The 40 firms announced so far as members in the W22 batch of the famed Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator incubator include Ethiopia’s beU Delivery and Nigeria’s IdentityPass.
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.
Participants get initial money of US $125,000 apiece, as well as further investment opportunities at a demo day. With 40 firms confirmed so far for W22, two African companies have already been identified. The S21 edition of the accelerator featured 15 African participants, the most ever, and with 40 companies confirmed so far for W22, two African companies have already been announced. We expect additional information to be released in the coming months, both before and after demo day.
So far, beU Delivery, an Ethiopian on-demand food delivery business, and Identitypass, a Nigerian digital compliance and security company, have been recognised. In November, Disrupt Africa revealed that the company has secured $360,000 in pre-seed capital to help it attract additional clients, enhance its product, and grow its workforce.
Y Combinator, possibly the most well-known accelerator in the world, is increasingly choosing African digital firms to participate in its programme. Continental aristocracy such as Flutterwave, Paystack, and Kobo360 are among its 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 having a good influence on their enterprises.
