Established in 2020, the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund (BFF) provides a cash price of $100,000, without taking equity from the startups. The receiving companies also benefit from mentorship and product support to help them grow.
Meet the 14 Nigerians selected for the programme.
Omisakin is a co-founder and CPO at Compare Ethics. The startup connects ethical shoppers to ethical brands by using the latest online and offline experiences.
Osas Omoigiade, Co-Founder and CEO at Deep Meta.
Osas has a Ph.D. in metallurgy from Imperial College London and a Masters degree from the University of Cambridge in Material Science. Deep Meta is an AI software that predicts production defects in Metals.
Adesanya is the founder and CEO of Devo, an end-to-end operating system for convenience stores. Its intuitive and comprehensive solution enables stores to operate more efficiently, with tools and capabilities including a broad online presence, omnichannel Point of sale, reporting and analytics, and more.
Ojeme is a graduate of Information and Communication Technology from Covenant University, Nigeria. He is the founder and CEO of Eccobell, which is a ‘Contactless as a Service Provider’ platform.
Damilare Ogunleye, Co-Founder and CEO at FoodLama
Ogunleye is a graduate of the University of Lagos (UNILAG). He is the co-founder and CEO of FoodLama – a Browser Extension that helps users easily find food that matches their preferences when shopping for groceries online.
Makinwa holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from Queen Mary University of London. His startup, GigBridge is a recruitment platform that connects experienced construction workers to construction companies.
Obodoekwe is a graduate of the University of Johannesburg, and co-founder of Lenkie. Lenkie provides an embedded lending infrastructure to enable online platforms to become a source of funding for their business users.
Sunkanmi Ola (CEO), Seun Owolabi (CCO), and Abel Agoi (CTO), Co-Founders at Propel.
These Nigerians are the brains behind Propel, a platform that enables European companies to access African tech talents. The startup also works with African-based tech communities to train these talents.
Adekunle studied at UWE, Bristol, where he graduated with first class honours in Robotics Technology.
He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Reach Industries. In 2018, Adekunle was named among the top 100 minority ethnic leaders in technology by Financial Times, and made the Forbes 30 under 30 list the same year.
His startup, Reach Industries, aims to help developers implement the cloud infrastructure needed to remotely monitor, manage and control their robots, industrial automation, and IoT devices.
Agbai is the Co-Founder & COO at Ruka, an ecosystem of hair solutions for black women. She is a biomedical engineering graduate from the Imperial College of London.
In her words: “Our hair is sourced ethically from partners based in South East Asia, specifically India and Bangladesh. This hair comes from women who sell their hair after cutting it and often rely on selling hair as a source of income.”
Lindgren is a Brit of Nigerian origin and the founder/CEO of Yuty. Launched in the heat of the pandemic, Yuty is an ethical beauty marketplace that leverages AI technology to match shoppers to their desired beauty products.
Joseph read civil engineering at The Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. He is a naturalised Finnish citizen, and a resident in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
He is the founder of Zest, a healthtech startup that empowers patients, providers & payers to address the root cause of diabetes, hypertension, and other chronic conditions while lowering the cost of care.
Contributor’s note: Please know that the Google Black Founders Fund Europe (as written above) is different from the Google Black Founders Fund Africa.
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