Here are the 12 startups selected for Google Launchpad Africa’s third class

Google has revealed the names of the 12 startups selected for the third cohort of its Launchpad Africa accelerator, based in Lagos. They include four startups from Kenya, three from Nigeria, two from South Africa and one each from Uganda, Senegal and Egypt.

The names of the startups were revealed in a blog post by Google Developers earlier this month, in which the tech giant also revealed the names of those startups selected for its Brazil and India accelerators.

Google said its team reviewed over 1000 applications in all for its Africa, Brazil and India cohorts. Applications for the Launchpad Accelerator Africa 3 cohort closed on 13 January.

Participants receive access to intensive mentoring from over 20 teams of Google engineers, access to Silicon Valley experts and top local mentors, as well as an opportunity to partner with Google for three months.

Google has revealed the names of the 12 startups selected for the third cohort of its Launchpad Africa accelerator, based in Lagos

“The startups chosen represent those using technology to create a positive impact on key industries in their region and we look forward to supporting them and connecting them with startup ecosystems around the world,” Google said in a blog post on 11 March.

For its Africa programme, Google has selected 12 startups from six African countries. They are:

• 54Gene (Nigeria): Improves drug discovery by researching the genetically diverse African population.
• Data Integrated Limited (Kenya): Automates and digitises SME payments, connecting the street to high finance.
• Instadiet.me (Egypt): Connects patients to credible nutritionists and dietitians to help them maintain a healthy and optimal weight online.
• Kwara (Kenya): Provides a rich digital banking platform to established fair lenders such as credit unions or savings and credit cooperatives, with an open API to enable and accelerate their inclusion into the formal financial system.
• OkHi (Kenya): A physical addressing platform for emerging markets — on a mission to enable the billions without a physical address to “be included.”
• PAPS (Senegal): Logistics startup focused on last-mile delivery and domestic market, with strong client-care orientation, allowing live tracking, intelligent addresses system and automatic dispatch.
• ScholarX (Nigeria): Connects high potential students with funding opportunities to help them access an education
• Swipe2pay (Uganda): A web and mobile payments solution that democratises electronic payments for SMEs by making it easy for them to accept mobile as a mode of payment.
• Tambua Health Inc (Kenya): Turns a normal smartphone into a powerful, non-invasive diagnostic tool for tuberculosis and pneumonia. It uses a cough sound acoustic signature, symptoms, risk factors, and clinical information to come up with a diagnostic report.
• Voyc.ai (South Africa): A CX Research Platform that helps companies understand their customers by turning their customer research into insights, profiles, and customer journey maps.
• WellaHealth (Nigeria): A pharmacy marketplace for affordable, high-quality disease care driven by artificial intelligence starting with malaria.
• Zelda Learning (South Africa): Provides free online career guidance for students looking to enter university and linking them to funding and study opportunities.

Launchpad Accelerator Africa was announced in July 2017 and will run until 2020, with two intakes of 10 to 12 startups per year, representing an investment of $3-million in equity-free support, working space, and access to expert advisers from Google, Silicon Valley, and Africa over the three years.

Startups in 17 countries across the continent including Algeria, Botswana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe are able to apply to participate in the programme.

To be eligible, startups have to be technology startups, based in Sub-Saharan Africa, target the African market, and have raised seed funding.

In November last year the accelerator revealed that the 11 startups from the second class of Google’s Launchpad Africa accelerator have created 253 jobs and have raised over $12-million before and during the programme (see this story).

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