In early October, the first Google for Africa event was hosted virtually with the big announcement on the day being an investment of $1 billion by the company over five years as part of its newly created Africa Investment Fund.
At the time, the precise nature of the investments were unknown, but now Google has announced the first African startup to receive funding – SafeBoda.
“This first investment is in SafeBoda, a venture-backed company with investors that include GoVentures (GoJek), Allianz X, Unbound, Beenext and Justin Kan, and will help drive SafeBoda’s growth in Uganda and Nigeria, scaling its transportation-led app to offer new payment and financial services solutions for its expanding set of customers: passengers, drivers and merchants,” explains Google in a press release sent to Hypertext.
“I am thrilled about our first investment from the $50M Africa Investment Fund that we announced two months ago. This is part of our ongoing commitment to tech startups in Africa. I am of the firm belief that no one is better placed to solve Africa’s biggest problems than Africa’s young developers and entrepreneurs,” added Nitin Gajria, MD for Google in Africa.
It is unclear how much of the aforementioned $50 million has been made available to SafeBoda, but hopefully there are more startups being eyed up by the Africa Investment Fund and more announcements are in the offing for the new year.
