Six more African startups have been confirmed as participants in the W22 batch of the renowned Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator accelerator, taking the total to 10 so far.
The W22 batch of the Y Combinator programme, which played a role in the early days of companies like Airbnb, Coinbase and Dropbox among others, takes place between now and March.
Participants receive seed funding as well as further investment opportunities at a demo day. The S21 edition of the accelerator had 15 African participants, the most yet, and Disrupt Africa reported earlier this month on the first confirmed African participants in the W22 batch – Ethiopia’s beU Delivery, and Nigerian startups Identitypass, Moni and Topship.
With over 160 companies now confirmed as taking part, a further six African names have made the list, taking the total so far announced to 10. Four of them are from Nigeria, namely developer-tooling startup Frain, identity data platform Dojah, payroll and bookkeeping service Eazipay, and micro-payments service Touch and Pay.
The other two are Ghanaian dropshipping platform Tendo and Ugandan lending startup Numida. We are expecting more W22 participants to be revealed over the next few months, both before and after demo day.
Y Combinator’s alumni features continental royalty such as Flutterwave, Paystack and Kobo360 (not to mention Cowrywise, MarketForce, Kudi, WaystoCap, WorkPay, Healthlane, Trella, 54gene, CredPal, NALA and Breadfast).
Disrupt Africa reported recently the accelerator had increased its standard deal size to US$500,000. Until now, YC invested US$125,000 for seven per cent equity, but under its new standard deal it will now also invest an additional US$375,000 on an uncapped SAFE with “Most Favoured Nation” (MFN) terms.
The accelerator occupies an ambiguous position within the continent’s startup ecosystem, but is lauded by entrepreneurs for the positive impact it has on their businesses.
