Google has selected 26 Nigerian Technology startups to join others across Africa for its Black Founders Fund.
The startups will join Google’s programme it said would be starting Oct 13th, 2021.
According to the tech giant, the programme will provide a non-dilutive cash awards to African startups in the continent.
It said the programme would be providing $5 million to the sartups.
50 African startups were selected across Africa for the fund tagged 2021 Google for Startups Black Founders Fund in Africa.
Google said it selected the 50 technology startups from 9 African countries, with Nigeria alone dominating with 26.
List of the countries:
The countries Google selected the technology startups include:
Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Ghana.
Others include Ethiopia, Cameroon, Rwanda, Zambia and Cote d’Ivoire.
Among the countries, Nigeria dominates with 26 startups. Kenya trailed Nigeria behind with nine startups.
Also, South Africa provided five startups while Google chose 4 from Ghana.
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While two startups came from Rwanda, the remaining countries had one startup each on the Google’s list.
What is the Google’s Black Founders Fund:
It is a programs Google said aims at products, people and technology.
It also said the programme will provide mentorship and other tech supports for African startups.
According to the tech giant, the Black Founders Fund in Africa is part of its $175m long-term commitment to support Black business owners in Africa.
It said the fund is to provide economic opportunity in terms of grants and credits for Black business owners.
The Black Founders Fund will provide up to $100,000 in non-dilutive cash awards to the selected startups.
It also said the fund would be paired with up to $220,000 per startup in Google Ad Grants and Cloud credits to help Black founders grow their businesses.
Women-led startups:
Google said in a statement that the technology ecosystem in Africa is witnessing a surge in African women floating startups.
It said among its list, 40% of the 50 startups are led by women.
Google’s Sub Saharan Africa managing director, Nitin Gajria explained that the fund, would help startups grow.
“There is a significant gap in terms of access to funding.”
“Some groups do not have access to funding as much as other groups.”
He also said that “we have seen that with black and female-founded startups.”
“And our effort with the Black Founders Fund is to help close that gap to some extent.”
The Nigerian Startups:
Babymigo: Babymigo is a healthtech platform that provides quality health information to pregnant mothers and Nursing mothers with babies between 0 – 6 years old.
Bumpa: Bumpa is a free inventory management and marketing startup that helps small business owners sell, manage and track everything in their business from their mobile devices.
Chekkit: Chekkit is a health tech company providing product intelligence and battling medication counterfeiting for businesses in Africa.
CredPal: CredPal is a Fintech that provides consumer credit infrastructure to ease consumer credit purchase, and enable retail businesses to provide on-demand credit for consumers in Africa.
Crop2Cash: Crop2Cash is an AgTech that makes access to credit easy for smallholder farmers.
Curacel: Curacel is an AI driven SaaS product that offers digital infrastructure to insurance providers to grow on the African continent.
Emergency Response Africa: Emergency Response Africa is building the largest network of First Responders and verified Emergency-Ready hospitals across Nigeria who are connected to emergency victims using our application.
Formplus: Formplus is a data collection and analysis company that helps businesses to collect data from their customers who are online and offline.
GeroCare: GeroCare is a cloud based hospital that makes it extremely easy for Africans within or outside Africa to provide regular home doctor visits and home medical care for their parents and elderly loved ones in their home country via the GeroCare App.
Gradely: Gradely is a digital education startup that supports schools and students in personalizing learning resources to help students improve academically.
Gricd: Gricd is a solar powered refrigeration technology with real time data loggers that track in real time location and storage conditions of perishable products.
Hitch: Hitch is an Edtech platform that enhances learning resources on-demand with contextually relevant educational videos and AR/VR content.
Lifestores Healthcare: Lifestores is building an integrated digital pharmacy platform to democratize access to primary healthcare in emerging markets.
mDoc Healthcare: mDoc is a healthtech company focused on harnessing the power of virtual self-care support to empower people with their health.
Medsaf: Medsaf is a healthtech that increases access, affordability, and quality of medications dispensed.
My-medicine: My-medicine is a healthtech that provides a fully aggregated online medicine-ordering platform
Pick Me Up: Pick Me Up is a mobility platform that allows you to book a safe and affordable ride in minutes using your smartphone.
