The Innotribe Startup Challenge comes to Africa, applications open

SWIFT’s Innotribe Startup Challenge will be returning to African shores on 16 to 18 May. It will be held at the African Regional Conference (ARC), which will take place in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

Innotribe will select 10 startups to take part in their programme. Along with the opportunity to showcase their innovative solutions and products during ARC, the startups will also receive coaching and mentoring prior to the event.

Working together with VCs, industry experts, angel investors, and banking representatives, Innotribe will be relying on their proficiency to help select the startups.

During the presentations, the audience will nominate three finalists, automatically securing their spots at SWIFT’s annual global financial services conference, Sibos which takes place in Toronto Canada from 16-19 October 2017. The three best startups will also receive €10 000 cash prize each.

The Innotribe Startup Challenge aims to find the most innovative startup in Africa which shows the most promise in becoming successful

“Our partnership with ARC has allowed us to highlight Africa as a hotbed of FinTech activity with a lot of ideas, resources and talent to support,” said Innotribe’s global head of securities, Fabian Vandenreydt, in a press release to Ventureburn.

“Through the Startup Challenge, we want to spotlight innovation playing a role in the future of the financial industry across the continent and provide an opportunity for young African companies to use Innotribe’s global network to help them maximise their huge potential,” he continued.

ARC aims to bring together many policy makers, industry leaders as well as the broader business community from all over Africa. “FinTech companies are increasingly part of the fabric of Africa’s financial services industry. Now in its third year, Innotribe’s Startup Challenge for Africa plays an important role in finding the continent’s most exciting young companies, bringing them together with the financial sector and helping them grow,” said the head of Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Sido Bestani.

Applications for the challenge are open until mid-march 2017 with successful applicants being announced in April 2017.

For more information visit the Innotribe website.

Featured image: Citizen59 via Flickr