Nigerian startups dominate the 2021 Google’s Black Founders Fund for Africa

26 out of the 50 technology startups across Africa selected by Google for the Black Founders Fund are Nigerian-led.  

The $5 million Google for Startups Black Founders Fund that is designed to provide non-dilutive cash awards to Black led startups in the Africa, the United States and Europe.

For this year, 50 technology startups drawn from 9 African countries namely; Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Rwanda, Zambia and Cote d’Ivoire will receive up to $100,000 paired with up to $220,000 per startup in Google Ad Grants and Cloud credits to help Black founders grow their businesses.

With 26 startups, Nigeria tops the list, followed by 9 Kenyan-led, 5 from South Africa, 4 Ghanaian-led. Meanwhile, 2 out of the 50 startups are from Rwanda and one each from Zambia, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia and Cameroon.

According to Google, out of the selected startups 40% are women-led startups from 12 sectors, including Nigeria’s Shecluded — a financial service and business resource company driving inclusion for women on the continent. These ‘startups have created 1053 jobs, of which 44% are women’.

Per TechCrunch, Google’s Sub Saharan Africa managing director, Nitin Gajria said, ‘there is a significant gap in terms of access to funding. Some groups do not have access to funding as much as other groups.

Gajria stated that, ‘we have seen that with black and female-founded startups. And our effort with the Black Founders Fund is to help close that gap to some extent’

Below is the list of the selected startups.

The selected startups:

Nigeria:

1. Babymigo: Babymigo is a healthtech platform that provides quality health information to pregnant mothers and Nursing mothers with babies between 0 – 6 years old.
2. Bumpa: Bumpa is a free inventory management and marketing startup that helps small business owners sell, manage and track everything in their business from their mobile devices.
3. Chekkit: Chekkit is a health tech company providing product intelligence and battling medication counterfeiting for businesses in Africa.
4. CredPal: CredPal is a Fintech that provides consumer credit infrastructure to ease consumer credit purchase, and enable retail businesses to provide on-demand credit for consumers in Africa.
5. Crop2Cash: Crop2Cash is an AgTech that makes access to credit easy for smallholder farmers.
6. Curacel: Curacel is an AI driven SaaS product that offers digital infrastructure to insurance providers to grow on the African continent.
7. Emergency Response Africa: Emergency Response Africa is building the largest network of First Responders and verified Emergency-Ready hospitals across Nigeria who are connected to emergency victims using our application.
8. Formplus: Formplus is a data collection and analysis company that helps businesses to collect data from their customers who are online and offline.
9. GeroCare: GeroCare is a cloud based hospital that makes it extremely easy for Africans within or outside Africa to provide regular home doctor visits and home medical care for their parents and elderly loved ones in their home country via the GeroCare App.
10. Gradely: Gradely is a digital education startup that supports schools and students in personalizing learning resources to help students improve academically.
11. Gricd: Gricd is a solar powered refrigeration technology with real time data loggers that track in real time location and storage conditions of perishable products.
12. Hitch: Hitch is an Edtech platform that enhances learning resources on-demand with contextually relevant educational videos and AR/VR content.
13. Lifestores Healthcare: Lifestores is building an integrated digital pharmacy platform to democratize access to primary healthcare in emerging markets.
14. mDoc Healthcare: mDoc is a healthtech company focused on harnessing the power of virtual self-care support to empower people with their health.
15. Medsaf: Medsaf is a healthtech that increases access, affordability, and quality of medications dispensed.
16. My-medicine: My-medicine is a healthtech that provides a fully aggregated online medicine-ordering platform
17. Pick Me Up: Pick Me Up is a mobility platform that allows you to book a safe and affordable ride in minutes using your smartphone.
18. Pineapple: Pineapple is a digital-first insurance provider that allows users to insure their belongings at the snap of a picture, using artificial intelligence.
19. Reach: REACH is a Fintech that uses transaction informatics to create personal finance and market research tools for people in Africa.
20. Send: SEND is a digital freight forwarder and customs broker for Africa.
21. Shecluded: Shecluded is a digital financial growth resource and service startup for women.
22. Tix.Africa: Tix.africa is a self-service ticketing platform for event creators.
23. Touch and Pay: Touch and Pay is a smart cities startup driving automated transportation fare collection
24. TradeBuza: Tradebuza is an Agritech startup building a data and API infrastructure for agriculture finance and last mile operations.
25. Treepz: Treepz is building the largest shared mobility startup in Nigeria, that leverages mobile technology to connect its users with predictable travel times, bus travelling options and safer travel across cities in Africa.
26. Whispa Health: Whispa Health provides private, shame-free access to sexual and reproductive health information, products and services