Pineapple: Pineapple is a digital-first insurance provider that allows users to insure their belongings at the snap of a picture, using artificial intelligence.
Reach: REACH is a Fintech that uses transaction informatics to create personal finance and market research tools for people in Africa.
Send: SEND is a digital freight forwarder and customs broker for Africa.
Shecluded: Shecluded is a digital financial growth resource and service startup for women.
ix.Africa: Tix.africa is a self-service ticketing platform for event creators.
Touch and Pay: Touch and Pay is a smart cities startup driving automated transportation fare collection
TradeBuza: Tradebuza is an Agritech startup building a data and API infrastructure for agriculture finance and last mile operations.
Treepz: Treepz is building the largest shared mobility startup in Nigeria, that leverages mobile technology to connect its users with predictable travel times, bus travelling options and safer travel across cities in Africa.
Whispa Health: Whispa Health provides private, shame-free access to sexual and reproductive health information, products and services.
Below are the selected startups from South Africa:
Akiba Digital: Akiba Digital is a Fintech that provides alternative credit scoring to lenders and also enables small businesses to access better financing from lenders.
Khula!: Khula is an ecosystem of digital platforms (mobile and web) that exist to make the agri value chain more efficient & fair.
Kudoti: Kudoti empowers a network of recycling stakeholders to buy and sell recovered waste resources and create opportunities in the informal waste sector.
Oyi: Oyi is a Fintech that provides prepaid medical savings card to help people to budget and save for their medical and healthcare needs.
Whoosh: Whoosh offers digital payment solutions for merchants and businesses looking at expanding their businesses online via web portal or mobile app.
For the startups in Ghana, see the bellow:
Ghana
Tendo: Tendo enables anyone in Africa to sell online with zero capital investment
Grow For Me: Grow For Me is a web and mobile-(USSD) based Agricultural crowdfunding, crowd farming, and commodity trading platform.
Shopa: Shopa is a retail technology startup that helps informal African retailers restock in a convenient manner.
WayaMoney: Waya Money is a Fintech startup providing cross-border and cross-network payment and money transfer solutions.
Similarly, nine tech startups came from Kenya:
They include:
Amitruck: Amitruck is a digital marketplace for affordable deliveries in Kenya, connecting clients directly with transporters – cutting out expensive middlemen.
Angaza Elimu: Angaza Elimu is an EdTech startup focused on delivering quality and relevant education on demand using AI.
AquaRech: AquaRech is an AgTech leveraging mobile app technology to improve fish farmers productivity, enable market access and create an inclusive aquaculture value chain.
Raise: Raise helps companies, investors and employees to track equity and distribute digital securities in their portfolios.
Finplus: Finplus is a software company that enables SME retailers to have access to instant working capital by providing transaction transparency to Consumer Goods companies and Banks.
WorkPay: Workpay is a software company providing businesses with tools to enable them better and efficiently manage their employees.
Pezesha: Pezesha provides affordable working capital to underserved and excluded MSMEs across Africa.
MarketForce: MarketForce is a retail platform that enables informal merchants to source, order and pay for inventory digitally and conveniently in Africa.
Imali Pay: Imali Pay is a one-stop-shop of financial services for the gig economy, by offering in-kind lending that offers a safety net around their work and drives their productivity.
For startups in Rwanda, Google selected the following:
AC Group: AC Group is a logistics company that digitizes the informal public sector in Africa.
Bongalo: Bongalo is a marketplace for African travel accommodation, allowing users to book directly on the platform and pay with mobile wallets.
Ethiopia
Taskmoby: Taskmoby is the first digital marketplace in Ethiopia connecting users with much-needed home service professionals by leveraging our Android applications and our call centre.
Zambia
Lupiya: Lupiya is the first fully online micro-lending business in Zambia, offering online personal and business loans to marginalized communities with a focus on enabling access for women.
Cote d’Ivoire
Paps: Paps is a transport and logistics company that offers innovative distribution and delivery solutions to companies and merchants.
Cameroon
Infiuss Health: Infiuss health is a healthtech platform that helps connect researchers to participants for clinical trials and research across Africa.
Implication:
The number of startups that Nigeria alone has among the list shows how the country is committed in technology to solve everyday needs.
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