Count cells that begin with

Generic formula 

=COUNTIF(rng,"txt*")

Explanation 

To count the number of cells that begin with certain text, you can use the COUNTIF function. In the generic form of the formula (above) rng is a range of cells, txt represents the text that cells should begin with, and "*" is a wildcard matching any number of characters.

In the example, the active cell contains this formula:

=COUNTIF(B4:B11,"app*")

How this formula works

COUNTIF counts the number of cells in the range that begin with txt by matching the content of each cell against the pattern "txt*", which is supplied as the criteria. The "*" symbol (the asterisk) is a wildcard in Excel that means "match any number of characters". The count of cells that match this pattern is returned as a number.