Y Combinator S21 Batch Will Include The Participation Of 9 African Tech Startups

By Nicholas Say Nicholas Say has been verified by Muck Rack's editorial team
Published on July 8, 2021

Y Combinator, one of the most important startup accelerators in the world, will be launching its summer of 2021 batch, which will see the participation of 9 African tech startups.

This batch will run until September of this year and will see 117 startups from around the world participate. This number could grow over the next few days if the accelerators continue to announce new participants.

Representatives from Africa include startups from countries like Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, and South Africa, which are looking to disrupt a variety of industries ranging from pop stores to multi-currency payment solutions.

So far, Nigeria and Egypt lead the list with 3 startups each. The former with MechoAutotech, which connects auto part vendors with potential customers; Supplies, a Business-to-Business marketplace for pop stores; and Lemonade Finance, a payment solution platform.

On the other hand, Egypt’s representatives are Amenli, an online insurance brokerage; Odiggo, a car parts marketplace; and ShipBlu, a last-mile e-commerce delivery company).

Morocco is represented by two startups: Chari and Freeterium. Chari is a B2B E-Commerce Startup, while Freeterium is a SaaS platform that connects participants in the logistics value chain.

South Africa has only one representative: Floatpays. This startup is aiming to disrupt the on-demand wage access industry with its platform.

By joining one of the most prestigious startup accelerators, these startups will not only receive seed money, but also access to valuable advice, connections, marketing lessons, scalation tactics, and many more useful skills. In exchange, Y Combinator receives a 7% equity in each of the startups.

At the end of the program, all startups will present their products on “Demo Day”, which has become an iconic part of the program and Silicon Valley.

YC also invites founders and executives to advise participants, with this year’s visiting group partners including Diana Hu, co-founder and CTO of Escher Reality, and Calvin French-Owen, co-founder and CTO of Segment.

These 9 African tech startups could still be joined by more startups from the region, as YC has still not announced all participants in this year’s summer batch.

By Nicholas Say Nicholas Say has been verified by Muck Rack's editorial team

Nicholas Ross Say is a news desk editor at Grit Daily. An award-winning journalist, he covers the daily startup beat. He grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan and has lived in South America and South East Asia. At present, Nicholas lives in Southern Vietnam where the Sun shines, and the noodles flow like wine. He's written for Blockonomi and Coin Journal, among others.

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