Thirteen African and Africa-focused startups graduated yesterday in US accelerator Y Combinator‘s latest batch. Each can have netted $150 000 in funding.
Twice a year, the US seed accelerator invests $150 000 in selected startups, in exchange for a seven percent equity stake from each startup selected for its winter and summer batches. The startups relocate to Silicon Valley for three months, with each batch culminating in a demo day.
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The Silicon Valley based accelerator held the demo day for its Winter 20 (W20) batch yesterday digitally because of the coronavirus crisis. In all 197 startups from 32 countries took part in the current cohort (see the full list here).
In all 13 of the 197 startups that took part in Y Combinator’s latest batch were African startups or African-focused firms
According to an article today by Disrupt Africa, 13 of these are African and Africa-facing startups. These are:
CrowdForce (US, Nigeria) CrowdForce is a retail-tech solutions developer founded by Damilola and Oluwatomi Ayorinde (pictured above, from left to right) in 2018. Via the blockchain, the startup allows “CrowdForce” field network agents to work with the “CrowdForce” platform which allows businesses, banks, digital wallets, crypto exchanges and developers to set up micro tasks and services.
Send (Nigeria): This logistics startup was founded by Larry Oti in 2017. The startup says it is building digital shipping infrastructure for Africa to enable inter and intra African trade.
Bamboo (US, Nigeria): An online investment brokerage which has an app that provides investors with access to over 3000 stocks listed on the Nigerian stock exchange and US stock exchanges. The startup was founded by Richmond Bassey and Yanmo Omorogbe in January last year.
Swipe (Nigeria): The startup offers finance to small businesses.
Termii (US, Nigeria): This startup helps African businesses to send messages to anyone across SMS, email, voice and instant messaging channels. The company was founded in 2017 by Gbolade Emmanuel and Ayomide Awe.
Numi (US, Kenya): Numi is a wholesale import marketplace, which facilitates the provision of consumer products from the US to retailers and wholesalers in Africa. The startup was founded in 2018 by Agree Ahmed and Harrison Telyan.
WorkPay (Kenya): This startup, founded in January last year by Paul Kimani, offers a payroll processing platform.
Tambua Health (US, Kenya): This e-health startup, founded by Eric Kirima and Daniel Gathigai in 2017, utilises artificial intelligence, spectral analysis and machine learning to offer affordable and accessible tools in the diagnosis of respiratory tract infections
Yassir (Algeria): This ride-hailing startup was founded in 2016 by among others Amel Delli.
Healthlane (Cameroonian): This e-health startup was founded by among others Alain Nteff, in September last year.
Avion (Ethiopia): This startup offers a drone delivery network.
Read more: Here are the African startups that pitched at Y Combinator’s Winter 2019 Demo Day
Read more: Y Combinator increases deal size to $150k, adds investment contract types
Featured image (from left to right): MyCrowdforce founders Damilola Ayorinde and Oluwatomi Ayorind (Twitter)
