The W22 batch of the Y Combinator programme is set to take place between now and March. This programme is played an active role in the early days of well-known companies like Coinbase, AirBnB and Dropbox among others.
On demo day, each participant receives US$125,000 in seed funding as well as further investment opportunities.
In the S21 edition of the accelerator had the most number of African participants and for W22, 40 companies have been confirmed so far, and two African companies have already been named. We expect more to be revealed in the next few months, before and after demo day.
The two startups named so far are Ethiopian on-demand food delivery service, beU Delivery, and Identitypass, a Nigerian digital compliance and security company.
In November, Identitypass had secured $360,000 in pre-seed funding round in order to help it further develop its product, acquire more customers, and expand its team.
Y Combinator is arguably the world’s most famous accelerator and is constantly selecting African tech startups to participate in its programme.
Its alumni feature continental royalty such as Paystack, Flutterwave and Kobo360 (not to mention Cowrywise, Kudi, Marketforce, WaystoCap, Healthlane, WorkPay, Trella, 54gene, NALA, CredPal and Breadfast).
Y combinator holds an arguable position within the startup ecosystem on the continent but is increasingly lauded by entrepreneurs for its positive impact on their businesses.
beU delivery
beU delivery is a food delivery service in Africa. It is majorly on-demand is located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Its mission is to make food delivery services affordable in Africa.
beU delivery is readily affordable by mass as it offers a delivery fee that is 67% cheaper than competitors’.
It is able to achieve this because its highly cost-efficient logistics system. beU has quickly risen to become the second-best choice in terms of market share in Ethiopia just five months after entering the market.
It’s looking to expand into 13 countries in Q1 2023 – Q4 2024 and 3 more countries in April and July of 2022.
Identitypass
Identitypass is a digital security and compliance company launched in January 2021, delivering seamless identity verification solutions to businesses and individuals in Africa.
The company is currently powering the verification solution for more than 170 Nigerian businesses.
Current clients include Credpal, Global Data Consortium, Mint, Bundle, TeamApt and many others.
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