As part of its commitment to African startups and underserved communities, Google has announced new initiatives targeted at supporting startups in Africa. This includes a $3 million Black Founders Fund for African startups and a $3 million Google.org grant to help low-income communities develop entrepreneurial skills and funding.
The Google for Startups Black Founders Fund in Africa will provide grants and technical assistance to early-stage startups led by black and diverse teams, or with a goal of advancing the Blacks.
The programme will have 50 African startups receive $100,000 in cash awards. Each selected company will also receive $220,000 in Google Cloud Credits and Ad Grants, as well as mentoring, technical and scaling assistance from the best of Google.
Google is also giving $3 million to the Tony Elumelu Foundation, who, through its annual entrepreneurship programme, will provide entrepreneurship training, mentorship, coaching and access to networks and key markets for at least 5,000 women as well as seed capital in the form of one-time cash grants to 500 African female informal business-owners in rural and low-income communities across Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and select Francophone countries.
