By the time the lights come up on the upcoming Demo Day on February 4, the stakes will be unmistakable. Twelve startups. One cohort. A shared ambition to reshape how Africa learns, works and competes in a fast-fragmenting global economy.
Cohort 2 of the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship is heading toward its Demo Day moment, bringing together a group of founders whose businesses span education, agriculture, healthcare, accessibility, finance and artificial intelligence. What unites them is not geography or sector, but scale of intent.
“The wait is over. 12 startups One shared vision for impact. Cohort 2 of the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship brings together the fellows working to shape the future of learning. Their journey leads to Demo Day.” EdVentures, the organisers say.
For investors, policymakers and education leaders, the signal is that Africa’s next generation of education technology companies is no longer emerging quietly. It is arriving with momentum.
A fellowship built for scale, not symbolism
The Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship is not a showcase programme. It is an entrepreneurship acceleration platform designed to produce durable companies, not pilot projects. Working with innovation hubs and accelerators across the continent, the Fellowship provides business, financial and educational support to help African EdTech ventures scale sustainably and expand their impact.
Since its launch in 2019, the Fellowship has supported 12 companies across seven countries, reaching more than 800,000 learners. Its ambition is accelerating and this year, it plans to partner with 12 tech hubs, support over 250 EdTech companies and reach 1.8 million young people.
That ambition reflects a broader trend. Across Africa education technology is emerging as one of the most resilient venture categories. With youth unemployment stubbornly high, digital skills gaps widening and public education systems under strain, EdTech has become both an economic and social priority.
Backing this cohort alongside the Mastercard Foundation is EdVentures, the Middle East’s first EdTech-focused corporate venture capital fund. Launched in 2017 under the Nahdet Misr Group, EdVentures invests at pre-seed and seed stage in startups serving education, culture and innovative learning bringing not just capital, but institutional credibility and market access.
The startups stepping onto the Demo Day stage
This year’s cohort reflects the breadth and maturity of Africa and MENA’s EdTech ecosystem.
Mazraaty Academy is redefining agricultural education at a moment when food security has become a global concern. Positioned as the MENA region’s foremost Agri-Vet Academy, Mazraaty focuses on veterinary science, animal production, poultry and crop management.
For over a decade, the company has seamlessly connected academia with industry demands through innovative digital learning and hands-on training. Founded by CEO Mamdouh El-Emary, the platform is training the next generation of professionals tasked with safeguarding food systems in an era of climate volatility.
Carerha tackles a different structural challenge, which is women’s economic participation. The female-focused EdTech platform is designed to empower women economically while fostering more inclusive workplaces. Founder and CEO Jessy Radwan positions Carerha at the intersection of skills development and gender equity an area of growing interest for both corporates and impact investors.
CAMTECH, founded by Amr Salama, addresses language, a persistent barrier in technical education. The Egyptian startup delivers flexible engineering training in Arabic, bridging a long-standing gap between global technical content and local accessibility. Its mission is to enable Arabic speakers to thrive in a rapidly evolving industrial and technological landscape.
Communication, increasingly recognised as a commercial skill rather than a soft one, is the focus of Tick & Talk. The platform uses AI-powered, simulation-based training and real-time feedback to help professionals sharpen presentation, negotiation and team communication skills. Founder Omar Hamada and co-founder Khaled Shaaban argue that effective communication is the key to successful team management, sales processes and customer service and their data-driven coaching model is designed for continuous practice, not one-off training.
Language learning itself is being reimagined by PikaDo, which offers peer-to-peer English sessions and daily AI-powered exercises. Founder and CEO Amro Mohamed positions the platform as both social and scalable combining human interaction with machine-led personalisation.
In healthcare education, MRCS IV is building an online medical academy aimed at elevating the skills of African doctors. Founded by Ahmed Khattap, the platform responds to a continent-wide shortage of specialist training pathways and seeks to democratise access to high-quality medical education.
Financial literacy often missing from formal curricula is the focus of Innova founded by CEO Mohamed Ashry, alongside co-founder Ahmed Fikri. It is described as MENA’s leading financial literacy platform for K-12 students. Through gamified learning, live interactive classes and real-life application, Innova teaches money management and entrepreneurship to children aged 6 to 17.
Technology immersion is central to Livit Education, an all-in-one STEM+AI platform enabling students to learn coding, robotics, AI, VR and AR through a unified cloud solution. Founded in 2016, LIVIT has positioned itself at the frontier of immersive learning. Founder Ahmed Hesham Gamal, CTO Abdelrahman Eissa and marketing lead Hisham Hassan Hosni argue that VR and AR are no longer experimental, they are becoming core educational tools.
Accessibility takes centre stage at ScribeMe, an app that makes documents and visual content accessible to blind and visually impaired users. Founder Mark Morad and COO Bishoy Michel are addressing a market often overlooked in mainstream EdTech, with digital accessibility now increasingly embedded in global compliance and inclusion standards.
Inclusive education is also the mission of Cognify Education, a platform supporting K-12 learners with educational difficulties, training teachers and creating pathways for graduates with disabilities. Founder and CEO Ahmed El-Mallahy has focused particularly on children with autism, building tailored programmes and psychological support systems that partner directly with schools and parents.
Rounding out the cohort is Eagle Academy, a pioneering institution in medical education offering comprehensive training across medical specialties reflecting sustained demand for scalable, high-quality professional education in healthcare.
Why this Demo Day matters
What makes this Demo Day significant is not the youth of the founders or the novelty of the technology. It is the commercial readiness of the solutions.
Across MENA region and the continent, EdTech is moving from donor-backed experimentation to venture-backed execution. Investors are increasingly drawn to platforms with clear revenue models, measurable outcomes and regional expansion potential. Governments, facing budget constraints, are turning to private-sector innovation to plug systemic gaps.
This cohort arrives at that inflection point. Demo Day is not a graduation ceremony. It is a market signal. Twelve startups. One shared vision for impact. And a growing expectation that African-led education technology will not just catch upbut compete globally.
As the Fellowship’s organisers put it: this is about shaping “the future of learning for generations to come.” On Demo Day, the future steps onto the stage.
