Lendo, a Saudi-based fintech startup, will participate in Google’s first accelerator in the MENA region. Lendo provides short-term finance-against-invoice solutions for SMEs. The platform paves the path for small companies to lend cash from individual lenders against their outstanding invoices while providing funding in a shorter time period seamlessly.
The application for the accelerator programme came from these economies: the UAE, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Oman and the Kingdom. Google has chosen 10 startups including Lendo out of around 500 applications, where four startups are led by women.
The three months programme will provide a mentorship programme for the participating economies in areas such as leadership development, customer acquisition, machine learning, product design/UX and digital marketing.
Google will roll out its second cohort of the programme later this year, in response to the large interest, the program has received. The company will provide free workshops to all the startups in the next edition of the programme.
Apart from Lendo, these are the other participants of the programme: Designhubz, an AR and VR platform for ecommerce followed by virtual events platform 360VUZ and Lamsa, a children’s educational and entertainment platform. These startups are from the Emirates.
Furthermore, another three platforms that are chosen from Jordan are ViaVii, AI-based travel experience platform, Abwab, an educational platform and Careres, a family care services market. Egypt’s medication manager app Chefaa, Tunisia’s fashion marketplace platform Dabchy and Oman’s meditation app Nsfas are taking part in the programme. The programme will boost MEENA’s startups.