Twelve tech startups have been selected to form the third cohort of the Google Launchpad Accelerator Africa, which assists startups to exploit Google’s technologies to scale their businesses.
The names of the startups selected for the accelerator programs in Africa, Brazil and India were revealed in a blog post by Google Developers earlier this month. 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, Silicon Valley experts and top local mentors, as well as an opportunity to partner with Google for three months.
Google Launchpad Accelerator program in Africa was launched in 2017 to support top-seed startups on the continent. The Launchpad accelerator program provides over $3 million in equity-free support to more than 60 African tech startups. Google said its team reviewed over 1000 applications in all for its Africa, Brazil and India cohorts.
“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,” said Roy Glasberg, founder of Launchpad Accelerator.
Google has now named the third cohort of those selected for programmes in Africa, Brazil and India, after receiving over 1,000 applications.
The selected startups come from six African sub-Saharan countries with Kenya leading the way with four payment platforms Data Integrated, Kwara, OkHi, and Tambua Health. Nigeria is represented by three startups, 54Gene, ScholarX, and WellaHealth. South Africa’s two representatives are Voyc.ai and Zelda Learning. Egypt’s Instadiet.me, Senegalese’s PAPS and Ugandan Swipe2pay also made the list. The Launchpad Africa Accelerator is based in Lagos, Nigeria.
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The Startups selected 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.
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 in education.
Swipe2pay (Uganda): A web and mobile payments solution that democratises electronic payments for SMEs by making it easy for them to pay with their mobile phones.
Tambua Health Inc (Kenya): A healthtech startup that helps to detect diseases such as Tuberculosis and Pneumonia with a smartphone. 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 healthtech startup for affordable treatment of diseases including a malaria testing service, driven by artificial intelligence.
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 $3million in equity-free support, working space, and access to expert advisory for three years. 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.