2 Nigerian startups joins the latest Y Combinator batch
Nigerian businesses Moni and Topship have been accepted into the famed Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator accelerator’s W22 batch.
Between now and March, the W22 batch of the Y Combinator program, which has played a role in the early days of firms such as Airbnb, Coinbase, and Dropbox, will take place.
At a demo day, participants earn initial funding as well as additional investment options. The S21 iteration of the accelerator has 15 African participants, the most so far, and Disrupt Africa reported earlier this month on the continent’s first two confirmed participation – Ethiopia’s beU Delivery and Nigerian digital compliance and security firm Identitypass.
W22 currently has over 100 confirmed companies, and two more African companies have been named. They are both from Nigeria: Moni, a neobank that provides funding to mobile money agents through a community-driven model based on social trust, and Topship, which provides technology and services to African businesses to streamline cargo, freight, and parcel shipping.
“We are overjoyed to be a part of this batch, and it reinforces our aim to develop a global distribution system for the transportation of commodities inside and beyond Africa,” said Topship CEO and co-founder Moses Enenwali.
More W22 participants are expected to be unveiled in the coming months, both before and after demo day.
Continental aristocracy such as Flutterwave, Paystack, and Kobo360 are among the Y Combinator graduates (not to mention Cowrywise, MarketForce, Kudi, WaystoCap, WorkPay, Healthlane, Trella, 54gene, CredPal, NALA and Breadfast).
Disrupt Africa recently revealed that the accelerator’s normal deal size has been raised to US$500,000. YC previously contributed US$125,000 for 7% equity, but under its new standard offer, it will additionally invest an extra US$375,000 on an uncapped SAFE with “Most Favoured Nation” (MFN) terms.
