GSDLabs accelerator, the Silicon Valley based venture studio closed its third cohort with four Nigerian startups participating in the Demo Day.
Despite being based in the US, all the companies at GSD's accelerator were non-American companies. The San Francisco-based venture studio focuses on companies with international (non-American)roots because it believes that intellectual capacity is evenly spread throughout the world but opportunity is not.
While other accelerators may not be willing to create these opportunities because of the associated difficulties, GSD prides itself on being able to make the connections that help international startups pop the Silicon Valley bubble.
In March, GSD's COO, Derek Distenfield, came to Lagos, Nigeria where he met with members of the local tech community. He also hosted an event dubbed "Hacks from Silicon Valley, in which he and other panelists talked to members of the audience about tips that they had used to build global businesses.
Speaking on why GSDLabs is different from other accelerators, Derek said to Benjamindada that the company's roots were in venture building, not venture capital. "This important component means that we work alongside companies like fellow operators to help them get traction, funding and product-market fit."
Here is the complete list of companies that pitched at the demo event:
Eezy: a startup that provides users with a mobile life planner which gives real-time, custom recommendations on fun activities to users.
Split Byte: an Indian-owned, but US-based cryptography startup that provides quantum proof, keyless safe harbor data security.
Aladdin Bank: a Nigerian digital bank that combines banking and commerce to connect buyers to sellers on a platform they can trust.
MayaMD: an AI-powered clinical intelligence platform which enhances physician-patient communication and collaboration.
QuickRead: a Nigerian learntech company that allows users to only pay for the content that they need.
Kite Financial: a Nigerian cryptocurrency startup that's simplifying adoption of cryptocurrencies. Kite users can perform crypto-fiat conversions, P2P crypto trading, payment with crypto and more.
SmartUp: A Nigerian ed-tech platform which provides a Student Information System (SIS) and Learning Management Systems for schools, helping them digitize formal and informal education.
Yelypay: an Isreal-based credit card security company which provides cybersecurity authentication on transactions to users.
BRIK exchange: a startup that is powering the real estate ecosystem through Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
02 Services: a cloud computing platform designed to reuse idle computational and storage resources owned by companies and everyday users.
Speaking on the cohort, Derek said to Benjamindada.com that this set of companies is on the cutting edge of what is relevant and needed in the world today. So far, one of the companies, Kite Financial has already raised funding from Go Ahead ventures, a Silicon Valley venture firm.
"Getting these companies funded has been especially rewarding, and we will continue to focus on the region relentlessly because we know there are many more unicorns waiting to be unveiled" Derek closed with.
Originally published in https://www.benjamindada.com/