Ethiopian Startup Better Auth Joins Y Combinator Amid Visa Challenges

Better Auth, a rapidly growing open-source authentication framework for TypeScript, has made headlines by securing a spot in Y Combinator’s Spring 2025 Cohort and $500,000 in seed funding. This makes the seven-month-old project the third Ethiopian startup to join the prestigious accelerator, following in the footsteps of beU Delivery and Avion.

The brainchild of young developers Bereket Engida and Kinfemichael Tariku, Better Auth aims to simplify user authentication for developers by offering a framework-agnostic solution. It supports various TypeScript-based technologies, making it a go-to tool for developers seeking streamlined multi-factor, social, and multi-tenant authentication.

Since its launch, the tool has garnered over 10,000 GitHub stars, 644 forks, and 274 contributors, with more than 500,000 downloads. Speaking about the remarkable reception, Bereket said, “The project’s popularity on GitHub, with over 10,000 stars and numerous forks, indicates a strong level of interest and adoption. It means tens of thousands of the developer community across the world are showing their support.”

Y Combinator’s Bet on Better Auth

Y Combinator, renowned for backing successful companies like GitLab, Mattermost, and Amplitude, sees immense potential in Better Auth. The accelerator’s interest aligns with the rising popularity of TypeScript, which now powers 38% of web projects, up from 12% in 2017. TypeScript’s ability to enhance code maintainability and error detection makes it a preferred choice for large-scale applications.

Notable projects already adopting Better Auth include Follow, a content organisation tool with 23,000 GitHub stars; Dokploy, a deployment platform with 17,500 stars; Shiro, a media server project with 3,700 stars; Cloudflare Saas Stack, a starter kit for SaaS products with 3,400 stars; and Mail0, an AI-driven email solution with 3,200 stars.

Despite this promising start, the founders have hit a stumbling block: visa issues. The US embassy in Ethiopia recently denied them entry to participate in the upcoming three-month Y Combinator program, which begins early next month. Although a support letter from YC is expected to help, their situation has ignited discussions online about the challenges African entrepreneurs face when seeking international opportunities.

A broader issue is at play, with high visa rejection rates affecting many African nationals. A Semafor report last year revealed that the EU earned €130 million from rejected Schengen visa applications in 2023, with approximately 42% of the revenue coming from African applicants. The situation is worsened by a 12.5% increase in non-refundable fees, which took effect in June 2024.