Kenya:

1. Amitruck: Amitruck is a digital marketplace for affordable deliveries in Kenya, connecting clients directly with transporters – cutting out expensive middlemen.
2. Angaza Elimu: Angaza Elimu is an EdTech startup focused on delivering quality and relevant education on demand using AI.
3. AquaRech: AquaRech is an AgTech leveraging mobile app technology to improve fish farmers productivity, enable market access and create an inclusive aquaculture value chain.
4. Raise: Raise helps companies, investors and employees to track equity and distribute digital securities in their portfolios.
5. Finplus: Finplus is a software company that enables SME retailers to have access to instant working capital by providing transaction transparency to Consumer Goods companies and Banks.
6. WorkPay: Workpay is a software company providing businesses with tools to enable them better and efficiently manage their employees.
7. Pezesha: Pezesha provides affordable working capital to underserved and excluded MSMEs across Africa.
8. MarketForce: MarketForce is a retail platform that enables informal merchants to source, order and pay for inventory digitally and conveniently in Africa.
9. Imali Pay: Imali Pay is a one-stop-shop of financial services for the gig economy, by offering in-kind lending that offers a safety net around their work and drives their productivity.

South Africa

1. Akiba Digital: Akiba Digital is a Fintech that provides alternative credit scoring to lenders and also enables small businesses to access better financing from lenders.
2. Khula!: Khula is an ecosystem of digital platforms (mobile and web) that exist to make the agri value chain more efficient & fair.
3. Kudoti: Kudoti empowers a network of recycling stakeholders to buy and sell recovered waste resources and create opportunities in the informal waste sector.
4. Oyi: Oyi is a Fintech that provides prepaid medical savings card to help people to budget and save for their medical and healthcare needs.
5. Whoosh: Whoosh offers digital payment solutions for merchants and businesses looking at expanding their businesses online via web portal or mobile app.

Ghana

1. Tendo: Tendo enables anyone in Africa to sell online with zero capital investment
2. Grow For Me: Grow For Me is a web and mobile-(USSD) based Agricultural crowdfunding, crowd farming, and commodity trading platform.
3. Shopa: Shopa is a retail technology startup that helps informal African retailers restock in a convenient manner.
4. WayaMoney: Waya Money is a Fintech startup providing cross-border and cross-network payment and money transfer solutions.

Rwanda

1. AC Group: AC Group is a logistics company that digitizes the informal public sector in Africa.
2. Bongalo: Bongalo is a marketplace for African travel accommodation, allowing users to book directly on the platform and pay with mobile wallets.

Ethiopia

1. Taskmoby: Taskmoby is the first digital marketplace in Ethiopia connecting users with much-needed home service professionals by leveraging our Android applications and our call centre.

Zambia

1. Lupiya: Lupiya is the first fully online micro-lending business in Zambia, offering online personal and business loans to marginalized communities with a focus on enabling access for women.

Cote d’Ivoire

1. Paps: Paps is a transport and logistics company that offers innovative distribution and delivery solutions to companies and merchants.

Cameroon

1. Infiuss Health: Infiuss health is a healthtech platform that helps connect researchers to participants for clinical trials and research across Africa.

What is the Google for Startups Accelerator?

Founded in 2018, the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa Program has supported 82 top technology startups including Paystack, Piggyvest and Twiga who have been able to conjointly raise over $100 million in venture capital.

Google for Startups Accelerator Africa is a three-month accelerator program for Seed to Series A technology startups across the African continent. The accelerator is designed to bring the best of Google’s programs, products, people and technology to startups that leverage machine learning and AI in their company today or plan to in the future.

Mentorship and technical project support are also provided for the participants, part of activities during the program includes; deep dives and workshops focused on product design, customer acquisition and leadership development for founders, specialized training, media opportunities and access to Google’s network of engineers and experts.

Applications for Class 7 (2022) will open November 1st 2021