• Injini's AI for Education Venture Builder and Incubation Program

  • Injini's AI for Education Venture Builder and Incubation Program exists to create a new generation of homegrown education solutions - built by African founders, for African realities, using AI in a meaningful and impactful way.

    Education across the region faces urgent challenges: teacher shortages, wide gaps in foundational literacy and numeracy, linguistic diversity, and the hard constraints of connectivity, device access, and affordability. Local venture building offers a genuine opportunity to do better, especially when the solutions are built by people who understand the context from the inside.

    Please remember, you can save your application and complete it at a later point.

    Applications close: 27 September 2026

  • Before completing the application form, please confirm the following:

  • It is required that the team collectively covers the following capabilities (One person can carry more than one role)

    • A builder - someone who can actually make the product. This can be a no-code/low-code builder or someone comfortable with AI tooling or development.
    • A context lead - someone who carries the lived or observed reality of the problem you're solving. The Context Lead's job is to keep the team honest about the problem and the people living it.
    • A commercial/operations lead - someone who can drive customer acquisition, partnerships (schools), and the business model.
  • The team includes a builder.*
  • The team includes a context lead.*
  • The team includes a commercial/operations lead.*
  • All members of the team are located in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique, Lesotho, Eswatini, or South Africa.*

  • This program includes the following program activities: 

    •  Attendance at in-person Venture Build Bootcamp for 5 days (Nov 2026);
    • Attendance at the in-person Venture Build User Testing and Pitch Day for 5 days (March 2027); 
    • Attendance at in-person Incubation engagement week and demo for 5 days (June 2027);
    • Monthly reporting during the partnership;
    • Regular (virtual) check-in calls with the Injini Programs Team.
  • Please confirm that a minimum of one member per team will be available to participate in the above program activities.*
  • The team is invested in solving an African education challenge, leveraging AI to do so.*

  • Team Structure

  • Please share details about your team. Please ensure that your team includes, at minimum, a technical/building lead, a context lead, and a commercial/operations lead (One person can carry more than one role, but the team should be able to point to how all three are covered). 

  • How many people are on your team? Please note that the preferred team size for the programme is three people. However, teams with fewer members may be accepted if there is a clear rationale for the team size. In-person attendance is capped at 3 people per team*
  • The teams country of residence*

  • Team member one

  • Format: (000) 000-0000.
  • What role would this person play on the team? (Select all those that apply)*
  • Years of professional work experience*
  • Has this person started another business?*

  • Team member two

  • Format: (000) 000-0000.
  • What role would this person play on the team? (Select those that apply)*
  • Years of professional work experience*
  • Has this person started another business?*

  • Team member three

  • Format: (000) 000-0000.
  • What role would this person play on the team? (Select those that apply)*
  • Years of professional work experience*
  • Has this person started another business?*

  • Your teams understanding about the challenge

  • This programme does not give teams a fixed problem to solve. Instead, applicants choose one of the themes and develop a solution that addresses an aspect of the selected challenge. The challanges are:

     

    1. Foundational Learning: Literacy, numeracy, and early language development - the building blocks stage. (e.g.: foundational literacy/numeracy in under-resourced primary schools; mother-tongue and multilingual learning; early childhood development.)
    2. Teacher Capacity & Classroom Support: Multiplying the reach and effectiveness of scarce, often under-trained teachers.(eg: teacher upskilling and lesson-planning tools; automated assessment and feedback on open-ended work.)
    3. Learner Pathways & Futures: Helping learners navigate high-stakes transitions - into, through, and out of the formal system. (e.g.: out-of-school and dropped-out youth; exam preparation for national exams; Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) - vocational skills training, trade certification pathways, and employability matching for the vocational track; career guidance and post-secondary pathways.)
    4. Inclusion & Access: Reaching learners the system currently underserves or excludes. (E.g.: special educational needs and learning disabilities; low-bandwidth/offline-first delivery.)
    5. Ecosystem & Engagement: Supporting the people and systems around the learner. (e.g.: school administration - tools for timetabling, attendance, resource allocation, and data-driven decision-making at the school level; parental and caregiver engagement.)

     

  • Which of the five challenges is your team focused on solving?*

  • Why does this challenge matter to your team?

    Please submit a video of no more than 90 seconds telling us why this challenge matters to your team.
    Please do not describe the challenge or your product idea again — you have covered those elsewhere in this form. Instead, tell us: 

    • What connects your team to this challenge, personally or professionally,
    • What would change for the people you are building for if it were solved.

    How to record it?

    • A phone camera is completely fine. We are not assessing production quality, lighting or sound — we are listening to what you say.
    • Record in one continuous take. No editing, slides, graphics or music.
    • This should be a single person or all team members speaking into the camera.
    • Please record in English.

    How to submit it?

    • Upload your video to YouTube (unlisted), Vimeo, Google Drive or Dropbox, and paste the link below.
    • Please check that your link opens for anyone who has it, without requiring an access request. We are not able to follow up on permissions, and a link we cannot open will be treated as an incomplete application. (edited)

     

  • Have you spoken to stakeholders who are directly affected by this challenge?*
  • Who have you spoken to, and how many?*
    Rows
  • Do you already have an idea for a product to address this challenge? (Please note that this is NOT a requirement for a successful application)*
  • How defined is this solution at this point?*
  • How open are you to adjusting this idea?*

  • Program Admin

  • I accept that all claims made above will be verified at due diligence, and material misrepresentation ends the application*
  • I acknowledge and give permission for the personal information provided above to be shared with the Injini team and Coefficient Giving*
  • I acknowledge and give permission for the personal information provided above to be processed using automated tools to assist human review*
  • How did you hear about this application?*
  • Should be Empty: