The latest cohort was announced yesterday by Google Developers Launchpad global lead Roy Glasberg and will kick off next year on 29 January 2018 at the Google Developers Launchpad Space in San Francisco.

A total of 24 startups from Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America have been selected to take part.

The Nigerian contingent to the accelerator will be represented by Helium Health’s electronic health record platform which claims to bring 10 times more efficiency to patient records and hospital management, as well as by fintech Paylater which provides short term loans in Nigeria and Ghana.

Aerobotics, Paylater and Helium Health will be part of the 24 startups for the fifth class of Google’s Launchpad Accelerator

The six-month programme will entail an intensive two-week all-expenses-paid bootcamp where participants will be mentored by over 30 teams from Google as well as mentors from some top tech companies in Silicon Valley and around the world.

The accelerator provides equity-free support which also includes Google services, media training and further post programme support.

In September, the accelerator added seven more countries to its selection pool of African countries. The new additions were Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Tanzania, Tunisia, and Uganda. Prior to this only startups from Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa could apply to the programme.