About PolyGrants
You dream. We realise it.
PolyGrants exists for one idea: that talent born in Africa deserves the same horizon as talent born anywhere else. This page is our story so far: how three people on the road became a platform, a partner network across 17 countries, and the first 162 students studying abroad.
See how it worksBefore there was a platform
PolyGrants did not begin as a website. It began in June 2025 as three people on the road: joining events and seminars, meeting students, university representatives and institutions, and building, one handshake at a time, the network that everything else stands on.
The dream was never the missing piece. The bridge to it was.
That informal season produced something real. Through the first partner network, students from Namibia, Kenya, Somalia and Tunisia were guided abroad to pursue their studies. By the end of December 2025, 162 of them had left to start a new chapter on another continent.
At that time, PolyGrants could help with only four destination countries, and the whole team fitted around one table. What happened next turned that beginning into an institution.
The name carries the idea. Poly is Greek for many: many countries, many languages, many kinds of student, many routes to the same degree. Grants are what turn those routes into something a family can afford. Written in full it is PolyGrants, one word with a capital P and a capital G. People also write Polygrants, Polygrant, Poly Grants or Poly Grant, and every one of those means this organisation.
The first cohort, in numbers
162 students from four countries, sent abroad by December 2025. Every figure below comes from that cohort's record.
Where they went
- Canada58 · 35.8%
- Germany46 · 28.4%
- Romania43 · 26.5%
- Türkiye15 · 9.3%
Canada
Germany
Romania
TürkiyeWho they are
- 57.4%of the cohort were women; 42.6% were men
- 100%visa success: every single student received a study visa
- 74.7%of scholarships awarded covered 100% of tuition
- 21%covered 50% of tuition
- 111were admitted to Bachelor's degrees
- 50were admitted to Master's degrees
- 1student began a PhD
The journey so far, and the road ahead
Every milestone below is either a matter of record or a commitment we are working toward. We keep both on the same line so you can hold us to them.
June 2025
It starts on the road
Three people begin travelling to events and seminars, meeting students and institutions and forming the first partnerships. No office, no platform: just the conviction that African talent deserves a bridge.
December 2025
The first 162 students fly
By the end of the year, 162 students from Namibia, Kenya, Somalia and Tunisia are studying in Canada, Germany, Romania and Türkiye. All 162 received their visas.
January 2026
PolyGrants becomes a company
PolyGrants Ltd is incorporated in the United Kingdom. The focus turns to two things: enlarging the partner network and building the online platform you are reading now. New people join the adventure.
January to June 2026
The network grows to 244 partners
The partner network expands from 4 destination countries to 244 partner institutions across 16 countries. Demand grows faster than a small team can follow: only 41 applications can be taken and treated in this period. That bottleneck is exactly why this platform exists.
July 2026
V0: the rehearsal
A first version of the platform launches in mid-July to test security, maintainability and the market. It proves it can treat up to 100 applications per day, teaches us what to build better, and is retired at the end of the month.
3 August 2026
The platform you are on launches
PolyGrants officially launches this version: built to treat up to 1,000 applications per day, in 15 languages, with every application followed personally. Processing can take longer at times, because administration and document verification are never rushed.
August 2026
313 more universities say yes
Positive answers arrive from 313 further universities, taking the partner network to 557 institutions across 17 countries. More funded places, in more fields of study, for the students this platform was built for.
Mid-August 2026Ahead
The first local office opens
The first PolyGrants representation offices are expected to open in the Republic of the Congo: real desks in real cities, where students can be informed honestly, face to face.
October to November 2026Ahead
Offices across the continent
Further offices are planned to open progressively across Africa, in the countries below and beyond, following where students need us most.
Our objectives for the years ahead
Ambitions, not guarantees, written down with a year on each so you can hold us to them.
- 2027
Scale the first full cycle
Support more than 2,000 students through the platform's first complete cycle, while keeping the follow-up personal and adviser-led. Open the language learning platform to accepted students, and have representation offices working in at least 12 countries.
- 2028
Make credentials verifiable
Launch the credential verification platform with the first agreements signed with education authorities, universities and employers. Grow the network beyond 1,000 partner institutions and 20 destination countries.
- 2029
The ten-thousandth student
Pass 10,000 students sent abroad since 2025, with an alumni community mentoring the next applicants from their own campuses, and verified African credentials recognised by institutions on every continent.
