Silicon Valley giant Google is expanding its regional mentorship
programme for
top early-stage technology startups in Africa, with the aim of helping them become commercially viable.
top early-stage technology startups in Africa, with the aim of helping them become commercially viable.
The
Launchpad Accelerator Africa programme started off with six countries at
its launch eight months ago — Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria
and South Africa.
Beneficiary firms received $10,000 each equity-free cash grants, and have so far raised more than $7 million between them.
Now
Google has spread its wings to include technology startups in Rwanda,
Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Botswana, Senegal, Ethiopia, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt,
Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria.
At stake is $3 million in
funding, working space and access to expert advisers from Silicon
Valley and Africa, over the next three years.
Folagbade
Olatunji-David, who heads startup success and services at the Launchpad
Accelerator Africa programme said that in order to benefit, the startup
must seek to find solutions to a need in its home city, country or
Africa, and create value for its users.
“These startups must be based in sub-Saharan Africa, their
target must be the African market, and they need to have raised seed
funding,” said Mr Olatunji-David.
The EastAfrican spoke to startups participating in the first phase of the programme about their experiences and vision:
- OkadaBooks - Nigeria
OkadaBooks
is a marketplace for users in Africa to quickly publish, distribute and
sell their digital content, and for users to access cheaper books than
conventional bookstores via a digital device.
OkadaBooks was founded by Jude Nwoko. He came up with the name while riding an Okada (motorcycle taxi) in 2013.
He
noticed how the motorcycles were able to navigate Lagos’ gridlocked
traffic, offering a cheaper, faster and more efficient means of
transportation.
OkadaBooks bypasses the “traffic” in
the book publishing industry including poor distribution and high
printing costs. Earnings are paid directly to user bank accounts.
“My experience of trying to get bookstores to carry my self-published book How Stupidity Saved My Life was frustrating. It pushed me to create the application. I used it to sell my second book,” said Mr Nwoko.
OkadaBooks
fuses the simplicity of blogging with e-commerce and strips down the
publishing process to a bare minimum. The app has a DRM Protector to
guard against piracy, a growing concern for publishers across the globe.
“We
are leveraging on the penetration of mobile devices to digitally
distribute and sell books across the continent, utilising several
payment platforms,” said Mr Nwoko.
The start-up plans
to raise $125,000 by the end of this year and attain a 12,000 monthly
book sales platform over the next year.
So far it has more than 211,000 registered users, 35,000 monthly active readers and has clocked up more than 2,000 book sales.
- Teheca - Uganda
Teheca
is a digital health service start-up that creates better experiences
for invalids and mothers during pregnancy, delivery and postnatal care.
The
Teheca app helps users find a dedicated care assistant for their loved
ones when they are unable to be there for them. The care givers help the
women with daily living chores, ensure doctors’ orders are carried out
and offer companionship.
“Teheca rose out of the need
to provide each individual with a tailored care plan during illness or
pregnancy. We have evolved from offering home patient and post-natal
services in Uganda to the uptake of maternal healthcare services through
mobile and web applications. Our team works from home or in a hospital
setting. We provide these services day and night,” said founder Daniel
Ruyonga.
Founded in 2015, the start-up targets young
people of childbearing age, pregnant mothers, new mothers as well as
hospital and healthcare institutions that offer maternity services.
“Our
platform allows both the mother and the hospital to initiate a
consultation session and empower the mother to search for the closest
health workers who suit their needs. So far, the response has been
positive. We are currently working with the Ministry of Health to
develop products for public hospitals,” said Mr Ruyonga.
“With
the understaffed health centres in Uganda, an alternative healthcare
workforce will make it easier for families with loved ones who need
support to find care givers quickly and easily, give them access to
healthcare information and mentor new mothers.”
- Babymigo - Nigeria
Babymigo is a fast growing community for expectant mothers and young parents.
It
offers information in local languages, and connects users with experts
and hyperlocal childcare services via short messaging, a mobile app and
web portal.
“Founded last year, this company was
inspired by my experience working with expectant and nursing mothers in
maternity clinics across Nigeria. I realised that they lacked a support
system during their most critical time of parenting,” said one of the
co-founders Adeloye Olanrewaju.
Babymigo uses simple mobile technology that is accessible to every mother irrespective of her social status or location.
“We’re
building the most trusted support network for moms and moms-to-be
irrespective of their social status or geographic location. On the
Babymigo platform, mothers ask questions and get prompt answers from
experienced moms and medical experts. They have group chats with
experts, connect with moms in the same age group and city, find, book
and review local maternity and childcare services, and also get to read
mother and baby articles,” said Mr Olanrewaju.
He
added: “We have more than 75,000 registered users so far and have helped
mothers answer more than 20,000 questions. We want to reach five
million mothers over the next three years and so help reduce avoidable
infant deaths.”
