Google [Photo: Metropol TV]
Six Kenyan start-ups including Leja, Ajua, Keep It Cool, BuuPass, DohYangu and FlexPay are among 60 black-founded start-ups across Africa that have been selected for the second cohort of Google for Start-ups Black Founders Fund (BFF) for Africa.
The start-ups will undergo a six-month training programme that will assist in tackling challenges that are unique to them.
Afterwards, they will become part of tailored workshops, support networks and community-building sessions.
They will also receive 4 million dollars in funding and support to enable them to scale up, awards of between 6 million shillings and 12 million shillings, and up to 24 million shillings in Google Cloud credit.
The other Start-ups are from Nigeria, Cameroon, Rwanda, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Ethiopia, Botswana and Senegal.
“Africa is a diverse continent with massive opportunity but the continent is faced with the challenge of limited diversity in venture capital funding flow. We hope that the BFF programme will be able to bridge the gap of disproportionate funding between expatriate start-ups over local and black-led companies,’’ said Folarin Aiyegbusi, Head of Startup Ecosystem, Sub-Saharan Africa.
The programme which was launched in April 2012, has created over 4,600 jobs and raised more than Sh36 million in funding.
It will introduce the grantees to Google’s products, connections, and best practices.