Hive Colab has partnered with the Mastercard Foundation to launch the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship in Uganda. The initiative is designed to support Ugandan owned education technology ventures that are ready to grow and solve real challenges in the country’s education system. Over the next three years the accelerator program will support 36 growth stage EdTech ventures and help them scale in a responsible and inclusive way.
The Fellowship comes at a time when Uganda’s education sector is under pressure. Schools are dealing with overcrowded classrooms, limited resources, gaps in teacher support and unequal access to quality learning especially for refugees learners with disabilities and children from low income communities. This initiative focuses on solutions that work in real classrooms and real communities and not only in ideal conditions.
Supporting EdTech Ventures That Can Scale With Impact
The Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship supports growth stage EdTech ventures operating in Uganda that already have a working product and some market traction. These are ventures that have moved beyond the idea stage and are now ready to scale their solutions while keeping learning outcomes, inclusion and affordability at the center of their work.
Through this Fellowship Hive Colab and the Mastercard Foundation are prioritizing inclusive solutions that serve underserved learners. This includes learners from low income communities, refugees, learners with disabilities and those in areas with low connectivity and under resourced schools. The focus is not only on growth but on responsible growth that expands access to quality education.
The Fellowship is part of a wider African entrepreneurship acceleration program implemented through partnerships with innovation hubs and accelerators. In Uganda Hive Colab will implement the Fellowship over the next five years with a clear focus on expanding access to quality learning for communities that are often left behind.
Key areas of focus include inclusive product and delivery design, evidence driven learning impact, readiness to partner with schools and education system actors and the development of sustainable and affordable business models. These areas are critical for EdTech ventures that want to create lasting impact and not short term success.
How the Fellowship Works and Who Should Apply
The program is structured to support ventures through two main phases. The first phase focuses on designing for inclusion and learning impact. Fellows work on strengthening their understanding of the problem they are solving and how learners and teachers engage with their solutions. There is strong attention on human centered design, affordability, disability inclusion and aligning solutions to classroom realities. Fellows also receive support to define clear learning outcomes and build an evidence plan to show what works.
The second phase focuses on acceleration for responsible scale. Here ventures receive deeper support to help them grow their delivery, partnerships and revenue models while protecting inclusion and learning quality. Support areas include product and implementation scaling, partnership development, revenue resilience, learning outcomes measurement, investor readiness and strategic advisory.
The Fellowship is open to locally founded and locally led EdTech ventures with leadership and decision making rooted in Uganda. Ventures should be at growth stage with demonstrated traction and a clear readiness to scale delivery and impact in a sustainable way. Women led ventures and diverse founding teams are strongly encouraged to apply as part of the commitment to inclusive entrepreneurship.
Selected Fellows will receive equity free catalytic funding of up to 70 000 USD. This funding is designed to support inclusive scale and delivery readiness without putting pressure on founders to give up ownership. Fellows also benefit from a structured curriculum tailored for growth stage execution, sustainability and learning impact.
In addition the program offers one on one mentorship from experts who understand education delivery and venture scale. Fellows gain access to partnership and market support through connections to relevant institutions and ecosystem actors. They also receive learning science and impact support to help them measure outcomes and strengthen evidence. Investor readiness and strategic advisory support helps ventures improve governance, storytelling metrics and long term capital planning.
Through this Fellowship, Hive Colab and the Mastercard Foundation are creating a strong pathway for Ugandan EdTech ventures to grow with purpose. By supporting solutions that work in real conditions and serve those who need them most the initiative is set to make a meaningful contribution to Uganda’s education ecosystem.
Applications are now open for the first cohort of the Fellowship. Ugandan EdTech ventures that meet the criteria and are ready for this level of support are encouraged to apply.
