Google has announced the graduation of the first cohort of businesses from its Startups Accelerator: South Africa programme.
The 15 start-ups, selected in November 2024, have gone through a three-month mentorship programme designed to equip their founders with the tools and skills required to scale their businesses.
The support from Google includes free credits for application development on the Google Cloud Platform and non-dilutive funding. Amounts for funding differ per start-up, depending on their needs and the number of external investors they attracts during the programme.
“This programme is one of our many efforts to support start-ups globally, but in this instance, across Africa, and specifically South Africa,” said Folarin Aiyegbusi, head of the start-up ecosystem for Africa at Google.
“We’re connecting these start-ups with all the best of Google in terms of our people, methodologies and advanced technologies. We do this to help them grow and scale, and to help them solve the community challenges they face in their respective markets.”
Although the South Africa-specific programme started in November 2024, Google has been running a broader accelerator programme with multiple cohorts across Africa since 2018. According to Aiyegbusi, more than 1 100 start-ups have gone through Google’s Accelerator programmes worldwide and 95% of them are still operational today. Nineteen accelerator programme alumni have reached unicorn status, meaning their valuations exceed US$1-billion. One has become a “decacorn”, valued at more than $10-billion.
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Notable South African companies that have participated in the broader Africa programme include Voice AI, Akiba Digital and Pineapple Insurance. Participants come from a range of industries, from construction, e-commerce and pharmaceuticals to education, fashion and linguistics. All the start-ups selected for the programme are between the seed and series-A funding stage of their development.
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