The first investment from the Africa Investment Fund was made in SafeBoda.
The $50 million Africa Investment Fund is one of the tech giant's "tech-led initiatives", which includes a $1 billion commitment over the next five years. He made this known at the event.
Before launching the fund, the company helped startups through its program.
More than 80 startups have been supported by the program in the seed to Series A stages. They have raised over 100 million dollars in venture capital.
Black Founders Fund is a non-dilutive $3 million fund allocated to 50 startup annually.
The $50 million fund was set up by the search engine giant to invest in African startups.
The most looked at by venture capitalists are those from Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa. 25% of the VC funding flowed into Africa last year, while the Big Four received more than half of the total funding.
According to the fund managers who spoke with TechCrunch, they want to bridge the funding gap by investing in overlooked regions and sectors on the continent. When the Africa Investment Fund was announced, the managing director of sub-Saharan Africa, was one of the people who expressed these feelings.
We aren't limiting ourselves to certain areas. The managing director said in October that they were focusing on investments where they believed that Google could add value. If there are founders building products that solve real challenges in Africa, that would be in line with our investment thesis.
The investment in SafeBoda by Google is an early reminder of Gajria's statement that the Big Four markets will likely fill the fund's portfolio in the next couple of years.
Two years ago, the Ugandan startup launched as a two-wheel ride-sharing platform.
In Uganda and Nigeria, it now offers rides, parcel delivery, food and shop, payments, savings and other financial services to over one million customers. Over 40 million orders have been completed by 25,000 drivers.
People who know the company's dealings say that SafeBoda has raised over $20 million. GoVentures of Gojek is one of the investors.
SafeBoda said the investment from the Africa Investment Fund will help it drive its growth in Uganda and Nigeria, scaling its transportation-led app to offer new payment and financial services solutions for its expanding set of customers.
Ricky Rapa Thomson, co-founder of SafeBoda, said in a statement that they are excited to continue to drive innovation in informal transportation and payments in the East Africa or okada industry.
Africa's cities are powered by this vital industry. SafeBoda is very happy that leading global companies such as Google see the importance of backing startups working towards these goals.
The investment in SafeBoda was made to strengthen a relationship with a potential future partner that has strategically aligned vision of better logistics and transportation. The spokesman said that there was no expectation of how many investments would be made in the coming year.
The motorcycle ride-sharing wars in Nigeria and Uganda are SafeBoda's to lose.
