Google invites applications for 2023 Black Founders Fund for start-ups in Africa

The third round of the Google for Start-up Black Founders Fund for Africa has been announced.

Launched in 2021 as a $3 million (Ksh.382 million) fund targeting 50 early-stage, black-founded start-ups in the continent, the fund is part of Google’s racial equity commitments announced in 2020 amid heightened conversations on racial injustice.

Last year, Google expanded the fund to $4 million (Ksh.509 million) and the class capacity increased to 60 startups.

Selected start-ups will get up to Ksh.12.7 million ($100,000) in equity-free cash awards and up to Ksh.25.6 million ($200,000) in Google Cloud Platform credits.

At the same time, Google will give training and mentorship support from the company’s veterans.

To qualify, applicants must have an early-stage start-up with black founders or diverse founding teams, and should be headquartered in Africa.

The start-ups should also benefit the African community, building technology solutions for Africa and the global market and should display the potential of creating jobs as well as exhibit growth potential.

Kenya is among the 13 prime-focus countries the fund targets due to its active tech and start-up ecosystem, alongside South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Botswana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Senegal and Zimbabwe.

Last year’s cohort comprised twelve Kenyan start-ups; Ajua, which has an end-to-end operating system for SMEs, travel start-up BuuPass, online shopping app DohYangu, merchant-embedded digital savings platform FlexPay and Keep IT Cool, a social enterprise that leverages technology as an enabler to empower African communities.

Others are software company Solutech, agritech start-up Synnefa, healthtech start-up TIBU Health, online shopping platform TopUp Mama, as well as BNPL platform Zanifu.