Nigerian startups Moni and Topship have been confirmed as participants in the W22 batch of the renowned Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator accelerator.
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 two confirmed participants from the continent – Ethiopia’s beU Delivery and Nigerian digital compliance and security company Identitypass.
With over 100 companies now confirmed for W22, a further two African companies have been named. They are both from Nigeria – Moni, a neobank that uses a community-driven model based on social trust to provide financing to mobile money agents; and Topship, which provides technology and services that simplify the shipping of cargo, freight and parcels for African businesses.
“We are beyond excited to be a part of this batch and this strongly affirms our mission to build the global distribution system for the movement of goods within and beyond Africa,” said Topship CEO and co-founder Moses Enenwali.
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.
