Six additional African firms have been confirmed as members in the famed Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator accelerator’s W22 batch, bringing the total number of African startups to ten.
Between now and March, the W22 cohort of the Y Combinator programme, which helped launch firms like Airbnb, Coinbase, and Dropbox, among others, will take place.
At a demo day, participants earn initial financing as well as further investment options. As per reports earlier this month on the first confirmed African entrants in the W22 batch — Ethiopia’s beU Delivery and Nigerian businesses Identitypass, Moni, and Topship.
With over 160 organisations now committed to participate, six more African companies have been added to the list, bringing the total number of African companies on the list to ten. Developer-tooling startup Frain, identity data platform Dojah, payroll and bookkeeping service Eazipay, and micropayments service Touch and Pay are all from Nigeria.
Tendo, a Ghanaian dropshipping platform, and Numida, a Ugandan financing firm, are the other two. More W22 participants are expected to be unveiled in the coming months, both before and after demo day.
Continental aristocracy such as Flutterwave, Paystack, and Kobo360 are among Y Combinator’s graduates (not to mention Cowrywise, MarketForce, Kudi, WaystoCap, WorkPay, Healthlane, Trella, 54gene, CredPal, NALA and Breadfast).
The accelerator has an equivocal place in the continent’s startup environment, but entrepreneurs praise it for the beneficial influence it has had on their companies.
