In a visit to Nigeria, at the Google for Nigeria Conference held at the end of July, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and other Google executives announced various initiatives they are working on. Google reiterated its dedication to Africa and announced support for African start-ups, new products and features for Nigerian users (some coming to rest of Africa.) They also announced initiatives in economic opportunity and education, with a focus on digital skills training.
When it comes to the aforementioned support for African start-ups, through the Launchpad Accelerator programme Google plans to provide training and access. Training comes in the form of 2 weeks all-expenses-paid mentorship at Google HQ where access to Google engineers and resources is also availed. After the 2 weeks, a start-up is not simply cut off but they get to work closely with Google for 6 more months, whatever that really means.
The start-up also gets product credits, Google Cloud probably offering the biggest value. Access to full suite of Launchpad initiatives and connections (ooh, access economy). The connections alone could change the fortunes of a company.
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Start-ups require capital and Google will provide $3 million in equity free funding which translates to $50k per start-up. That is huge as it means Google does not get to part own the start-ups. The founders and owners of the start-up retain 100% control of their company unless and until they choose to partner with someone else. Google may be interested in part owning some companies but that is not a prerequisite for getting the funding.
All this will be implemented over the next 3 years and over 60 start-ups across Africa to benefit. The initial focus will be on Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya. Nigeria is the…