Reserve Bank, KPMG Matchi name 12 finalists of fintech hackcelerator

The SA Reserve Bank (Sarb) and technology matchmaking platform KPMG Matchi have named the 12 finalists of the Global Fintech Hackcelerator @ Southern Africa.

The hackathon and accelerator programme aims to create a platform for fintech firms to demonstrate their innovative solutions to the complex financial challenges in the Southern African region.

The two organisations said in a statement last Wednesday (2 October) that the regional hackcelerator received 95 entries from interested fintech firms across the globe.

The Global Fintech Hackcelerator @ Southern Africa finals will be held at a Fintech Demo Day on 29 October in Johannesburg

The entries were validated by KPMG Matchi’s analysts and scored by a team of 24 industry executives.

The team included representatives from Absa, Capitec, Discovery, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), FirstRand Group, Investec, Liberty Group, National Treasury, Nedbank, Reserve Bank, Standard Bank and the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA).

The 12 are:

• Ctrl: This independent car and household insurance advice app enables individuals to receive and accept quote options from a variety of insurers on their mobile phones
• E4 Strategic: The company has developed Virtual Identity, a web or mobile service which enables users to complete the FICA process remotely by submitting evidence of identity, which is verified against external data sources and or an agent, fulfilling all regulatory obligations.
• Emerge Analytics: Emerge Analytics is an advanced data analytics solution that helps clients navigate and optimise corporate data to deliver better answers, new insight and improved profitability
• Hydrogen: Accelerates digital financial innovation by enabling organisations to build unique solutions and products across savings, investment, wellness and insurance by configuring the relevant combination of application programming interfaces and business logic
• MindBridge Analytics: MindBridge Analytics’ Artificial Intelligence (AI) Auditor platform automates the ingestion as well as the analysis of data and learns from user interaction to identify fraud.
• Nimbla: Developed a digital insurance platform is designed to protect small and medium-sized businesses against insolvent customers by insuring invoices against non-payment
• Paycode: Provides financial service access to the unbanked by giving them a biometric identity in addition to developing solutions that enable, among other things, a national payments infrastructure, social grant distribution, international remittances, card payment infrastructure, and token management systems
• Sedicii: Monitors customer bank remittances for anti-money laundering through multi-party collaboration without sharing data, while remaining fully compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other regulations
• Strands: Developed a digital banking solution which helps small and medium-sized enterprises to better run their business while helping banks to better understand and serve their business customers through smarter lending
• Tautona AI: Automates decisions with artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, data mining, business rules and analytics to help insurance companies identify which claims can be automatically processed and which should be handled manually
• Ukheshe: Developed a solution that helps informal merchants, traders, street vendors and casual labourers to accept real-time digital payments from cardholders or different payment apps, without needing to have a bank account
• Wealth Migrate: Drives financial inclusion through a blockchain-enabled global online real estate marketplace that allows people to invest and diversify in global real estate for as little as $1000

The 12 will showcase their solutions at a Fintech Demo Day which will be held on 29 October in Johannesburg. At the event, a panel of judges from the Reserve Bank, FSCA as well as local and Asian industry experts will select and announce two winning solutions.

Each Global Fintech Hackcelerator @ Southern Africa winner will receive:

• A stipend towards travel expenses to attend the 2019 Singapore Fintech Festival
• An opportunity to pitch their solution live during the Hackcelerator Demo Day at the 2019 Singapore Fintech Festival and engage with industry experts
• Funding to develop a contextualised proof of concept to be deployed within a year from the demo day
• Work with corporates to contextualise a solution to their needs, while obtaining market entry into the Singapore and Asia-Pacific region

In addition, the top three winners at the Singapore Fintech Festival will each receive a cash prize.

Featured image: Investment Zen (CC BY 2.0)