- 2030
The reference for the African Dream
PolyGrants as the reference platform for African students worldwide: more than 30 destination countries, more than 2,500 partner institutions, offices across the continent, and a PolyGrants scholarship fund financing students who could not otherwise go.
The board
PolyGrants is led by people who have lived this journey themselves: who studied far from home, worked across borders and built the partnerships this platform stands on.
Paul Joseph Ondaye Gatse MD, MSc (ongoing)
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
A medical doctor who knows first-hand what it takes to study far from home. Founded PolyGrants to turn the path he had to fight for into a bridge anyone can cross.
I did not build PolyGrants to send students abroad. I built it so that a dream born in Brazzaville, Nairobi or Tunis weighs exactly as much as one born anywhere else.
Fatih Serdar Erkan
Project Management Officer
Keeps the machine honest: plans, deadlines and delivery across every PolyGrants project, from the platform to the first local offices.
Trust is an operations problem. Every promise on this website becomes a plan, a deadline and a person responsible for it.
Mehmet Sinan Çiloğlu
Head of Partnerships and Strategy
Architect of the partner network: 557 institutions across 17 countries, each agreement negotiated and verified before a single student is matched to it.
Behind every scholarship is a relationship someone built with care. Our network was made one honest conversation at a time, and that is why it holds.
The people behind every application
Beyond the board, PolyGrants runs on teams that share one job description: get a student from dream to departure, honestly.
Student Success Specialists
The people applicants talk to. Ten specialists by July 2026, and growing: they review every application, explain every response and follow each case personally, from first question to boarding.
Operations team
The builders and keepers of the machinery: the platform, the processes and the standards that let a small company treat applications with institutional seriousness.
Local Representatives
Our presence on the ground across Africa. Representatives inform students honestly in their own cities, help them apply correctly and stay close throughout.
Partnerships team
The team that builds the opportunity network: negotiating admission and scholarship places with institutions, verifying every programme before we publish it, and keeping each deadline and requirement current.
Want to be part of it? We are hiring
Coming to a city near you
From July 2026, PolyGrants started opening local representation offices across Africa. The first are expected in the Republic of the Congo by mid-August 2026, with more opening progressively through October and November 2026 and beyond, depending on where students need us.
- Congo
- DR Congo
- Cameroon
- Côte d'Ivoire
- Nigeria
- Niger
- Senegal
- Mali
- Somalia
- Tunisia
- Morocco
- Algeria
- and more countries to follow
Congo
DR Congo
Cameroon
Côte d'Ivoire
Nigeria
Niger
Senegal
Mali
Somalia
Tunisia
Morocco
AlgeriaWhat we are building next
Studying abroad is more than an admission letter. Two projects are in active development to complete the journey.
A language learning platform
Live instruction with professional, experienced and certified teachers, so an accepted student arrives ready to study, work and live in the language of their new country.
A credential verification platform
A trusted way to verify education and professional credentials: certificates, transcripts and diplomas. PolyGrants is in active discussions with competent authorities in multiple countries, from education ministries to universities and employers, to make this real.
Why verification matters
Our aim is to become a reference for credential verification in Africa: to strengthen the credibility of African credentials wherever they are presented, to fight fraud, and to let every applicant carry a verifiable CV and verifiable documents into any application, anywhere.
In good company
PolyGrants works alongside institutions and organisations that share the same conviction about what young talent can do.
- Advance Africa
and many other universities, associations and organisations in the four corners of the world.
In their own words
The students of the first cohort tell it better than we ever could.
I thought studying abroad was for other people, people with connections. PolyGrants treated my file like it mattered, and today I am writing this from my campus.
First cohort, December 2025 · studying in Canada
What I remember is that nobody ever promised me magic. They told me the truth at every step, and then the truth became a visa and a scholarship.
First cohort, December 2025 · studying in Germany
My family did not believe it until they saw the plane ticket. A full scholarship. From our own city, with our own documents.
First cohort, December 2025 · studying in Romania
Verify us
PolyGrants Ltd was incorporated in the United Kingdom in January 2026. Registration details are public; we encourage every applicant to verify them before trusting anyone with their future, including us.
- Company
- PolyGrants Ltd
- Company number
- 16951447
- Registered in
- United Kingdom
- Registered office
- 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom
Talk to us
Questions about who we are or how we work? Ask; verifying us before trusting us is exactly what we recommend.
Your story could be the next milestone on this page
Somewhere above, there is an empty space on our timeline with your name on it. Start your application and let us realise your dream together.
Start my application