Launchpad Accelerator announces startup selections in Africa, Brazil, and
India
Posted by Roy Glasberg, Founder of Launchpad
Accelerator
For the past six years, Launchpad has connected startups
from around the world with the best of Google - its people, network, methodologies, and
technologies. We have worked with market leaders in over 40 countries across 6 regional
programs (San Francisco, Brazil, Africa, Israel, India, and Tokyo). Launchpad also includes a
new program in Mexico announced earlier this year, along with our Indie Games Accelerator and
Google.org AI for Social Good Accelerator programs.
We are pleased to announce that the next cohort of startups has been selected for our upcoming
programs in Africa, Brazil, and India. We reviewed over 1,000 applications for these programs,
and were thoroughly impressed with the quality of startups that indicated their interest. The
startups chosen represent those using technology to create a positive impact on key industries
in their region and we look forward to supporting them and connecting them with startup
ecosystems around the world.
In Africa, we have selected 12 startups from 6 African countries for our 3rd class in this
region:
- 54Gene
(Nigeria) - Improving drug discovery by researching the genetically diverse
African population
- Data Integrated
Limited (Kenya) - Automating and digitizing SME payments, connecting
the street to high finance.
- Instadiet.me
(Egypt) - Connecting patients to credible nutritionists and dietitians to help
them maintain a healthy and optimal weight online.
- Kwara (Kenya)
- Providing a rich digital banking platform to established fair lenders such as
credit unions or savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOs), with an open API to enable and
accelerate their inclusion into the formal financial ecosystem.
- OkHi
(Kenya) - A physical addressing platform for emerging markets - on a mission to
enable the billions without a physical address to "be included."
- PAPS
(Senegal) - Logistics startup focused on last mile delivery and domestic
market, with strong client care orientation, allowing live tracking, intelligent adresses
system and automatic dispatch.
- ScholarX
(Nigeria) - Connecting high potential students with funding opportunities to
help them access an education
- Swipe2pay
(Uganda) - A web and mobile payments solution that democratizes electronic
payments for SMEs by making it easy for them to accept mobile as a mode of payment.
- Tambua Health
Inc. (Kenya) - Turning a normal smartphone into a powerful,
non-invasive diagnostic tool for Tuberculosis and Pneumonia. It uses a cough sound acoustic
signature, symptoms, risk factors, and clinical information to come up with a diagnostic
report.
- Voyc.ai (South
Africa) - A CX Research Platform that helps companies understand their
customers by turning their customer research into insights, profiles, and customer journey
maps.
- WellaHealth
(Nigeria) - A pharmacy marketplace for affordable, high-quality disease care
driven by artificial intelligence starting with malaria.
- Zelda Learning
(South Africa) - Providing free online career guidance for students
looking to enter university and linking them to funding and study opportunities.
In India, for our 2nd class, we are focused on seed to growth-stage startups that operate
across a number of sectors using ML and AI to solve for India-specific problems:
- Opentalk Pte Ltd -
an app that connects people around the world to become better speakers and make
new friends.
- THB -
Helping healthcare providers drive full potential value from their clinical
data
- Perceptiviti Data
Solutions - An AI platform for Insurance claim Ffagging, payment
integrity, fraud, and abuse management
- DheeYantra -
Cognitive conversational AI for Indian vernacular languages
- Kaleidofin -
Customized financial solutions that combine multiple financial products such as
savings, credit, and insurance in intuitive ways to help customers achieve their financial
goals.
- FinancePeer -
A P2P lending company that connects lenders with borrowers online.
- SmartCoin -
A go-to app for providing credit access to the vastly underserved lower- and
middle-income segments through advanced AI/ML models.
- HRBOT -
Using AI and Video Analytics to find employable candidates in tier 2 & 3
cities remotely.
- Savera.ai -
Remotely mapping roofs to reflect the attractiveness of a solar power plant for
your roof, followed by chatbot based support to help you learn about solar (savings, RoI,
reviews etc.) and connections to local service providers.
- Adiuvo
Diagnostics - Rapid wound infection assessment and management device.
In Brazil, we have chosen startups that are applying ML in interesting ways and are solving
for local challenges.
- Accountfy - SaaS platform focused
on FP&A tools. Users upload trial balances and financial statements are easily built
through accounting figures. harts, alerts, reports and budgets can be created too.
- Agilize - An online accounting
firm that provides annual savings of $1,500, predictability, and transparency to small-sized
business through a friendly platform and massive automation.
- Blu365
- An innovative, data-driven, customer-centric debt negotiation platform that has been
transforming positively the relationship between companies and customers .
- Estante
Mágica - Estante Mágica is a free platform that, in partnership with
schools, turn students into real authors, making children protagonists of their own stories.
- Gesto - GESTO is a health tech
consulting firm that uses data science to intelligently manage health insurance.
- Rebel -A data, tech, and
analytics-driven platform whose mission is to lead the transformation of the financial
services market in Brazil by empowering consumers.
- SmarttBot - Empowering
individuals with the best automated investment tools in order to give them edge against bigger
investors and financial institutions and improve their chances of making money.
- Social
Miner - A technology able to predict if an e-commerce visitor will
buy or not and create experiences based on the consumer journey phases.
Applications are still open for Launchpad Accelerator Mexico - if you are a LATAM-based
startup using technology to solve big challenges for that region, please apply to the program
here.
As with all of our previous regional classes, these startups will benefit from customized
programs, access to partners and mentors on the ground, and Google's support and dedication to
their success.
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