Google has unveiled 20 startups selected from across Africa as members of the 5th cohort of its Google Startup Accelerator Africa. Out of the 20 startups selected, 8 are from Nigeria and emerge from sectors including Agritech, Insurance, Law, and Fintech.
There are noticeable changes in this edition of Google’s accelerator. The first is that the program which will happen between June 29 and September 11, will be happening virtually because of the Coronavirus pandemic. The selected startups will participate remotely. Each month, there will be a one-week virtual boot camp for all the startups.
Let’s meet the 8 startups.
Judy
Judy Innovative Technologies Ltd is a legaltech startup that was founded in 2018 by Bright Oleka, and Sadiq Okocha. Judy uses Artificial Intelligence to solve the challenge of cumbersome legal research in the African legal space.
Judy raised a seed funding of $100,000 from Switzerland-based Meltwater Foundation in 2019. Since its launch, Judy’s search engine for case law has provided lawyers with a comprehensive database of common law case judgments that makes research much easier.
Crop2cash
Crop2cash was launched in 2018 by Michael Ogundare, Seyi Paul and Emem Essien. The startup tackles the problem of an undigitized supply chain of agro-processors in the agricultural sector. By bringing tech into the processes of the supply chain, Crop2cash works to ensure that agricultural produces are obtained at their optimal quality from farmers.
In 2019, Crop2Cash closed a pressed round of $100,000. Wennovation Hub is one of the startup’s backers.
Suggested read: Startup Review: How Crop2Cash is Digitizing the Value Chain and Making Finance Accessible for Farmers
Credpal
The fintech startup was founded in 2017 by Fehintolu Olaogun and Olorunfemi Jegede. Credpal connects consumers who want to buy products to people who can pay for them. The consumers are given instant access to credit at the point of checkout and they pay back in fixed monthly instalments.
Crunchbase reports that Credpal has raised a total of $186,900 in 5 funding rounds. The startup is funded by Y combinator, Stacked Capital, Queen City Fintech and the Epic Groundwater Challenge.
Curacel
Curacel was launched in 2017 by Henry Mascot and John Dada. The startup provides an AI-driven platform that processes claims and detects fraud for health insurers in Africa. Some of the insurers the startup works with include Hallmark HMO, and Old Mutual.
Curacel is a past beneficiary of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, as well as the FBstart accelerator. The startup has had 6 funding rounds in total.
Stears
Stears was founded by Preston Ideh in 2017. The startup is a digital media company that set out to provide quality information on Africa in an easily accessible way.
A total of $640,000 has been raised by the company in 2 rounds. The latest round was a seed round in April 2020 while the pre-seed round was in December 2018.
Smarthub
Smarthub was founded in 2018 by Are AbdulHafiz. The startup’s mission is to provide quality trainings in the form of online courses, and offer services in the areas of food and health, digital marketing and automobile design.
Smarthub’s services are aimed at providing accelerator programs for young entrepreneurs and gradually integrate them with markets for their products
Festival coins
Festival coins was founded by Folayemi Agusto and Nosa Oregun in 2018. The startup is an event technology company that provides event organizers with a variety of tech solutions that are used to reduce costs, maximise revenues, and harness granular data from event attendees.
The startup raised an undisclosed amount from MicroTraction in 2019. Some of the features of Festival Coins‘ solutions include online ticketing, access control, cashless payments, and event reporting.
Send
Send Technologies Inc was founded in 2017 by Kingsley Oti and Larry Oti. The startup handles cargo shipping across the air and ocean. It also involves in delivering cargoes from suppliers, handling customs clearance, trucking and warehousing.
Those are the 8 startups from Nigeria that will be participating in the 2020 edition of Google Startup Accelerator Africa.
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