The companies, which are Bani, MasteryHive AI, Regxta and Termii, were picked from nearly 2,600 applications, joining 11 other African startups to form a final cohort of 15 startups drawn from across Africa.

Their selection gives Nigeria the largest share of startups in the new cohort and underlines the country’s strong presence in Africa’s dynamic technology sector.

Each of the four companies is building products to solve financial and business challenges.

1. Bani provides cross-border payments infrastructure for African businesses trading internationally. The company aims to reduce delays in settlements between markets.

2. MasteryHive AI focuses on automating transaction reconciliation, fraud checks and anti-money laundering monitoring for financial institutions.

3. Regxta uses alternative data to score credit applicants and combines this with a digital agent network to offer services to small businesses that often struggle to access finance.

4. Termii builds communications systems used by banks and fintech firms for alerts, login codes and payment notifications.

Other startups in Google Accelerator Africa cohort 10, spanning fintech, agritech, health tech, mobility and software services, with artificial intelligence being the core of most of their products, include Anda Africa, Coamana, Duck, Emaisha Pay, Loop, Maad, Meditect, ReportsAI, Safiri, Vambo AI and VunaPay.

Gbolade Emmanuel, CEO of Termii said: “At Termii, we’re building AI-powered infrastructure that ensures financial transactions don’t fail, from login PINs to payment OTPs and fraud alerts.

“The Google Startup Accelerator is helping us accelerate our AI roadmap and scale globally, and even in the first week, access to technical support and insights has been incredibly valuable for our next phase of growth.”

The programme began on April 13 and will run until June 19, 2026. It combines virtual and physical sessions, with founders receiving mentoring, technical training and support from industry experts.

Folarin Aiyegbusi, head of Startup Ecosystem, Africa, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to welcome these exceptional founders into Class 10. African startups are driving essential economic growth and social development.

“Our role is to serve as a supportive partner, providing these developers and founders with the technical infrastructure, mentorship, and global network they need to scale their solutions and amplify their real-world impact.”

Google said the accelerator, launched in 2018, has now supported 106 startups from 17 African countries. Those companies have raised more than $263 million and created over 2,800 jobs.

The African startup sector also showed resilience last year, attracting $3.9 billion in funding as founders continued to build businesses in finance, agriculture, healthcare, transport and software services.

For years, ecosystems have been celebrated for hackathons, meetups and conferences, but when the lights go out — literally and figuratively — the momentum stalls. Behind every headline-grabbing raise lies a graveyard of ideas that never made it past pitch decks and demo days

Aya HQ, a Ghana- and Kenya-based Web3 talent hub, wants to change that survival rate. Branding itself a “No Bullshit Zone,” it provides the very foundation needed to get to the top: light, internet, and a place to build. Sometimes, that’s all a founder really needs to scale.

The Journey Before Aya HQ

Aya HQ’s founder, Eric Annan, did not arrive at this mission overnight. His journey into Web3 was impacted by both experiments and failures, including early ventures such as Digital Kudi and KibitX. 

Over time, he collaborated with various innovators across Africa’s blockchain ecosystem, and shifted his focus to bridging the talent-trust gap.

These ventures gave him proximity to Africa’s earliest blockchain experiments, but not every idea survived. Shutting down his initial ventures was as much about recognising limits as it was about recalibrating ambition.

That willingness to restart laid the groundwork for Aya HQ, which he founded alongside Pishikeni Tukura, and Dennis Ukonu. Rather than build another startup chasing the next wave, Annan chose to build infrastructure — a hub that would give others the basic conditions he once lacked.

A Different Kind of Hub

Aya HQ has now supported over 35 startups across four cohorts, two run independently and two with partners. What makes the model different, Annan argues, are the intangible assets often ignored in conversations about African startups: trust, belief, confidence, and refusing to sell yourself short just because you’re African. 

And when those cohorts graduate, Aya doesn’t just send them off, the hub continues to track and support its alumni, ensuring they have the tools, networks, and mentorship to scale and succeed.

He describes Aya HQ as a collective where founders are not competing for growth but are instead lifted by network effects. It is less about events and more about outcomes. 

