The first virtual class of Google for Startups Accelerator Africa is graduating this week. The 7-week program has seen 20 startups from 7 African countries refine their product offerings and undergo mentoring and workshops in various areas including; technology, product development and business growth.
Google for Startups Accelerator Africa gives early-stage startups access to Google’s people, network, and advanced technologies.
The 2020 class included startups from Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tunisia and Zimbabwe. The startups operate in various fields such as; logistics, transportation, education, agriculture, e-commerce, media, health and professional services.
Onajte Emerhor, Head of Google for Startups Accelerator Africa, said, “To date we have celebrated wins with one Nigerian startup playing their part in the fight against COVID-19 and three raising funding – one notable win being Franc raising a seed round of $250,000 after joining the program.”
The fifth iteration of the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa took part in three virtual bootcamps. The program covered a variety of subjects on technology, product, people and growth.
The Tech & Product bootcamp assessed the startups’ value offerings and technology to ensure they were optimised to run efficiently with solid business models.
The Tech & People bootcamp took the founders through the Founders Lab. This program evaluated the startups’ current managerial styles and advised them on how to improve their leadership skills.
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In the final week, the startups prepared to meet investors before finally graduating.
These are the 20 graduating startups (arranged in alphabetical order);
- Adi+Bolga (Ghana): Adi+Bolga uses technology to provide virtual skincare consultations and accurate personalised product recommendations to consumers.
- AmiTruck (Kenya): Amitruck is a digital platform that seeks to bring trust, transparency and efficiency to logistics by using technology to connect cargo owners and transporters.
- Beamm (South Africa): Beamm allows users to make Hollywood style CGI and VFX videos with ease.
- BuuPass (Kenya): BuuPass works with transport operators to provide digital solutions that seamlessly facilitate the convenient and reliable movement of commuters.
- Crediation (Kenya): Crediation empowers tech startups to lend to their customers. It provides APIs and a dashboard to allow its partners to access funds for lending and process loans.
- Credpal (Nigeria): CredPal develops consumer credit infrastructure to ease consumer credit purchases, and enable retail businesses to provide on-demand credit for consumers in Africa.
- Crop2Cash (Nigeria): Crop2Cash is an offline accessible platform for farmers, making it possible for them to pay, get paid, and access agricultural credit via USSD while assuring financial institutions of their lending capital.
- Curacel (Nigeria): Curacel is a Claims and Fraud Detection Platform for African insurers.
- Festival Coins (Nigeria): Festival Coins is a suite of tools to help event organisers produce better events, with features including online ticketing, access control, cashless payments, and event reporting.
- Franc (South Africa): Franc.app is an investment app that helps first time investors realise their dreams by providing access to the best cash and equity funds without minimums or restrictions.
- Ilara Health (Kenya): Ilara Health brings essential diagnostic support and impactful software products to patients and providers across peri-urban sub-Saharan Africa, who currently are unable to access these basic life-saving tools.
- Judy (Nigeria): The smart, comprehensive database of African case law and legislation.
- Kaoun (Tunisia): Kaoun enables unbanked and underbanked individuals and businesses to access financial services through identification, payment and credit solutions.
- Send (Nigeria): Digital freight forwarder and customs broker for Africa.
- Stears (Nigeria): Stears is a trusted provider of high-quality African information that improves decision-making.
- The Smarthub (Nigeria): A platform to build and develop smart ideas for social impact, scalability and investment.
- Thumeza (Zimbabwe): A next-generation logistics platform utilising data in order to optimise the logistics function for enterprises.
- Uzapoint (Kenya): UzaPoint is an enterprise resource planning tool that enhances the efficiency, profitability and business intelligence of small scale businesses in retail.
- Zayride (Ethiopia): Zayride provides reliable, timely, and safe cab services using technologically enabled dispatch systems and integrated mobile money systems for payment.
- Zuka Data Science (Kenya): A blended learning platform with engaging data science programs designed by experts to enable individuals and organisations at all levels become data fluent.
Google for Startups Accelerator program first launched in 2018. It has since helped 47 startups from 17 African countries. These are; Algeria, Botswana, Cameroon, Côte D’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
