Google has opened applications for the fourth class of its Launchpad Africa accelerator and is looking for at least 10 startups to join the programme.
The fourth cohort kicks off in September and is expected to run until late November or early December. Applications close on 26 July.
The 12 startups from the accelerator’s third and latest cohort, which was run in Lagos and Nairobi, are due to graduate today in Lagos today.
Startups in 17 countries across the continent including Algeria, Botswana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe are able to apply to participate in the programme.
To be eligible for the programme, startups have to be technology startups, based in Sub-Saharan Africa, target the African market, and have raised seed funding.
Google additionally considers the problem each startup is trying to solve, how it creates value for users, and how it addresses a real challenge for its home city, country or Africa broadly.
The accelerator’s head of startup success and services Folagbade Olatunji-David that incoming cohorts Google hopes to cover all 54 countries in Africa.
Google announced Launchpad Africa in March last year and has committed to providing African startups with over $3-million in equity-free support, working space, and access to expert advisers from Google, Silicon Valley and Africa over three years. The accelerator is based in Lagos.
Olatunji-David, who is hopeful that the programme will continue beyond 2020, said Google had limited the number of countries from which startups can apply (17 at present) to those countries that had the necessary support structures and communities in place to assist applicants.
This, he said, would ensure that applicants receive the necessary support once they graduate from the programme. “We don’t want startups to come out of these countries and feel isolated,” he added.
Turning to the performance of those participants on the third cohort, which ends today, he said three or four of the 12 startups that took part in the cohort, are busy raising investment at present.
In a statement today Google said startups in the third class have raised close to $9-million in funding, created more than 120 jobs and their products and services have over 270 000 users.
Google added that the 23 startups from classes one and two have between them have created 385 direct jobs and raised over $19-million before, during and after they participated in the programme.
Interested startups can apply for Google Launchpad Africa’s fourth cohort here.