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12 Tech Startups Picked For 1st-Ever Google Africa Launchpad Accelerator

12 Tech Startups Picked For 1st-Ever Google Africa Launchpad Accelerator

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Google has announced the first set of 12 tech startups participating in its Launchpad Accelerator Africa class, which is designed to mimic the global program based in Silicon Valley.

The African class will be based in Lagos, with six of the selected startups from Nigeria, two from Kenya, and one each from Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana and South Africa.

In the next three years, Google’s Launchpad Accelerator Africa program will offer $3 million in equity-free funding to over 60 startups across the continent while providing mentor and technology support.

Here are the 12 tech startups featuring in the first Launchpad Accelerator Africa class.

Sources: Google, QuartzTechpoint, Ventureburn, BBC.

Babymigo

Nigerian startup Babymigo is an online community for expecting mothers and young parents, allowing them to ask questions and get answers that could potentially help to save lives or improve parenting. Doctors and other medical practitioners form part of the online community.

Flexpay

Flexpay is an innovative payment solutions provider that assists businesses to offer customers flexible ways to pay for products and services, hopefully attracting more business from them. The Kenyan fintech startup provides services that benefit the retail sector, education, religion, tourism and crowdfunding.

Kudi

Kudi is a Nigerian fintech startup that allows users to send money to any bank, buy airtime or pay bills. What makes Kudi different is that payments are made through messaging, with a chat system in place for transactions.

OkadaBooks

Okadabooks is a Nigerian e-book app that allows authors to publish books that can be read by a growing audience of more than 200,000 active users. To date, 18,000-plus e-books have prompted more than 1 million downloads on the platform.

OMG Digital

Ghanaian new media startup OMG Digital is known as the “BuzzFeed of Africa” due to the company’s focus on creating content for millennials. The tech startup creates and curates listicles, pictorials, videos and memes with an African audience in mind, and currently operates in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya.

Pezesha

Pezesha is a Kenyan peer-to-peer micro-lending marketplace that provides low-income borrowers in Africa with a way to be part of the formal financial system. The platform uses credit and data analytics to connect lenders with high-quality underserved low-income borrowers.

Piggybank.ng

Nigeria’s Piggybank.ng is an app which enables users to reach their savings targets through a combination of discipline and flexibility. In April 2017, Piggybank.ng was awarded a $50,000 investment through the 2017 edition of the Village Capital Fintech Africa program for financial inclusion-focused startups

Riby

Riby Finance is a Nigerian startup that provides software enabling cooperatives, associations and trade groups to automate and manage their financial transactions, assisting businesses to become digital transactors through innovation and technology.

swiftVEE

South African startup swiftVEE is an online platform that connects livestock agencies to a network of buyers and sellers. The aim of the platform is to empower small-scale farmers through the innovative digital solution now available in the market.

TangoTV

Tanzanian media tech startup TangoTV operates in entertainment streaming — a segment of the market that is experiencing growth. TangoTV is a video-on-demand service that allows users to stream their favorite African Swahili language film and TV content.

Teheca

Ugandan tech startup Teheca is an online source for Ugandans to find the best healthcare workers or caregivers for their sick loved ones, the elderly or new mothers, providing patient-focused care for those who need it most. The startup also provides a bag for new mothers containing useful essentials.

ThriveAgric

ThriveAgric is an agribusiness startup platform that helps middle-class Nigerians to invest in agriculture, thereby assisting the agricultural sector in the country and providing a means for individuals in the country to build wealth through investing.