CDC Group, University Ventures and Savannah Fund have invested $12m in UNICAF, a global educational online organization.

The UK development finance institution CDC has led the investment round, by investing $11.5m in UNICAF.

David Easton, Investment Director at CDC, said: “UNICAF has the potential to transform higher education, offering international quality degrees at a price and flexibility not currently seen in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

“Our support will help transform the lives of gifted and often underprivileged students and will make higher education – previously out of reach for the vast majority – a viable option for many,” he added.

Former CDC Board Member Jonathan Kydd, a development economist and higher education expert, will join UNICAF’s Board of Directors.

Founded in 2012, UNICAF is the online platform in Sub-Saharan Africa offering quality higher education degrees in collaboration with UK, US and European universities.

Current partners include the University of South Wales (UK), the Marymount California University (USA) and the University of Nicosia (Europe).

The new funding will be used to support UNICAF’s learning centers across African cities and finalize its university campus in Malawi.

African countries are not able to cope with increasing numbers of tertiary student enrolments and high costs of building brick and mortar institutions.

Online learning is the best possible solution to ensure that access to quality higher education is not limited by geographical location, tuition fees, or lack of access to academic resources.

Today, 8,000 students are enrolled with UNICAF, and the company expects to expand to more than 60,000 students by the end of 2020.

University Ventures (UV) is a US based investment firm focused exclusively on the global higher education sector.

UV is backed by some of the global education sector’s most successful and influential strategic and financial investors.

Savannah Fund is a seed capital fund specializing in $25,000-$500,000 investments in early stage high growth technology (web and mobile) startups in Sub-Saharan Africa.