2 More African Startups Join the S23 Batch of Y Combinator

VaultPay from the DRC and Chow Central from Nigeria have joined Eden Care from Rwanda in being chosen for the S23 batch of the famed Y Combinator accelerator in Silicon Valley.

Disrupt Africa reported last month. The only African company thus far confirmed as a participant in the S23 batch of Y Combinator, which contributed to the early stages of companies like Airbnb, Coinbase, and Dropbox, among others, is Rwandan insurtech startup Eden Care, which provides affordable, accessible, and customized health coverage to businesses and their employees.

VaultPay, headquartered in the DRC, which enables telcos to directly distribute banking services, and Chow Central, based in Nigeria, a virtual restaurant chain for the middle class in African cities, have now joined.

In comparison to the W22 batch, which included 24 startups from the continent, the two newly confirmed African members bring the total number of African participants to three out of the 198 for the S23 batch. Since then, there have been far fewer African entrepreneurs participating in Y Combinator; there were just seven in S22 and three in W23.

In addition to Flutterwave, Paystack, and Kobo360, the alumni of Y Combinator also include Cowrywise, MarketForce, Kudi, WaystoCap, WorkPay, Healthlane, Trella, 54gene, CredPal, NALA, and Breadfast. Although it holds an uncertain status within Africa’s startup ecosystem, entrepreneurs applaud it for the beneficial effects it has on their companies.

Last year, Disrupt Africa claimed that the accelerator had raised the value of its typical contract to US$500,000. Previously, Y Combinator contributed US$125,000 for 7% equity, but as part of its new standard agreement, it will additionally provide an extra US$375,000 on an uncapped SAFE with “Most Favoured Nation” (MFN) terms.