to play in co-creating solutions to social challenges faced by the average Nigerian through its open living labs. The resulting innovations are then supported to become sustainable market solutions by providing proactive business support, advice, mentorship and funding through its pre-incubation & research unit.
