Founders who are admitted in the one-year program will grow their edtech venture with the support of a community of edtech founders, investors, educators and other education stakeholders from around the world. They provide coaching, mentorship, participation in WISE international events and a vast network of potential partners, donors and investors in the field of education.
Eligibility Criteria
Initiatives addressing education challenges through the use and/or design of technology in all sectors and regions are welcome to apply. Initiatives in this particular field may tackle education challenges in early childhood education, K-12, higher education or the future of work.
Applicants must meet the below requirements:
- An education technology venture established for at least one year;
- Existing beneficiaries or customers;
- A product beyond Minimum Viable Product (MVP) stage
- Existing revenues;
- A dedicated team
Method of Application
Community: As part of the program, the selected ventures will:
- Access a community of over 50 edtech founders from 18 countries who will share their learnings during bootcamps organized in three major cities from around the world including in Doha, Qatar.
- Interact with leaders in the government, for-profit and non-profit sector. Members of the community will help the selected founders understand new markets and provide them with appropriate advice.
- Participate in networking sessions with donors, investors and leaders of education organizations.
Coaching and Mentorship: Their dedicated team of experts will support the founders in:
- Marketing, sales and fund-raising in edtech.
- Building a narrative and positioning a venture as a thought leader within the education sector.
- Understanding markets that are crucial for their growth.
- Product strategy, technology roadmap and product build-out.
International Visibility: The WISE Accelerator team works closely with the selected founders to provide opportunities for visibility at WISE events and on WISE digital platforms. Channels for visibility that WISE provides may include:
- WISE Summit in Doha which convenes over 4,000 attendees from over 100 countries.
- WISE@ forums. Past editions were held in Paris, New York, Beijing, Tunis, Madrid and Accra.
- WISE social media platforms.
- WISE ed review, podcast and newsletter.
WISE Accelerator Programme Selection Criteria.
Applications will be assessed according to the following criteria:
- The Team: The WISE team will assess the team’s ability to execute and deliver on their vision
- The Solution: The WISE team will assess how well the solution developed by the initiative addresses the problem that the initiative aims to solve
- The Innovation: The WISE team will assess how innovative is the solution developed by the initiative in light of solutions developed worldwide in the edtech sector
- The educational impact: The WISE team will assess the educational impact that the initiative may have as it scales up
- The Market: The WISE team will take into consideration the potential of the edtech market where the initiative operates
Method of Application
Applications must satisfy the following requirements:
- All applicants must complete, in English, the official online application form fully.
- All applicants must submit a short 3 minutes video pitch by submitting a YouTube link. During the pitch, they must explain their edtech solution, the problem they are tackling, who their beneficiaries are, their traction so far and why they are applying for the WISE Accelerator.
- All applicants must provide a link to a product demo via a YouTube link or log-in information for the WISE team to assess the product developed by the applicant.
- The WISE team will invite shortlisted applicants to take part in an interview.
The deadline to submit an application is 20 April 2020 at 16:00 GMT.