- FlexPay- Kenya
Founded
in March last year, FlexPay is an SMS-based platform that helps
customers pay for essential goods and services piecemeal through their
mobile phones.
The platform allows a customer to
reserve an electronic product in their favourite retail store in Kenya
by depositing a given amount, then complete the payments in instalments
using the mobile money platform M-Pesa over a specified period.
FlexPay
targets the unbanked and underbanked in developing economies who do not
have the financial muscle to pay for most goods or services on a
one-off basis.
“The idea was born when we faced
difficulties raising money to buy essential household electronic items.
This gave us the idea to develop a platform that would provide the
low-end segment of the market with a piecemeal payments gateway,” said
one of the co-founders Johnson Gituma.
The company is currently working with Tuskys retail chain to offer piecemeal payment solutions for its electronic goods.
“We
are in the business of enabling flexible payments for merchants and
their customers for the purchase of goods and services through mobile
money and bank transfers. For merchants, the model increases sales of
inventory, resulting in higher profit and goods/services sold. For the
customer, it provides a cheap, convenient and simple payment option to
own goods they cannot afford,” said Mr Gituma.
He
added: “The platform is popular with low-income earners as it helps them
use the little income they get to acquire goods. So far we have 3,000
agents registered in Kenya. Our three-year goal is to move beyond Kenya
by taking advantage of East Africa’s regional integration.”
FlexPay
is also developing a credit score mechanism for its customers as it
seeks to offer a lending services platform as part of its growth plans.
- Tango TV - Tanzania
Tango-TV
is a video-on-demand service for African content that enables users to
stream their favourite films, shows and TV episodes.
Users pay for the content via mobile money services and enjoy a wide variety of media content.
“With
the penetration of Internet services across the continent, we saw an
opportunity to deliver African films via digital means, an avenue that
is gaining traction on the continent,” said one of the co-founders,
Victor Joseph.
He added: “We differentiate ourselves
from competitors by offering hyper localised content targeting customers
on the continent. This service started with Kiswahili content and shows
in East Africa but we now accommodate more content from Africa.”
Tango
TV was launched in 2016, and has more than 35,000 active users
currently, making it the leading video-on-demand service for Kiswahili
content. Its immediate goal is to reach 500,000 users offering them over
5,000 hours of film and TV programming.
“We already
have a customised set-top box that allows users to watch any movie they
want on their television screen at any time. We plan to scale across
more countries in Africa, and are already in talks to expand our content
to Francophone countries,” said Mr Joseph.
- Thrive Agric - Nigeria
Thrive
Agric is a Nigerian start-up using crowdfunding to provide farmers with
inputs, technology driven advice and access to the market.
The
people and institutions that provide these funds in turn get regular
updates on the farmer’s progress and the profits are split after
harvest.
“Thrive Agric was inspired by my experience
running a company in the agricultural sector that was connecting farmers
to the buyers. I discovered that farmers faced many challenges
including access to markets, financing and information on the best
farming practices,” said a co-founder Ika Uje.
“We
started Thrive Agric in June last year targeting smallholder farmers,
processing companies and financial institutions and investors.”
Thrive Agric now optimises yields using technology and data points, and infusing this with best farming practises.
Its
farms are listed on the platform, with details of what it takes to fund
a unit, such as an acre of tomatoes or soya bean, the farming timeline
and the expected yields. Extension workers are deployed on all its
farms, and they in turn report to a consulting team.
“Our
extension workers have a customised app that collates data of farmers
and farm operations. Our farmers also receive automated short text
messages, based on crops they are planting.
“The
co-ordinates of farms and crops planted, weekly satellite images, soil
conditions and other analysis are taken to ensure accurate predictions
of weather conditions and yields,” said Mr Eje.
“So far
we have harvested soya beans and tomatoes with a group of more than
15,000 farmers around Nigeria. Our target is to slowly scale this up to
100,000 farmers over the next three years. Investment in farming
technology is the future of agriculture and we believe we are on the
right path with our start-up.”
- Swift Vee - South Africa
Founded in 2016, Swift Vee is a technology platform for the livestock sector.
“We
were inspired by South Africa’s crippling droughts, which have caused
extensive loss of livestock. Our review showed that we were losing
livestock due to inefficiencies in farming practices,” said co-founder
Russel Luck.
The agri-platform addresses water
scarcity, food security and market efficiency for the livestock sector.
The start-up’s goal is to facilitate the trading of livestock.
Swift Vee has been recognised as one of South Africa’s 100 most innovative companies with a global scale up potential.
“The
fellowship has allowed us to extend our value proposition to a broader
channel of stakeholders in the agricultural segment. So far we have
thousands of farmers and customers on board,” said Mr Luck.
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African Digital Media Companies