Y Combinator is an American technology startup accelerator that launched in March 2005. It has been used to launch more than 3,000 companies, including Stripe, Airbnb, Cruise, PagerDuty, DoorDash, Coinbase, Instacart, Dropbox, Twitch, Flightfox, and Reddit. However, of all the companies getting into YC, only 2% of African Founders have been able to make their way into accelerator programs.
A glaring fact we cannot dismiss is that Africa is on the cusp of an innovation revolution with leaders from across the business and economic spectrum seeking to identify and evaluate ways to leverage opportunities and growth potential. This is a glaring call for stakeholders to support early-stage founders to access opportunities that lie within reach.
Since Ingressive Capital launched their fund I in June 2020, they have continued to make investments and record huge successes within their portfolio companies. Internally, this VC has continued to improve and increase its access to founders network, support for portfolio companies, access to business development and hiring. As the YC’s Summer Batch Accelerator Program approaches, Ingressive Capital has taken up a mandate to ensure that more tech-driven startups on the African continent make their way into the next accelerator program to hold between June – August later in the year. They will be working with YC alumni to create in-depth resources for founders who intend to apply to this accelerator program.
Ingressive continues to say a dodged commitment towards backing the next generation of African unicorns and this initiative of theirs further reinforces it. It will be exciting to see more African startups get into YC especially with this new standard the accelerator has set in place for founders to receive $500,000 upon entry.
