WHY AFRICA
The demand curve is already here
By 2050 Africa will supply close to 40% of the world's workforce, but Sub-Saharan tertiary participation sits near 6%, a fraction of high-income levels.
Alwin Education
We envision a world where every young person who aspires to learn can access world-class education, gain future ready skills, and build a meaningful career.
— so they can actively participate in shaping the future.
Alwin invests in and operates a digitally native network of locally accredited higher-education institutions in markets where demand for tertiary education materially exceeds public-sector supply, expanding access, strengthening quality, and aligning every programme to labour-market demand.
“Alwin” — a world where we all win.
About · The Thesis
The all win philosophy.
Tertiary demand is structural, global — and forecast to double by 2040.
Expanding middle classes and improving tertiary participation rates in emerging markets are driving sustained demand for high-quality, accredited tertiary education.
Alwin exists to help institutions meet that demand. We partner with accredited higher education institutions to digitise delivery, expand access, align programmes with workforce needs, and scale sustainably.
Africa is at the centre of this challenge, and supply is not keeping pace. Demand for tertiary education is growing faster than existing capacity, creating a structural and widening access gap.
Our approach is to build on what already works. We partner with proven, locally accredited institutions and provide the technology, expertise and operating support they need to digitise, scale and better serve the way African learners enrol, study, pay and enter the workforce.
150M
Credentials needed across Africa by 2050.
40%
Of the global workforce will be African by 2050.
~6%
Tertiary participation rate in Sub-Saharan Africa today.
WHY PARTNERING WORKS
Stronger together, distinctive by design
Alwin enables institutions to benefit from shared technology, expertise and support while preserving the local identity, academic strengths and relationships that make each institution unique.
WHY SHARED SERVICES
Shared capabilities, stronger institutions
Shared technology and services mean every institution can access high-quality capabilities across enrolment, student engagement and employability, without having to build them independently.
Our investment approach
Capital is only one part of what an institution needs to grow sustainably.
01
Patient capital
Long-term, growth-oriented capital structured around the pace and priorities of each institution.
02
Strategic & commercial capability
Strategic planning, growth expertise and disciplined investment to support each institution's long-term ambitions.
03
Deep education experience
Operators who have built, operated and scaled education businesses across Africa, the UK and the US.
04
Technology & systems investment
Shared technology and infrastructure that helps institutions digitise, improve the student experience and scale effectively.
05
Growth & market development
Expertise in student recruitment, programme development and new-market expansion, supported by data and a pan-African network.
06
Organisational & management support
Finance, compliance, people and operational support that enables academic leaders to focus on education and student outcomes.
Team
Built by education leaders, for the long term.
Our team brings decades of experience building and leading education organisations around the world, from scaling university networks across multiple countries to developing the technology, digital learning and student support systems that have served hundreds of thousands of learners.
Together with advisors who have led some of the world's largest higher-education institutions, we bring global experience to a distinctly African ambition: partnering with strong local institutions to help them grow, innovate and expand access to high-quality higher education.
Founders
Lucy Stonehill
Chief Executive Officer
Lucy is an education entrepreneur with experience building and scaling education businesses globally. She founded BridgeU in 2014, a university and careers guidance platform that has supported students at international schools across 145+ countries in navigating their pathways to higher education and employment. She led BridgeU through its acquisition by Kaplan and subsequently joined Kaplan’s global leadership team.
Lucy is also a Venture Partner at Emerge Education, serves on the Advisory Board of IU Group, Germany’s largest university, and is a Board Director of Amerigo Education.
Melindi Britz
Chief Operating Officer
Melindi is a South African higher-education leader with more than 20 years of experience working across complex, regulated education environments. She previously led the Digital Division at Honoris United Universities, one of Africa's largest private higher-education networks, where she developed the group-wide framework for online learning across 16 institutions in 10 countries.
Earlier in her career, Melindi held senior roles at 2U and GetSmarter, working with leading universities including Oxford, Cambridge, MIT, LSE and the University of Cape Town to expand access to high-quality education through digital delivery.
Patrick Brothers
Chairman
Patrick is a global education leader with extensive experience across higher education, skills and workforce development. He co-founded HolonIQ, a global intelligence platform for education and workforce markets, and serves on the Board of QS following its acquisition of HolonIQ.
Patrick works with governments, international organisations, education institutions and investors around the world, including the World Bank, United Nations and OECD. Previously, he led global growth at Navitas, supporting a network serving more than 80,000 students annually across 30+ university partnerships, and founded Navitas Ventures.
Proven at scale
We've built digital learning for the world's leading higher education institutions.
Across the UK, US, Africa and beyond, our team has designed and produced online courses for the world's best brands.
13+Institutions served across three continents
Central team
The operating team behind every institution in the network. Click a card for more.
The Learning Platform
Shared technology, built around each institution.
LearnerOS connects enrolment, learning, student engagement and employment, giving every institution shared capabilities to strengthen the learner experience and support sustainable growth.
01
Enrol
Simpler journeys from discovery to enrolment.
02
Elevate
Flexible learning designed around students.
03
Engage
Earlier insight, more targeted student support.
04
Employ
Career readiness embedded throughout learning.
FOR HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
More capability, without more complexity
Access shared technology, expertise and operating support designed to help your institution grow, while preserving your identity, accreditation and academic independence.
Employability
Closing Africa's labour market data gap
Emerging markets across Africa lack the data infrastructure that connects human capital investment to labour market outcomes. Education is one of the largest investments households make on the continent, yet there is almost no way to measure whether that investment translates into employable skills or economic opportunity.
The problem isn't a lack of activity. It's a lack of connection. Labour market demand, curriculum design, credentials, learner progression and employment outcomes each exist in their own disconnected system.
The fix — one intelligence layer
Alwin's LabourOS is designed to be the intelligence layer that closes that gap, connecting institutional, employer and labour market data across the continent so that human capital can be measured, managed and improved for the first time.
What gets measured gets managed, and in the world's youngest workforce, almost nothing is measured.
Higher Education Institutions
Grow with Alwin.
Every institution is different. Our partnerships are built around a shared ambition, combining capital, technology and operating expertise with the identity, academic strengths and local knowledge that make your institution successful.
Capital, technology and support to grow
- Growth capital to support facilities, people and programme expansion
- Shared technology across enrolment, learning, engagement and employability
- Experience navigating regulatory and accreditation processes
- Shared capabilities across finance, data and marketing
Your identity and academic independence
- Your institutional name, brand and identity
- Academic governance and curriculum decisions
- Your accreditation and regulatory relationships
- Your people, culture and community
Governance & stewardship
Alwin believes in responsible ownership: transparent governance, sustainable growth, and a clear line between shareholder oversight and institutional academic governance. Our board and leadership set strategy, capital allocation and operating standards. Curriculum, assessment, admissions and academic standards remain the responsibility of each institution's own academic governance structures.
Contact
Get in touch.
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INSTITUTION
Talk to us about your institution
For institutions exploring a partnership or acquisition.
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