Accelerator programs run by companies like Y Combinator help African startups with business readiness, access to investor networks, and global prestige. Twice every year, there’s a buzz to see what African startups made it into the famed program that helped propel companies such as Airbnb, Stripe, and Coinbase.
Y Combinator’s winter batch in March welcomed its largest cohort of participating African startups yet. The majority of the 24 were from Nigeria, as tends to happen with each cohort. But one of the highlights was seeing a startup from Sudan participating for the first time.
Bloom, the Sudanese startup, is a typical African YC startup given that it is a financial services company. Nearly half of the 90 or so African companies that YC has invested in are classified as operating in fintech, with B2B software and services a distant second.
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Originally published on Quartz : Original article