Google has announced the names of the 12 startups selected for the fourth cohort of its Launchpad Africa accelerator based in Lagos.
They include three startups from Kenya, four from Nigeria, two from South Africa and one each from Ghana, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Google head of startup success and services Fola Olatunji-David said the firm continues to be impressed by the quality of startups that apply to the Launchpad Accelerator Africa program.
“Class 4 is no exception and we expect them to build on the successes of the previous three classes,” added Olatunji-David.
He added that with every class, Google has been able to refine the programme, improve its support for the participating startups and understand the contexts they operate in.
“These startups have worked hard to grow their businesses, understand what they needed to do and in some cases pivot their entire model,” Olatunji-David.
Google said that the 12 startups in the fourth cohort have raised more than $600 000 in revenue over the past six months.
The 12 operate across the financial services, education and agriculture sectors. They are:
- Afara Partners (Nigeria): Afara Partners offers platforms that provide services to the financially under-served or excluded
- BrandBook (South Africa): BrandBook is a mobile app that incentives users to take a picture of their receipts, allowing it to harvest consumer purchase behaviour across all channels
- Elewa (Kenya): Elewa is a toolkit for establishing scalable high-quality training programmes within existing education or professional institutions
- Eversend (Uganda): Eversend is a multi-currency e-wallet that allows you to exchange, spend and send money at the best possible rates. It also includes insurance, virtual debit cards, and bill payments.
- OZE (Ghana): OZÉ brings African small businesses into the digital era, equipping their owners to make data-driven decisions to improve their performance and access capital.
- Phenomenal Technologies (Zimbabwe): Phenomenal Technologies offers low-cost field excursions for learners through virtual reality.
- Reach (Nigeria): Reach recognises, categorises and interprets transaction data from SMS and other sources, making this data available as individual financial and market insights
- Sortd (South Africa): Sortd aims to re-invent email with the world’s first all-in-one productivity suite for Gmail and GSuite.
- TradeBuza (Nigeria): The TradeBuza is a cloud-based web and mobile application which digitises contract farming and trade.
- Tulaa (Kenya): Tulaa is an online-to-offline marketplace for smallholder farmers in Africa
- Xend (Nigeria) : Xend Allows users to make and receive payments, offline or online
- WorkPay (Kenya): WorkPay is cloud-based employee management and payment solution using the power of mobile and biometrics.
Each of the 12 startups will receive working space, and access to expert advisers from Google, Silicon Valley and Africa. Participants also receive travel and public relations support during each three-month programme.