At a recent panel, the founder of Digipay captured this impact when he said that without Aya, his company wouldn’t exist. “Aya HQ gave me a home,” he stated. “We had light, internet, and everything needed for the business.” For Annan, that single line, more than any pitch deck, is the proof of concept.

Annan’s bet has always been that Africa’s sustainable growth lies not in waiting for outsiders, but in trusting its own builders. “We are waiting for people who do not look like us to help us,” he said during our conversation, shaking his head at the thought. Aya’s work is a rebuke to that dependence, a belief that talent here can build globally competitive products if given the right scaffolding.

Investors Are Paying Attention

Aya HQ is also attracting backers who once looked past Africa’s blockchain sector. Global chains like Lisk have funded its work, and conversations are underway with investors to raise around $10 million. 

According to Annan, part of this will go into a $5 million microfund to back incubated startups, while the rest is earmarked for a special economic zone in Accra that will serve as both a founder campus and a live-in residency.

While the bigger investor community is beginning to view Aya HQ as a bet with returns, Annan points out that Y Combinator recovered its entire investment in African startups from just one exit. For him, that statistic is evidence that value already exists here, it simply needs better pipelines. 

Aya’s role, he says, is to prepare founders and developers to meet global demand without waiting for validation from abroad.

Just two years ago, Annan says he was questioned about Aya HQ’s direction, “‘What is Aya doing?’ ‘We don’t know actually what Aya is doing.’”

Now, those same voices are coming back to ask how they can help. “What excites me the most is being stubborn on the Aya mission,” he said. “We have had a plan since 2017, and waking up every day I begin to see that mission becoming clear.”

For him, leadership isn’t about cleverness or charisma. It’s about patience and faith, creating space for founders to fail, learn, and try again. That is why he takes pride not just in success stories, but in the quiet transformations he sees daily: entrepreneurs whose mindsets, and sometimes lives, have changed within eight months of joining Aya’s programmes.

This stubbornness, to hold ground until others catch up, may well be Aya HQ’s greatest asset. It is building what Eric calls the “plumbing” of Africa’s Web3 ecosystem: reliable infrastructure, credible founders, investable startups. It is not the loudest model, but it may be the most durable.

Aya’s story is still unfolding, but the takeaway so far is that survival in Africa’s startup sector requires more than a drive. It needs power, patience, and places like Aya HQ, where light shines on, and founders finally get to build.

The hub is still young, and scaling remains one of Annan’s greatest challenges. Should Aya HQ go deeper in Ghana, or expand into Lagos, Nairobi, and Cape Town? Yes, with the goal to build an African pipeline that doesn’t just feed into global markets but competes with them.

For Annan, however, the real fulfilment is not expansion for its own sake but impact on the ground. “Working out and seeing people talk about what Aya is doing, how their life has changed by connecting with Aya… it’s more than inspiring for me and that’s what gave me fulfilment. The money for me, it’s just a plus.”

Aya HQ may not yet rival Silicon Valley in capital, but in resilience, community, and conviction, it is already setting a standard.

The investment was led by Accion Venture Lab, with strong participation from existing investors Zrosk, Chui Ventures, and Zedcrest Capital.

Founded in 2020 in Nigeria, PaidHR has rapidly expanded to reach Pan-African small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and tech startups across Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. 

The majority of PaidHR’s users are logistics, retail, and manufacturing businesses with under 200 employees, whose reliance on manual, time-consuming processes has created inefficiencies and compliance challenges. 

PaidHR’s all-in-one platform enables businesses to scale efficiently and improve employee wellbeing by formalizing HR administration, automating both local and cross-border payroll, ensuring full regulatory compliance, and providing tailored financial services to employees.

By 2030, half of all new entrants into the global labor force will come from sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, 44 million SMEs provide an estimated 80% of jobs across the continent; however, these businesses are often informal and unable to provide HR and financial services to their employees. 

In Nigeria, 83% of the workforce lacks access to credit and cannot meet emergency and basic needs.

