Zambia’s “The Teacher’s Village” Scoops Cash Prize at Injini Virtual Pitch Event!

2022 Virtual EdTech Bootcamp

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From the 22nd of February to the 8th of March, Injini hosted the first Virtual EdTech Bootcamp of 2022. The bootcamp was designed to support EdTech entrepreneurs from Southern Africa in building tech-enabled solutions that aim to improve the quality, relevance, and accessibility of education in their local markets. Out of the 10 startups that were selected to participate in the programme, The Teacher’s Village, based in Zambia, walked away with a R5,000 cash prize and business mentorship from Injini. Founded by Professor Puuka, The Teacher’s Village is a school management system that offers mobile, off-grid and web technologies to distribute educational materials, support teachers' growth, and offer remote tutoring to learners. The startup has made great progress since their official launch in 2018, with over 800 users on their platform. Professor Puuka is a qualified teacher who spent eight years of his teaching career in a remote school in Zambia.

The professor’s experience, as well as the challenges he faced as a teacher, motivated him to build an EdTech solution that will support teachers and learners to thrive — even in resource-constrained environments. In an interview with Puuka, he expressed how the workshops and the online courses provided by Injini through the virtual EdTech bootcamp helped him to understand the importance of validating your product and designing a solution that’s truly relevant for your target market. He was particularly intrigued by the way the content had been designed to cater for early-stage startups on the African continent.

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Puuka is not a stranger to Injini's entrepreneurial development programmes. He had previously participated in one of Injini’s Zambian EdTech Sprint Weeks hosted during 2020 in partnership with Bongo Hive. Although Puuka had already been working on his solution for years by the time he applied to participate in this virtual bootcamp programme, he believes that learning never stops and thought the bootcamp would be a good opportunity for him and his team members to get more exposure and find collaboration opportunities with other EdTech startups. Professor encouraged early-stage startups to “walk the course, because it’s easy to give up”.

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The Teacher’s Village aims to use the post-bootcamp mentorship from Injini to gain more understanding of how his team can scale their business and improve their EdTech solution. They plan to use the cash prize to refine their platform before onboarding 40,000 teachers in the coming months through new partnerships being secured.

Injini would like to congratulate all of the entrepreneurs who committed their time to participate in the programme, engage in the workshops, and submit deliverables and assessments throughout the three weeks. We look forward to seeing the progress and impact they will make in their respective markets. The pitch event would not have been a success without the panel of judges who are blazing their own trail within the African EdTech ecosystem.

We would like to extend our appreciation to Jade Buckton, Senior Investment Analyst at Goodwell Investments; Peter Nawa, the Entrepreneurial Lead at Bongo Hive; and Mukundi Lambani, founder and CEO for Ambani Africa and an Injini incubation alumni.