Triply, a Kenyan travel technology startup, has been accepted into the prestigious Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator accelerator’s W24 batch.
With 246 startups confirmed as participants thus far, the W24 batch of Y Combinator, which helped launch companies like Airbnb, Coinbase, and Dropbox, among others, got underway in January.
Following the confirmation of Nigerian fintech startups Cleva and Miden and Zimbabwean AI company Ocular AI as African participants, Kenya’s Triply—a travel booking platform founded in 2021 by Peter Wachira with the goal of empowering African entrepreneurs and travel businesses—has now joined the group.
Triply, which rebranded itself from Tripitaca, has gained access to YC’s new standard deal, which was announced in 2022. Through this deal, Triply will invest US$125,000 for seven percent equity and an additional US$375,000 on an uncapped SAFE with terms that are “most favored nation” (MFN).
Since its W22 batch, which included 24 African startups, Y Combinator has cooled off on the continent. Since then, there has been a sharp decline in the number of African startups participating in Y Combinator; there were only seven in S22, three in W23, and three in S23. Thus, W24—which has four African members—represents a minor advancement over previous cohorts.
Alumni of the accelerator include Flutterwave, Paystack, and Kobo360, as well as Cowrywise, MarketForce, Kudi, WaystoCap, WorkPay, Healthlane, Trella, 54gene, CredPal, NALA, and Breadfast, among other notable entities from throughout Europe. Entrepreneurs praise it for its beneficial effects on their businesses, despite its ambiguous position within Africa’s startup ecosystem.
