In November 2017, applications were opened for the first class of Launchpad Accelerator Africa (2018), and today, they have announced that the class starts today. The inaugural class includes 12 startups from across Africa, including countries like Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. Start-ups that made it here include:
Babymigo (Nigeria) – a trusted social community for expecting mothers and young parents.
Flexpay (Kenya) – an automated and secured layaway e-commerce system.
Kudi (Nigeria) – payment for Africa through messaging.
OkadaBooks (Nigeria) – a social platform that allows users easily create, spread and sell their stories/books/documents in a matter of minutes.
OMG Digital (Ghana) – a media platform which produces hyper-local, engaging and entertaining content that African millennials love to consume and share.
Pezesha (Kenya) – a scalable Peer to Peer microlending marketplace which allows Kenyans to loan to Kenyans, via mobile money using big data and credit analytics.
Piggybank.ng (Nigeria) – allows Africans put aside little amounts of money periodically till they reach a savings target.
Riby (Nigeria) – a peer-to-peer banking platform for cooperatives and their members that allows them to save, borrow and invest, together.
swiftVEE (South Africa) – a platform for connecting livestock agencies to a network of buyers and sellers.
TangoTv (Tanzania) – a media streaming and video on demand service for African local content; films and shows.
Teheca (Uganda) – helps families and individuals find the right health care providers/workers in Uganda.
Thrive Agric (Nigeria) – crowdfunds investments for small holder farmers, and provide this to them in form of inputs, tech driven advisory and access to market.
Last year, according to Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai, who spoke at the Google for Nigeria event announced the Launchpad Accelerator Africa program. The program includes over $3 million in equity-free support to more than 60 African tech startups over three years including mentorship, working space and access to technology and startup experts from Google and their external communities all over the world.
Since 2016, Google has hosted 13 Launchpad Build and Start events across Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa which has featured up to 228 speakers and mentors, engaging 590 attendees from local startups in each country. This goes well to show how committed Google is to the Sub-Saharan Africa developer and startup ecosystem.