Google welcomes Fifteen African AI innovators to its Startups Accelerator Africa Class 10 program
The Google for Startups Accelerator, a three-month program created to assist early-stage startups utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) to address Africa’s most urgent challenges, has chosen fifteen African AI-focused tech ventures.
106 startups from 17 African nations have benefited from the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa program since its launch in 2018. Nearly 2,600 applications were received for the tenth program, which, like the ninth, was open to African seed-to-Series A startups developing AI-first solutions.
The program now includes fifteen AI-driven startups that are using AI to address important issues in fintech, agri-tech, e-health, mobility, and SaaS. They will now participate in a three-month hybrid program that provides them with industry experts and seasoned mentors. In order to increase their influence and get ready for additional funding, they will also have access to technical workshops and resources centered on cloud and AI technologies.
Four of the chosen startups are Nigerian: Termii, an AI-native communications infrastructure platform that guarantees trustworthy financial messaging for banks and fintechs; Bani, a cross-border payments infrastructure platform; MasteryHive AI, an AI-native platform that automates transaction reconciliation, fraud detection, and AML monitoring; and Regxta, which combines alternative data-driven credit scoring with a hybrid digital-agent distribution model to deliver financial products to unbanked micro businesses.
Four more are from Kenya: ReportsAI, which helps impact organizations transform raw data into institutional knowledge and compliance-ready reporting; VunaPay, which develops fintech and data infrastructure for cooperatives, enabling instant payments and financial services for smallholder farmers; Duck, a real-time data intelligence platform that provides consumer brands with instant shop floor visibility to prevent stockouts; and Coamana, which assists governments and market associations in digitizing informal food markets.
Vambo AI, which develops multilingual AI infrastructure powering translation, speech, and generative AI across African languages, and Loop, which digitizes mobility and payments in Africa to help people, businesses, and communities access simpler, more connected transport and payment solutions, are two of the South African initiatives.
Senegal’s Maad, a full-stack omnichannel market expansion platform that helps consumer brands increase sales throughout Africa; Ivory Coast’s Meditect, which digitizes African pharmacies with cloud software and real-time data; Tanzania’s Safiri, which creates the digital infrastructure driving dependable transportation of people and goods throughout Africa; and Angola’s ANDA Africa, a mobility and fintech platform that formalizes, finances, and electrifies Angola’s informal moto-taxi workforce.
“This is bigger than Loop,” said Imtiyaaz Riley, CEO of Loop. “We started this journey on the Cape Flats, building with communities who are often overlooked by traditional systems. Being selected by Google shows that globally relevant innovation can come from anywhere.”
