4 African Startups Join the S22 Batch of Y Combinator Accelerator
The first 156 firms confirmed to be a part of the famed Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator’s S22 cohort include four African startups.
The S22 batch of the Y Combinator program, which helped launch businesses like Airbnb, Coinbase, and Dropbox among others, is presently in session and will come to a close in September with a demo day.
According to a recent Disrupt Africa report, the accelerator has raised the value of its typical deal to US$500,000. Previously, YC contributed US$125,000 for 7% equity; however, under the terms of its new standard deal, it will additionally invest an additional US$375,000 on an uncapped SAFE with MFN conditions.
With 24 businesses from the continent participating in the last accelerator’s W22 batch, which had the most African participants ever, and with four already confirmed among the 156 startups initially registered for S22.
They include two from Nigeria, the food delivery service Chowdeck and fintech firm Pivo, as well as the Kenyan payment platform Patika and the Ghanaian auto parts distributor Garage Mobility. Over the course of the program, more are anticipated to be confirmed.
Alumni from Y Combinator include European royalty including Flutterwave, Paystack, and Kobo360 (not to mention Cowrywise, MarketForce, Kudi, WaystoCap, WorkPay, Healthlane, Trella, 54gene, CredPal, NALA and Breadfast).
The accelerator holds a murky place in the continent’s startup environment, but entrepreneurs praise it for the beneficial effects it has had on their companies.
