Number of African participants in latest Y Combinator accelerator climbs to 15

Written by TOM JACKSON

The number of confirmed African participants in the Y Combinator accelerator’s S21 cohort has increased to 15 after two more were named ahead of demo days taking place yesterday (August 31) and today (September 1).

Disrupt Africa reported last month 13 African tech startups were among the 296 revealed to be taking place in the S21 edition of the Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator accelerator, receiving US$125,000 each in seed funding as well as further investment opportunities at a demo day.

The number of startups taking part has now climbed to 374, with an additional two of those hailing from Africa. They are Egypt’s Pylon, which develops infrastructure management software for water and electricity companies, and Kenya’s Fingo Africa, a neobank targeting young people across the continent.

The rest of the cohort includes five from Nigeria, in the form of Payhippo, which provides loans to small businesses in Africa in under three hours; Infiuss Health, which connects US and EU-based pharma, life science companies and researchers to participants for clinical trials and research in Africa; Mecho Autotech, which connects car users with mechanics and smart part vendors; Suplias, a B2B marketplace for mom and pop stores; and Lemonade Finance, a multi-currency payments solution.

Egypt already had three representatives, namely online insurance brokerage Amenli, car parts marketplace Odiggo and last mile delivery company ShipBlu, and Morocco has two – e-commerce and fintech app Chari and collaborative SaaS value chain platform Freterium.

Ghana’s Yemaachi Biotechnology, a biotech company that is working to lower the economic burden of cancer by developing novel, non-invasive and affordable molecular diagnostics; Zambia’s Union54, which provides card-issuing APIs for corporates who want to have virtual or physical multi-currency debit cards; and South Africa’s Floatpays, an on-demand wage access platform, complete the cohort.

In March, 10 African tech startups took to the virtual stage for Y Combinator Winter ‘21 batch demo day, pitching to an audience of investors, press, alumni, and other interested parties.

Y Combinator is perhaps the world’s most famous accelerator, and is increasingly selecting African tech startups to take part in its programme. Its 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).

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.

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