3 More African Startups Join the Y Combinator S22 Batch
Seven of the 219 startups that have been disclosed so far are from the continent, and three more startups from the continent have been confirmed as members of the S22 batch of the famed Silicon Valley incubator Y Combinator.
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 previous round of the accelerator, the W22 batch, there were the most African participants ever. Disrupt Africa revealed in July that four of those startups were included in the S22 batch: Pivo, Chowdeck, Patika, and Garage Mobility.
Three more African firms have already joined them, and more are anticipated to be added to the list before and after the program is over. The three companies—Anchor, a fintech firm that offers banking as a service, Bridgecard, a company that issues credit and debit cards, and FoodCourt—are all Nigerian.
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.
