12 Kenyan start-ups have been selected for this year’s $4 million (Sh481.2 million) Google for Startups Black Founders Fund for Africa.
50 percent of this year’s cohort of 60 start-ups are women-led businesses, with Nigeria leading the pack with 23 grantees followed by Kenya with 12, Rwanda 6, South Africa 5, Uganda 4, Cameroon and Ghana 3, Ethiopia 2, while Botswana and Senegal have one each.
The Kenyan grantees include Ajua, which has an end-to-end operating system for SMEs, travel startup BuuPass, online shopping app DohYangu, merchant-embedded digital savings platform FlexPay and Keep IT Cool, a social enterprise that leverages technology as an enabler to empower African communities.
Others are software company Solutech, agritech startup Synnefa, health tech startup TIBU Health, online shopping platform TopUp Mama, BNPL platform Zanifu, and health tech provider Zuri Health.
“Africa is a diverse continent with massive opportunity but the continent is faced with the challenge of limited diversity in venture capital funding flow. We hope that the Black Founders Fund program will be able to bridge the gap of disproportionate funding between expat startups over local and black-led companies,” Folarin Aiyegbusi, Head of Startup Ecosystem, SSA, said.
Selected startups will receive non-dilutive grants of between $50,000 and $100,000, $200,000 per startup in Google Cloud credits, Google Ad Grants, as well as training and mentorship support from the company’s veterans.
“Each of the selected startups will receive support in the form of a 6-month training programme that includes access to a network of mentors to assist in tackling challenges that are unique to them. They will also be part of tailored workshops, support networks and community building sessions,” Google said.
The fund which was launched last year targeting early-stage, black-founded startups in Africa is part of Google’s racial equity commitments announced in 2020 amid heightened conversations on racial injustice.
To qualify for funding, applicants must have an early-stage start-up with black founders or diverse founding teams, and should be headquartered in Africa. The start-ups should also benefit the African community, building technology solutions for Africa and the global market, and should display the potential of creating jobs as well as exhibit growth potential.
This makes Sense than Rutos …
This makes Sense than Rutos “Bottom-Up” Economics.
For in a Ruto’s Bottom-Up Economy:
It will take Months to INCORPORATE a new Company and Years to get a LICENSE, not to Mention the DIFFICULTIES in Assembling Management and Attracting CAPITAL. And in many Countries (like Kenya), Government Bureaucracies RESIST Entrepreneurial Activities that May Redistribute ECONOMIC Power (like Raila’s DEVOLUTION Ideas that Catapulted Kibaki’s Era of Huge ECONOMIC Growth in Kenya).
Meaning:
Ruto wants to Use GOVERNMENT Machineries to GRAB & OWN the Kenya Economy for Himself and his Cronies & Sycophants.