Two Nigerian startups Moni and Topship, have been confirmed as participants in the famed Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator accelerator’s W22 batch.
Between now and March, the W22 cohort of the Y Combinator program, which helped launch firms like Airbnb, Coinbase, and Dropbox, among others, will take place.
At a demo day, participants earn seed funding as well as additional investment opportunities. The S21 edition of the accelerator featured 15 African participants, the most ever, and the first two confirmed African participants – Ethiopia’s beU Delivery and Nigeria’s digital compliance and security startup Identitypass – were announced earlier this month.
A further two African firms have been named, bringing the total number of verified companies for W22 to above 100. Moni, a neobank that provides funding to mobile money agents through a community-driven model built on social trust, and Topship, a company that provides technology and services to make cargo, freight, and parcel transportation easier for African enterprises, are both from Nigeria.
“We are beyond excited to be a part of this batch and this strongly affirms our mission to build the global distribution system for the movement of goods within and beyond Africa,” said Topship CEO and co-founder Moses Enenwali.
More W22 participants are expected to be revealed in the coming months, both before and after demo day.
Continental royalty such as Flutterwave, Paystack, and Kobo360 are among Y Combinator’s alumni (not to mention Cowrywise, MarketForce, Kudi, WaystoCap, WorkPay, Healthlane, Trella, 54gene, CredPal, NALA and Breadfast).
The accelerator’s standard deal size has just been increased to US$500,000. YC had previously invested US$125,000 for 7% equity, but as part of its new standard deal, it will now spend an additional US$375,000 in an uncapped SAFE with “Most Favoured Nation” (MFN) terms.