Y Combinator (YC) was founded in 2005 and is one of the top startup accelerators. It has invested in more than 5000 startups with a combined val;uation of $600 billion.
We recently did a post on the Kenyan startups YC has invested in and I got a handful of people asking which African market has the most startups under YC. YC has invested in about 10 in Kenya. While this is a good number, it is dwarfed by the over 60 Nigerian startups YC has invested. This is the highest number in Africa and quite a big difference from Kenya which is number 2.
YC invests in a number of startups in different sectors. Below are the startups YC has invested in in Nigeria.
- Miden – Miden is a card issuer processor and core banking for businesses in Sub-Sahran Africa.
- Cleva – USD banking platform for Africa
- Chow Central Inc – Asset Light Restaurant Chains for Africa
- Waza – B2B payments platform for emerging markets.
- Shekel Mobility – B2B marketplace for Auto Dealers in Africa
- Bujeti – Corporate cards and expenses management platform for African businesses.
- Pivo Technology Inc – Digital Bank for Freight Carriers in Africa.
- FoodCourt – Virtual Restaurants & Stores for Africa
- Anchor – Banking-as-a-service platform for Africa
- Chowdeck – On-demand food delivery for Africa
- Bridgecard – Card issuer for Africa
- Topship – Flexport for African Merchants – Building the OS for Global Logistics
- Duplo – Venmo for B2B in Africa.
- Partnav- Your Global payments partner for Africa.
- Moni – Group Financing for small businesses across Africa.
- Simplifyd Systems – We deliver toll-free internet apps.
- Sendme, Inc – On demand provider of meat to households and food businesses
- Vendy – Vendy makes business payments as simple as a chat with its unified payment interface UPI
- Tendo – Meesho for Africa – Enabling Africans to sell online with zero capital
- Convoy – Webhooks Gateway for outgoing and incoming webhooks.
- Lenco – Pan-African digital bank for Africa’s 50m businesses
- Dojah Inc – Prevent Fraud and Onboard Users Faster
- Grey – Banking services for remote workers and digital nomads
- Prembly (formerly Identitypass) – Identity Verification API for Emerging Markets
- Curacel – Modern Insurance Infrastructure for Emerging Markets
- Eazipay Inc – Simple Payroll Solution for Africa
- Plumter – Easy foreign payments for African merchants
- Heyfood – Doordash for Africa
- Touch and Pay Technologies Limited – Digitizing and processing Microtransactions in Africa
- Remedial Health – B2B E-commerce & Fintech platform for Pharmacies & Hospitals in Africa
- Mecho Autotech – On-demand auto maintenance & repairs
- Suplias – We enable FMCG distributors in Africa buy inventory on credit
- Payhippo – Loans to Nigeria’s SMEs in under 3 hours
- Infiuss Health – 2 sided Marketplace for accelerating medical research
- LemFi – Banking For Immigrants in North America and Europe
- Flux – Cross border Payments infrastructure for internet businesses and freelancers
- Vendease – Where restaurants in Africa buy food supplies
- Prospa – Banking for businesses in Nigeria
- Mono – Plaid for Africa, but better.
- Sendbox – Fulfillment by Amazon for African merchants
- Cowrywise – Digitizing wealth management in Africa
- Helicarrier (prev Buycoins) – Cryptocurrency infrastructure for Africa.
- Kobo360 – Africa’s leading supply chain technology platform.
- Helium Health – Africa’s #1 healthcare technology provider.
- Releaf – Supply chain technology that provides inputs to African FMCGs
- Nomba – Banking and payment services for small businesses in Nigeria
- BuyPower – Modern bill payment platform for African businesses and consumers.
- Reliance Health – We make healthcare in emerging markets affordable and accessible
- Aella – Diversified credit infrastructure powering payments across Africa.
- Tizeti – ISP for Africa
- SEND – Flexport for Africa – Digital Freight forwarder and Customs Broker.
- Healthlane – Africa’s Preventative Health System
- Termii – Termii is Twilio for Africa.
- Bamboo – Bamboo ― the first online brokerage service for Africans and their asset managers
- Flutterwave – Helping businesses make and accept payments from anywhere in Africa.
- Schoolable – Tuition collection service for K-12 private schools in Africa
- Spring in Africa – Powerful multicurrency wallet
- CredPal – CredPal is a buy now pay later company in Africa providing seamless credit access for businesses and individuals across developing economies.
- Thrive Agric – ThriveAgric help Farmers in Africa access finance, insight and Markets
- CrowdForce – Crowdforce is an app that allows any local merchant in Africa to become a bank branch within minutes.
- Paystack – Modern payments infrastructure for Africa
- 54Gene – Precision medicine for Africans and the global population
Also Read: Nigeria’s on-demand delivery service, Chowdeck, Secures $2.5 Million in Seed Funding