Fifteen AI-focused startups from eight African countries have completed the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa programme, with 60% of the cohort already profitable and generating average monthly revenue of $60,000, organizers said on Thursday.
The startups — drawn from Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Angola — graduated at a Close-out Week and Demo Day held in Nairobi. The three-month hybrid programme, running from March to June 2026, paired growth-stage founders with Google’s technology stack and engineering mentors to help them scale. The cohort spans fintech, mobility, healthtech, agritech and SaaS, with founders collectively raising $1.1 million during the programme period.
“We are proud to see how these startups are innovatively using AI to tackle real world challenges across the continent,” said Alex Okosi, managing director for Africa at Google, speaking at the Demo Day. “Through our equity-free support and connection to Google services, we are providing founders with a blended model that offers the much needed support and mentorship that founders need to thrive.”
Folarin Aiyegbusi, head of startup ecosystem for Africa at Google, said this year’s edition placed particular emphasis on AI and machine learning as tools for addressing societal challenges, noting that the programme helps founders “scale impact in their communities while unlocking new opportunities for economic growth.”
Four Kenyan companies featured in the graduating class, each tackling what organizers described as “invisible infrastructure gaps” in the local economy. Coamana applies AI to interpret real-time data from informal food markets, making traditionally opaque supply chains visible to governments and businesses. Duck addresses retail stockouts by giving consumer brands real-time data intelligence and shop-floor visibility. ReportsAI offers an AI-first platform that converts unstructured raw data into institutional knowledge and compliance-ready reporting for impact organizations. VunaPay tackles payment delays for smallholder farmers through fintech infrastructure built specifically for agricultural cooperatives.
Tanzania’s Safiri, a travel and tourism platform building digital infrastructure for transportation while showcasing the country’s tourism offering, also featured in the East African contingent.
The broader cohort included Anda Africa of Angola, which applies AI-powered credit scoring to informal moto-taxi workers; Bani of Nigeria, a cross-border payments infrastructure provider; and Emaisha Pay of Uganda, which handles agro-trade payments and embedded financing. South Africa contributed Loop, focused on mobility and payments digitization, and Vambo AI, which builds multilingual AI infrastructure for African languages. Senegal’s Maad runs an AI-powered omnichannel platform for consumer brands, while Nigerian startups MasteryHive AI, Regxta and Termii covered transaction reconciliation and anti-money-laundering monitoring, alternative credit scoring for unbanked micro-businesses, and AI-native communications infrastructure for financial messaging, respectively. Côte d’Ivoire’s Meditect rounded out the cohort with cloud software for pharmacy digitization.
Since launching in 2018, the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa programme has supported more than 190 startups across 17 African countries. Alumni have collectively raised over $400 million and created more than 3,500 jobs, with Google contributing $11 million in equity-free funding and product credits to date.
More information is available at https://startup.google.com/programs/accelerator/
