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Google accelerator opens call for applications for African founders. 2 other things and a trivia

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This line-up of stories will help you discover the latest happenings around the tech world, today.

1. Google accelerator opens call for applications for African founders

Tech giant Google, through its accelerator programme, has opened calls for applications for African founders.

The accelerator programme will come as a three-month virtual session for participating founders.

Startups that are eligible to join the programs are expected to be located in Algeria, Botswana, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

Speaking on the plans for the accelerator, Google stated that it is expected to run for 3 months, kicking off from March through May 2022.

This comes under efforts made by Google to continually prove its supportive gesture towards startups in Africa.

The three-month virtual accelerator program will provide intensive virtual training bootcamps, mentorship, and Google product support for selected startups.

Tech Trivia: What type of computer is most commonly called a “workstation?”
A Tablet
B Laptop
C Desktop computer
D Mainframe
Answer: See end of post

2. Nigeria’s Payhippo closes $3m seed funding round

Payhippo, a Nigerian lending startup, has closed a US$3 million seed funding round to enhance its technology capabilities to support small businesses in Nigeria.

READ ALSO: Nigeria’s Cash2Cash joins Catalyst Fund fintech accelerator. 2 other things and a trivia

This comes as the startup sought to bring innovative solutions to unlock sources of capital for their customers.

Payhippo was launched in January of last year by Chioma Okotcha, Uche Nnadi and Zach Bijesse.

During the launch, the startup stated that it seeks to provide loans to small businesses in Africa, often neglected by banks because of their lack of credit histories, in under three hours.

Payhippo participated in the A Y Combinator S21 batch cohort and as to date disbursed 5,000 loans to small businesses across Nigeria.

Following up on the progress recorded, in September 2021, the company earned US$64,000 in revenue from US$900,000 disbursed, experiencing 25 per cent monthly growth with a 97 per cent repayment rate on loans.

3. Egypt’s Breadfast secures $26m Series A round

Breadfast, an Egyptian grocery delivery startup, has raised a US$26 million Series A funding rund to expand into new cities, scale its technology, and move into Sub-Saharan African markets.

Breadfast was launched in 2017 by Mostafa Amin, Muhammed Habib, and Abdallah Nofal.

Today, the startup delivers more than 2,500 supermarket items to customers’ doorsteps every morning, with orders made using a mobile app.

The company owns the entire value chain, in-housing the bread production, logistics and distribution, technology and customer experience, and delivers tens of thousands of orders every month.

The new raiser was co-led by Vostok New Ventures and Endure Capital, and included participation from JAM Fund (led by Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen), YC Continuity Fund, Shorooq Partners, 4DX Ventures and Flexport.

The raiser brings Breadfast’s total investment to date to more than US$33 million.

Tech Trivia Answer: Deskstop computer

A workstation is a place or Desktop computer where work gets done. It refers to a computer (and often the surrounding area) that has been configured to perform a certain set of tasks, such as photo editing, audio recording, or video production.

An office may have several workstations for different purposes, which may be assigned to certain employees. For example, one workstation may be used for scanning and importing images, while another is used for editing images.

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