Dojah, a Nigerian-based startup that helps companies verify customers identity has been accepted by Y Combinator for the Winter batch, 2022 training. Y Combinator (YC) is a US-based venture capitalist that funds and backs startups in a pre-seed fundraising stage.
Every year, YC invests $150,000 into each company that has been accepted into the W22 training that lasts for three months in the Silicon valley which culminates into a Demo day. YC runs two batches a year, the first from January through March and the second from June through August.
Founded in 2005 the startup has served as an accelerator launchpad for over 3,000 startups and is currently at a $600 billion valuation. Out of several companies that apply to YC yearly, only a handful is accepted. The chosen few are further trained in the Silicon valley on how to pitch funds and attract investors and even acquirers.
For the YC winter batch, a little over 100 companies have been named as part of the financial inclusion programme, with three from Nigeria. These are Moni, a neobank which aims at democratising access to financial services as well as provide financing to mobile money agents; Topship, shipping company which aims at creating a global system for the distribution of goods ; and now Dojah.
Over the years, the prestige of YC has risen in Africa following the victories of Flutterwave, Kudi, Paystack, Cowrywise and several others.
Founded in 2021 by Tobi Ololade and Ayomide Oso, Dojah helps companies verify customers identity using various biometrics recognition techniques to prove credibility of consumers. Getting into YC is no doubt a water shedding moment for the company.
Meanwhile, Ayomide Oso, Co-founder at Dojahshared this: “Getting into YC has been a tremendous boost for us. It has already been instrumental in helping us ease conversations with critical stakeholders. We are excited about what the future holds for us. Our growth translates to more growth for the African Startups. As we find the means to onboard users across more countries, African startups would have entrance to these countries also.”
