Google for Startups has selected 15 African companies for the tenth class of its Africa Accelerator, a three-month hybrid programme running from 13 April to 19 June. The cohort drew from nearly 2,600 applicants. All 15 selected startups apply AI to specific business challenges, the company said in an announcement.
Class 10 spans eight countries (Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola and Côte d’Ivoire) and concentrates in fintech, agritech, mobility, and AI infrastructure. Participants receive mentorship, technical workshops on Google’s AI and cloud stack, and follow-on funding-readiness support.
The 15 startups, by sector
Fintech and payments dominate the list with five companies. Bani (Nigeria) builds cross-border payments infrastructure for African traders. Termii (Nigeria) provides AI-native communications infrastructure for banks and fintechs. MasteryHive AI (Nigeria) automates transaction reconciliation, fraud detection and AML monitoring. Regxta (Nigeria) runs alternative credit scoring for unbanked micro-businesses. VunaPay (Kenya) operates payments and data infrastructure for smallholder farmers.
AgriTech and food markets include Coamana (Kenya), which digitises informal food markets for governments and market associations, and Emaisha Pay (Uganda), which manages produce sales, multi-currency settlements and trade financing for agricultural traders.
Mobility is represented by Anda Africa (Angola), formalising the country’s informal moto-taxi workforce through AI-powered credit scoring; Loop (South Africa), digitising mobility and payments across Africa; and Safiri (Tanzania), building digital infrastructure for cross-border people and goods transport.
HealthTech, AI infrastructure and other tracks round out the cohort. Meditect (Côte d’Ivoire) provides cloud-based pharmacy software for medicine inventory and access. Vambo AI (South Africa) builds multilingual translation, speech and generative AI for African languages. Duck (Kenya) gives consumer brands real-time shop-floor visibility to prevent stockouts. Maad (Senegal) runs an omnichannel platform with AI-powered market intelligence for brand expansion. ReportsAI (Kenya) converts raw operational data into compliance-ready institutional knowledge.
Track record across earlier classes
Google says the previous nine cohorts collectively included 106 startups across 17 African countries, raising $263 million in follow-on funding and creating more than 2,800 jobs. The accelerator does not take equity in participants.
The Africa programme has been running since 2018 and operates alongside Google’s other continental initiatives, including the Liquid C2 partnership that opened Africa’s first AI experience centre in Johannesburg in April. The continent-level startup pipeline has also drawn other capital programmes; Nigeria led the 2026 AfricaTech Award at VivaTech with 11 of the top 30 nominees.
What to watch
The accelerator does not take equity, so Class 10 leaves the programme on 19 June with mentor relationships and the Google for Startups brand association rather than a fixed cash runway. The early indicators worth tracking are follow-on funding rounds, hiring within the first 90 days post-programme, and which of the 15 secure follow-on engagement with Google Cloud’s enterprise sales channels in their respective markets.
The country breakdown (Nigeria with four, Kenya with four, South Africa with two, and one each from Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola and Côte d’Ivoire) broadly mirrors capital-flow rankings on the continent and continues the pattern of Class 9 and earlier cohorts.
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