PaidHR aims to improve financial inclusion and promote economic resilience for Africa’s growing workforce. Through earned wage access (EWA), employees on PaidHR’s platform can access a portion of their salary before payday, helping to reduce reliance on predatory loans and alleviate financial stress. 

PaidHR’s integrated multi-currency wallet allows employees to receive payments and save in both local currency and USD, helping them navigate financial instability.

The platform also leverages payroll data to connect employees to other financial products, such as credit and savings plans, through partnerships with financial service providers.

“We are building HR management for the African context, and this funding allows us to scale our vision, expand our reach, and deliver even more value to our clients,” said Seye Bandele, CEO of PaidHR. 

“With the support of Accion Venture Lab and our returning investors, we are well- positioned to help small businesses grow and scale more effectively across borders.”

Amee Parbhoo, managing partner at Accion Venture Lab, commented: “PaidHR’s integrated platform is tackling deep-rooted structural challenges faced by small businesses and their employees in underserved markets, starting in Nigeria. 

“By combining human resources automation with embedded financial services like earned wage access and USD savings, the platform not only improves how businesses operate, but seeks to deliver meaningful financial inclusion for workers.

“We are proud to support the team as they deliver scalable, cost-effective solutions that help strengthen small businesses and enable employees to take control of their financial lives.”

The fundraising is still in its early stages, with conversations ongoing with a mix of family offices, development finance institutions, and successful tech founders. 

If the round closes as planned, it would push the firm’s total assets under management beyond $800 million.

Endeavor Catalyst operates on a distinct model; it invests only in founders who have already been vetted and selected by Endeavor Global’s network. 

These are scale-stage companies already gaining traction in regions typically overlooked by mainstream capital, including Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

In an environment where many venture firms are pulling back, thanks to weak exit markets, fewer follow-on rounds, and a sluggish global capital flow, Endeavor Catalyst is not giving up. It believes its model, anchored in founder quality and local market insight, gives it a long-term edge.

Since launching in 2012, the firm has made more than 360 investments across 34 countries. Its portfolio includes 63 companies that have crossed the $1 billion valuation mark. Flutterwave in Nigeria, Rappi in Colombia, Tabby in the UAE, Insider in Turkey, and Carro in Indonesia are among them. 

Over 30 of its portfolio companies have exited, either through IPOs or acquisitions, Argentina’s Globant, Chile’s Cornershop, and Tunisia’s InstaDeep among the more recognisable names.

What makes the firm different is how it approaches investing. It doesn’t lead rounds, just simply co-invests in equity rounds, typically Series A to C, of $5 million or more, alongside other institutional VCs. This lean model allows it to scale with minimal overhead while gaining access to high-potential deals.

“Endeavor Catalyst is not here to compete with traditional VCs,” a source familiar with the fund’s strategy told TechCrunch. “It exists to back founders already proven within the Endeavor network who are ready to raise serious capital.”

The Endeavor model starts with identifying promising entrepreneurs early. It surrounds them with mentorship, opens global networks, and supports them with local expertise. 

Once they hit their growth stride, Endeavor Catalyst steps in with funding, not to dictate terms, but to back them alongside top-tier investors like QED Investors, Tiger Global, Kaszek Ventures, and Prosus Ventures.

The fund is also backed by some of the world’s most influential investors and founders. Bill Ackman, Pierre Omidyar, Michael Dell, Bill Ford, and Reid Hoffman are among its backers. Notably, 30% of its LPs are founders themselves, so-called “Endeavor Entrepreneurs” including Marcos Galperin (MercadoLibre), David Vélez (Nubank), and Marcin Żukowski (Snowflake).

Even in colder market conditions, Endeavor Catalyst has been active. In Q4 2024 alone, it closed 13 new deals across seven different countries, making it one of the most active funds globally in that quarter.

What Endeavor Catalyst is doing matters beyond just returns. It’s helping to prove that some of the world’s most investable companies are not in Silicon Valley, but in Lagos, Jakarta, São Paulo, and Dubai. Its performance is changing perceptions around venture potential in emerging markets.

While it declined to comment on the ongoing fundraising, the firm’s track record reveals that the $300 million goal is realistic, and that it’s well-positioned to reach it.