This archive report was first published on 17 July 2019.
Google's Accelerator Programme Empowers African Tech Start-Ups ¶
Two years ago, Daniel Warui, a mathematics and computer science graduate, and his friends developed an app that uses lung sounds to detect pulmonary tuberculosis, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The technology has the potential to save millions of Africans.
Warui and his team, Erick Kirima and Lewis Wanjohi, applied for Google's Launchpad Accelerator Africa programme to refine their system and learn how to pitch to investors and raise capital. Out of hundreds of African start-ups that applied, their company, Tambua Health, was selected, along with 11 other young tech-entrepreneurs.
Google's programme has been equipping tech start-ups with skills and tools to build their own solutions. The company wants an Africa that builds its own tech solutions, said Jola Aderemi-Makinde, the head of brand and reputation in Africa. The programme has trained 35 start-ups and is looking to mentor about 60 of them and reach 100,000 developers.
“Africa is growing in finance, logistics, health, education … Why shouldn’t the technology for these industries be built here? We want to change this continent by training Africans and giving them skills so that they can be economically viable. Africa will only be changed by Africans,” said Aderemi-Makinde.
The three-month programme brings in successful serial tech-preneurs, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning experts to mentor the start-up founders. Days into graduating from the boot camp in Lagos, Nigeria, the three Tambua Health founders were tweaking their system to use AI, which will produce more accurate results.
“When we joined the boot camp, we came in with the idea of using sounds in analysing the lungs but after working with the Google’s artificial intelligence team, we realised that we can use AI. We want to solve the misdiagnoses problem and reduce deaths. Sometimes people are given drugs for COPD yet they have tuberculosis,” said Lewis, who is still studying in the US.
Another Kenyan company in the Google accelerator programme was OkHi, an app that allows users to easily locate customers who do not have street addresses. OkHi is one of the fastest-growing tech start-ups in Nairobi and has already struck deals with 20 locally-based companies.
Timbo Drayson, one of the founders of OkHi, said theirs is a solution that links people to places. “OkHi is a digital addressing solution that is a best told by a target user. Our target user is Juliet, a middle class who has no proper physical address in Nairobi. She doesn’t live on any road, she lives by a big tree at a corner after the speed bump at the green gate,” he said.
Companies pay a flat fee of Sh10 to Sh100 per delivery to use OkHi. “We have powered almost 500,000 deliveries in Nairobi. We have helped Java, Tile & Carpet among others reduce their delivery time by 20 percent,” he added.
Despite the progress, African tech start-ups still face challenges, including a lack of venture capital and hesitancy by wealthy Africans to invest in their own start-ups. Most of the 12 start-ups have easily received funding from foreign investors, but Mr Drayson's company is one of the few that have received cash from Kenyan angel investors.
“We have raised $1.3 million (Sh1.3 billion) to date, which has been a mix of foreign and local investors. We have five Kenyan angel investors already and we closed some money from Nigerians as well,” he said.
Published on July 17, 2019
