EdTech Accelerator, a consortium of leading philanthropic organizations to support foundational learning for children from poor invites applications from interested NGOs, edtechs

Developed by a consortium of leading non-profit and philanthropic organizations Reliance Foundation, UBS Optimus Foundation, British Asian Trust, USAID and Central Square Foundation, the  Newly launched EdTech Accelerator will help enhance access to at-home learning and improve foundational learning for children from low-income communities.  The Accelerator will fund eight high-quality EdTech solutions from both non-profit and private organizations that aim to build, pilot, measure, and test innovative ideas. Impact-focused grant funding and dedicated mentoring support will be available in year one, and grants to further scale up this work will be available in year two, thereby impacting up to 2.5 million children by 2025. Applications are now open for the EdTech Accelerator.
The Accelerator forms an integral part of ‘Back-to-School Outcomes Fund’, which is a first-of-its-kind collaborative initiative alongside the Government of India’s NIPUN Bharat Mission to achieve FLN goals for all children in India.
The programme aims to support EdTech solutions that are seeking to provide access to affordable and quality learning solutions for low-income segments. It will also help organizations innovate to address challenges, and build evidence on learning outcomes, benchmarks and cost effectiveness, thereby supporting the education ecosystem to improve access to quality education at scale.
Organizations are invited to apply at www.edtechaccelerator.org. The EdTech Accelerator will be accepting applications until 8^th January 2023.
For more information about the application process and eligibility criteria for the EdTech Accelerator, please visit www.edtechaccelerator.org. The Accelerator will be accepting applications until January 8, 2023.
Speaking on the need for such an initiative, Shaveta Sharma-Kukreja, CEO & MD, Central Square Foundation, said, “Among over 9,000 EdTech organizations in India, only about ONE per cent focus on foundational learning, and even fewer have built products for low-income segments. NIPUN is an ambitious programme and home learning will be critical to help our children. The Accelerator adopts a unique approach catalysing supply of diverse high-quality solutions and galvanizing demand for at-home learning.”
Speaking on the overall approach of the Back-to-school outcomes fund, Richard Hawkes, Chief Executive, the British Asian Trust adds “Achieving universal foundational literacy and numeracy skills is critical for the wellbeing of millions of India’s children and in the longer-term, for India’s economic growth. To mitigate the learning gap which increased with COVID-19, we need rapid innovation and collaborative action from civil society, private sector partners and philanthropic organizations working alongside the Government of India. Innovative social financing is the mechanism enabling that, nudging boundaries and fostering innovation in new ways by changing the whole EdTech marketplace to in turn learning outcomes for those children most in need.”