Nigerian startups Moni, Topship, confirm participation for Y Combinator’s W22 batch

Two Nigerian startups Moni and Topship, have now been confirmed as participants of the YCombinator Accelerator Program, Winter 2022 Batch. The program would run from January through March.

Participants receive seed funding to upscale their startups as well as other investment opportunities at demo day.

Founded by Femi Iromoni, Moni is a platform that offers financing for Mobile money agents without upfront traditional collateral. Moni offering suite is powered by the social trust from those that can affirm the credibility of the agent. Agents can access up to $7,298 in less than 3 minutes at the lowest interest rates. Agents can also, through the Moni Insure option, protect their business against accidents, theft, and fraud on every loan gotten on the platform.

While Topship is a tech-enabled shipping platform that allows African businesses to access the best shipping services available for international delivery of cargo, freight, and parcel.

Commenting on the Y Combinator, CEO and co-founder Moses Enenwali said “we are beyond excited to be a part of this batch and this strongly affirms our mission to build the global distribution system for the movement of goods within and beyond Africa.”

We are proud to announce that we are now backed by @ycombinator and officially a part of the W22 Batch.

This affirms our mission to build the global distribution system for the movement of goods within and beyond Africa. pic.twitter.com/XQ8ciaBAz1

— Topship (@topshipafrica) January 14, 2022

Y Combinator is a top Silicon Valley startup accelerator that has helped many African startups upscale their businesses. Y Combinator recently increased its standard deal size to $500,000 for startups, with $125,000 offered at a 7% equity stake and $375,000 in the form of an uncapped simple agreement for future equity (SAFE).

Nigerian IdentityPass and Ethiopian BeU Delivery had previously been announced as participants of the W22 batch of the Y Combinator program. Other African startups are expected to be revealed in the coming months.

African startups that have benefited from the previous accelerator program include Flutterwave, which is now valued at over $1 billion as a unicorn; Paystack, Cowrywise, 54Gene, ShipBlu, and others.

Nigerian IdentityPass, Ethiopian BeU Delivery Gets Into Y Combinator W22 Batch