This archive report was first published on 3 December 2019.
12 Startups Graduate from Google Launchpad Accelerator Africa ¶
At the first-ever Google Startup Week in Nigeria, twelve startups from six countries graduated from the fourth class of Google Launchpad Accelerator Africa, marking a significant milestone in their growth journey.
These startups, which had collectively raised over $600,000 before joining the program, were able to scale their businesses to new levels with the support of Launchpad Accelerator Africa. The program, which was first announced in late 2017, has worked with 47 startups on their growth journey, raising millions of dollars in investments and creating hundreds of jobs across the continent.
Each of the selected startups received working space, access to expert advisers from Google, Silicon Valley, and Africa, as well as travel and PR support during the three-month program. The startups were also given the opportunity to meet and engage with each other, sharing their experiences for the first time.
The Class 4 startups graduating from Launchpad Accelerator Africa are:
- Afara Partners (Nigeria): Offers platforms that provide services to the financially underserved/excluded.
- BrandBook (South Africa): A mobile app that incentivises users to take a picture of their receipts, allowing it to harvest consumer purchase behaviour across all channels.
- Elewa (Kenya): A toolkit for establishing scalable high-quality training programs within existing education- or professional institutions.
- Eversend (Uganda): A multi-currency e-wallet that allows users to exchange, spend and send money at the best possible rates.
- OZÉ (Ghana): Brings African small businesses into the digital era, equipping their owners to make data-driven decisions to improve their performance and access capital.
- Phenomenal Technologies (Zimbabwe): Offers low-cost field excursions for learners through virtual reality.
- REACH (Nigeria): Recognises, categorises and interprets transaction data from SMS and other sources, making this data available as individual financial and market insights.
- Sortd (South Africa): Aims to re-invent email with the world’s first All-in-One productivity suite for Gmail and GSuite.
- TradeBuza (Nigeria): A cloud-based web and mobile application that digitises contract farming and trade.
- Tulaa (Kenya): An online-to-offline marketplace for smallholder farmers in Africa.
- XEND (Nigeria): Allows users to make and receive payments, offline or online.
- WorkPay (Kenya): A cloud-based employee management and payment solution using the power of mobile and biometrics.
Launchpad Accelerator Africa alumni who had a chance to pitch for funding from some of Africa & the UK’s top venture capitalists (VCs) were selected classes 1, 2 and 3. These alumni were also selected for a three-month Google for Startups UK Africa Immersion Programme in London to bring the best of Google and the London startup ecosystem to tech companies from Africa that do not yet have a presence in the UK.
London Immersion Africa Startups:
- 54gene (Nigeria): African DNA makes up only 2% of genetic research material used in pharmaceutical research. Founded in 2019, 54gene is creating the world’s first and largest pan-African biobank.
- Fieldinsight (Nigeria): Helps to collect data in a structured manner using mobile and IoT devices. It then aggregates and represents this data through visualisations to help businesses make the best decisions.
- Kwara (Kenya): Powers financial cooperatives with technology so they can meet their members needs instantly.
- OkHi (Kenya): Creates digital addresses for people, which they can use (for free) to access reliable business services.
- Paps (Senegal): An African logistics startup focused on the last mile delivery and domestic markets, with strong client care orientation, allowing live tracking, intelligent address systems and automatic dispatch.
- Piggyvest (Nigeria): An automated savings and investments platform that helps Nigerians save little amounts of money periodically, and then invest those funds for competitive returns.
- PayGo Energy (Kenya): A connected home gas meter that links to a global IoT-based infrastructure for cooking gas delivery within high-density, high-demand urban communities.
- ThankUCash (Nigeria): An analytics and rewards platform built to enable banks and businesses in Africa to acquire, reward and retain loyal customers.
- Thrive Agric (Nigeria): Provides farmers with access to finance, data-driven advisory and access to a market upon harvest.
- Voyc (South Africa): On a mission to accelerate the world’s transition towards customer-centricity by making it easy for companies to understand their customers.
