By 
By Chinedu James
Technology giant, Google has launched the second class of its Launchpad accelerator program intended to support the African startup ecosystem.
Nigeria has the highest number of startups among the 11 finalists with four Nigerian startups making the round. The Nigerian startups are AppZone, Formplus, Medsaf and Thank U Cash.
Other finalists include Chalkboard Education (Ghana), Cloud9xp (Kenya), EzyAgric (Uganda), Mintrics (Egypt), PayGo Energy (Kenya), Pineapple (South Africa) and Preeva (South Africa).
Competition for places increased with Google receiving more than 250 applications, having extended the application to 11 additional countries.
In order to qualify, the participating startups have to be based in Sub-Saharan Africa, be technology-based, target the African market and also required to have raised seed funding.
Also, as part of the requirements for the selection are the solutions and the problems the startup looks to solve, the value it creates for users and the challenge it addresses in its home city, country or Africa.
The Launchpad program continues to create entrepreneurial support and mentorship for its graduates since its launch in 2017. The first Launchpad Accelerator program produced 12 startups graduate with over 20 teams from Google and 40 mentors from nine countries including India, the UK, USA and Jamaica.
The startups have recorded success and continue to thrive having created 132 jobs and raising US$7 million in funding between them, impacting 4.5 million users.
Head of Startup Success and Services, Launchpad Accelerator Africa, Fola Olatunji-David noted Google’s initiative to empower and support startups is due to their importance to the economic and social development of the continent and ability to create massive employment.
“The growth of entrepreneurship in Africa is critical to the survival of our continent. We are currently as a region creating about three million jobs per year, while more than 11 million job seekers are entering the market. Google believes that empowering entrepreneurs and startups is essential to drive employment and enable both economic and social development on the continent,” Olatunji noted.
In the same vein, Google Nigeria country director, Juliet Ehimuan while stating Google’s commitment to enabling local businesses within the African startup ecosystem, expressed optimism of the success of the second class with the first class having led the precedent.
“We have been committed for years to helping local businesses thrive online, as they are meaningful and crucial partners in our ecosystem. Through our different initiatives, we have helped tens of thousands of small businesses online and helped them succeed. We are incredibly proud of how Launchpad Accelerator Africa Class 1 contributed to that legacy and can’t wait to see how Class 2 further builds on it,” said Ehimuan.
As part of been selected as finalists, each of the startups will receive 3 months of intense mentorship and support from Google, Cloud and Firebase credits, Three weeks all-expense-paid training at Launchpad Accelerator Africa (Lagos and Johannesburg), Access to Google engineers, resources and mentors during and after the programme and Inclusion in the Launchpad Accelerator Global Community and network of alumni and mentors.
