This was the very first cohort of the Google Developers Launchpad on the African continent, launched in Lagos, Nigeria.
The program consisted of 12 startups from six states, with 35 founders and over 4.5-million users affected. These groups received $120,000 (~R1.58-million) in equity-free financing from Google and increased 7-million (~R92.3-million) in the capital. There were 40 mentors dedicated to seeing that all those startups received the support required to make it through the “large touchpoints”, or boot camps, which took place over three weeks.
Altogether the startups — that represented Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda — have generated 132 jobs spanning four businesses: 41 per cent fund, 25 percentage press, 17 per cent agri-tech and 17 per cent wellbeing.
1. SwiftVEE, founded by Andrew Meyer, Russel Luck and Alexander Molde — South Africa
SwiftVEE is an independent technology platform for the livestock industry, motivated by South Africa’s crippling droughts, which affect livestock mortality.
– Providing technological power to a stagnant livestock industry, allowing value proposition and competitive gains within the industry.
– Connecting a number of stakeholders within the agri value chain on a single stage.
SwiftVEE’s most important intent is to mitigate the inefficiencies within the livestock industry that lead to cows dying because of drought. They intend to align themselves so the program can be expanded beyond the boundaries of South Africa, continuing to link stakeholders and supply services through their own platform.
2. Teheca, founded by Ruyonga Daniel and Namugambe Asha — Ugand
This is a health-tech firm using cellular technology to ensure a better experience for mothers during pregnancy, delivery and postnatally.
– Individually tailored care plan for ladies.
– Linking healthcare professionals and caregivers to moms, therefore empowering women to make informed decisions.
– Supplying developing-care packs and tool kits for moms — as a number of the girls who fall pregnant are unemployed, so this gives them something, to begin with.
The business ensures that there’s a constant mode of communication between the health practitioner and the mother at all times, by providing both offline and online channels — to help overcome the high mortality rates among new mothers in sub-Saharan Africa.
5. ThriveAgric, founded by Uka Eje and Ayo Arikawe — Nigeria
ThriveAgric joins farmers through crowdfunding initiatives.
– Focuses on optimizing return for farmers through educated data.
– Connecting smallholder farmers into a marketplace that wants a service supplied.
– knowledge or information to “grow right”.
ThriveAgric discovered farmers had many challenges that often got in the method of ensuring they’re able to perform within their marketplace and contribute on a regular basis to the market. The principal problem for farmers was access to finance, which banned farmers from scaling up their farms successfully.
It’s apparent that Africa is ready to begin being a key player in the digital revolution, with advanced solutions handling some of the significant socioeconomic issues facing our continent.
