Y Combinator, an American seed funding accelerator that provides seed funding for startups every year hosted their demo day a few days ago. Twice a year (Winter and Summer Batch), Y Combinator invests $125k in selected startups, in exchange for 7% equity.
The winter 2021 batch saw selected startups receive US$125,000 in seed funding as well as further investment opportunities. 319 startups from 41 countries were represented within this virtual edition of the program, with 50 percent of them based outside the United States (US).
Africa wasn’t left out as we had 10 participants, five of the startups were from Nigeria, three from Egypt, one from Ivory Coast, and one from Kenya.
These Nigerian startups got into Y Combinator winter 2021 batch.
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Mono (Nigeria)
Mono is an API fintech platform that helps businesses in Africa access their customers’ financial accounts for data and payments. Founded in 2020 by Prakhar Singh and ex-Paystack employee Abdul Hassan, the company enables companies and developers to access financial accounts for historical and real-time transactions, balances, bank statements, credits, and spending patterns of a customer.
Blueloop – Flux (Nigeria)
Blue loop is a platform that combines the best features of decentralized finance and fiat to help people send money in and out of the country seamlessly. Founded by Ben Eluan, Osezele Orukpe, and Israel Akintunde, the payment startup wants to solve issues with remittances through its remittance product, Flux.
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Prospa (Nigeria)
Prospa is a challenger bank founded by Frederick Obasi and Rodney Jackson-Cole that helps micro-businesses make international payments to more than ten countries including China, Kenya, the UK, and the US.
Sendbox (Nigeria)
Sendbox helps small e-commerce merchants who sell directly to customers through their own online channels or social media platforms with fulfillment.
The company was founded by Emotu Balogun, and Olusegun Afolahan to help merchants deliver goods within and outside Nigeria. They now handle local and international fulfillment for over 7,500 merchants within Nigeria.
READ: From Pre-Seed to Series D: Startup Funding Rounds Explained
Vendease (Nigeria)
Vendease allows restaurants in Africa to buy food supplies. Founded by Tunde Kara, Olumide Fayankin, Gatumi Aliyu, and Wale Oyepeju founded
The startup allows restaurants in Africa, order directly from farms and food manufacturers.
Other African startups in YC Winter 2021 batch are;
Djamo (Ivory Coast)
Djamo, is a financial super app for consumers in Francophone Africa where less than 25% of the population is banked. Founded by Hassan Bourgi and Regis Bamba, the startup is building seamless and affordable banking solutions to break into the huge untapped market and bring millions of people into financial inclusion.
Dayra (Egypt)
Dayra is a Data-driven embedded Financial Services for Gig Workers. Founded by Omar Ekram, Dayra makes it easy for Egyptian businesses to offer Loans and virtual bank accounts to their unbanked workers and customers through their App.
Kidato (Kenya)
Kidato is an Edtech platform that seeks to bring world-class education to school pupils at a much cheaper rate and with much better conditions than private schools. The startup was founded by Sam Gichuru
NowPay (Egypt)
NowPay is building a financial-wellness platform for employees in emerging markets. founded by ex-employees of IBM, Microsoft, Orange, and Amazon, Sabry Abuelenien and Mostafa Ashour, the startup helps corporates offer salary advances to employees, helps with savings, budgeting, and borrowing.
Flextock (Egypt)
Flextock is a tech-enabled fulfillment provider in the Middle East & Africa. Founded by Mohamed Mossaad and Enas Siam, the startup manages business inventory, pick, pack, and ship orders, as well as real-time visibility.
What you should know
- Since 2005, YC has funded over 3,000 startups and the companies have a combined valuation of over $300B.
- According to YC 47 African startups have gone through its program so far and 22 are from Nigeria.
- Earlier this year, YC released a list of its top investments with a minimum valuation of $150 million and Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company made the list.
- Applications for the Summer 2021 batch are currently on, interested founders can apply here.