SA startups Pineapple, Preeva win place in Google’s Launchpad Accelerator Africa

SA startups Pineapple and Preeva will join nine other companies in Lagos soon, with the announcement today by Google of the second class of Launchpad Accelerator Africa.

Pineapple last month launched its new insurance product (see this story).

In a press release today Google said the 11 startups were selected from more than 250 applications. The programme kicks off today.

It follows the completion earlier this year of the first cohort in which 12 startups participated, including agritech platform swiftVEE from South Africa (the founder Russel Luck details his experience of the programme in this story).

The finalists will each receive three months of mentorship and support from Google, Cloud and Firebase Credits, three weeks all-expense-paid training at Launchpad Accelerator Africa in Lagos and Johannesburg and access to Google engineers, resources, and mentors, during and after the programme.

In addition, participants will be included in the Launchpad Accelerator Global Community and network of alumni and mentors.

The 11 startups for class two for Google’s Launchpad Accelerator Africa were selected from more than 250 applications

While Google accepted applications from 11 new countries (in addition to the six it already drew application from for the first cohort) — only one startup from the 11 new countries made it into the second class — namely Egypt’s Mintrics, which runs a social video intelligence platform.

The 11 new countries included Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Cameroon, Botswana, Senegal, Ethiopia, Cote d’Ivoire and Algeria.

The 11 finalists are from six countries. Four are from Nigeria, two from South Africa and Kenya each and one each from Ghana, Uganda and Egypt. The names of the 11 are:

AppZone (Nigeria): AppZone builds Software as a service (SaaS) fintech software ecosystems for digital banks, allowing them to reduce operational costs while improving service delivery.

Chalkboard Education (Ghana): Allows educational institutions to make their curricula available via mobile devices (USSD, SMS, and internet). It also lets those institutes gather insights about student learning patterns and helps them create and adapt curricula for the mobile space.

Cloud9xp (Kenya): Cloud9xp is an online marketplace and booking service that allows people to buy and sell experiences in various locations across Africa and the Middle East.

EzyAgric (Uganda): EzyAgric is an on-demand platform that provides inclusive and data-driven access to finance, production and marketing services for farmers and agribusinesses in Uganda. It does so through a network of youth agents equipped with smartphones and other forms of agricultural technology, providing employment and helping farmers improve yields and market access in one go.

Formplus (Nigeria): Formplus allows companies to collect online and offline data through the use of customisable digital forms. The startup also provides analytics based on form answers and allows for payment collection via PayPal, Stripe and Flutterwave

Medsaf (Nigeria): Medsaf is a one-stop, curated medication marketplace for African hospitals and pharmacies.

Mintrics (Egypt): This social video intelligence platform helps brands and agencies understand how people are interacting with their social videos, giving them insight into what is and isn’t working and thereby maximising their ROI.

PayGo Energy (Kenya): PayGo’s smart meter and connected software service allows players in the LP gas (LPG) value chain to better service their customers, driving the adoption of clean cooking fuels.

Pineapple (South Africa): Pineapple’s unique machine learning technology allows users to easily insure individual items using just a mobile app.

Preeva (South Africa): Preeva is an online platform that connects students with young educators who provide tutoring help at school and university.

Thank U Cash (Nigeria): Thank U Cash is an online rewards platform that allows consumers to save and earn loyalty points that can be swapped for cash and merchants to benefit from extra spend.

Read more: Google to reveal names of second cohort of Launchpad Accelerator Africa today
Read more: Google opens applications for its second class of Launchpad Africa accelerator
Read more: Google is backing it, but how does SA startup swiftVEE’s platform really work?
Read more: Google’s Launchpad Accelerator Africa announces first cohort of 12 startups
Read more: Lagos is perfect backdrop for startups says Google Launchpad Accelerator man

*Correction: Google initially stated that it extended applications to 12 more African countries. It is in fact 11.

Featured image: Pineapple team with founders Marnus van Heerden (standing, top right), Matthew Elan Smith (seated, far right) and Ndabenhle Junior Ngulube (middle, right of flag) (Supplied)