We’ve talked about Google Launchpad Accelerator before and it’s a pretty cool program. Google’s accelerator program enables startups to access $3 million in equity-free support, working space, and access to advertisers from Google, Silicon Valley and in Africa. Google will also provide 3-month partnership along with access to Google engineers and mentorship from 20+ teams.
This year, Google reviewed over 1,000 applications for these programs and were “thoroughly impressed” with the quality of startups that indicated their interest. 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. There was much more diversity in this year’s startups as
Who got the nod?
From Africa here are the 12 startups that made it;
- Data Integrated Limited(Kenya) – Automating and digitizing SME payments, connecting the street to high finance.
- Kwara(Kenya) – Providing a rich digital banking platform to established fair lenders such as credit unions or savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOs), with an open API to enable and accelerate their inclusion into the formal financial ecosystem.
- OkHi (Kenya) – A physical addressing platform for emerging markets – on a mission to enable the billions without a physical address to “be included.”
- Tambua Health Inc. (Kenya) – Turning a normal smartphone into a powerful, non-invasive diagnostic tool for Tuberculosis and Pneumonia. It uses a cough sound acoustic signature, symptoms, risk factors, and clinical information to come up with a diagnostic report.
- 54Gene (Nigeria) – Improving drug discovery by researching the genetically diverse African population
- WellaHealth (Nigeria) – A pharmacy marketplace for affordable, high-quality disease care driven by artificial intelligence starting with malaria.
- ScholarX (Nigeria) – Connecting high potential students with funding opportunities to help them access an education.
- me (Egypt) – Connecting patients to credible nutritionists and dietitians to help them maintain a healthy and optimal weight online.
- PAPS (Senegal) – Logistics startup focused on last mile delivery and domestic market, with strong client care orientation, allowing live tracking, intelligent adresses system and automatic dispatch.
- Swipe2pay (Uganda) – A web and mobile payments solution that democratizes electronic payments for SMEs by making it easy for them to accept mobile as a mode of payment.
- Zelda Learning (South Africa) – Providing free online career guidance for students looking to enter university and linking them to funding and study opportunities.
- 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.
