12 African fintech startups to duke it out in Mauritius

Innotribe has announced the 12 semi-finalists for the second edition of its Startup Challenge in Africa. Drawn from 89 entries, the startups represent the best up-and-coming fintech ventures from five countries across the continent.

The startups, which will compete in Mauritius for a chance to attend Sibos, SWIFT’s annual global financial services conference, taking place from 26-29 September in Geneva.

The Mauritius event, which is set to attract more than 500 delegates from 40 countries, is one of two regional SWIFT Startup Challenge events with the Latin American event taking place in Mexico City toward the end of June.

While all the startups are, broadly speaking, in the Fintech space, they comprise a wide variety of products and services from marketplaces to inventory management platforms and cross-border payment apps.

According to a press release sent to Ventureburn, the judges who chose the 12 startups were looking for the ability to provide an important innovation in the future of the financial industry

“For the second consecutive year, we are thrilled with the number and calibre of the African startups applying to our programme,” says Fabian Vandenreydt, Global Head of Securities Markets, Innotribe and the SWIFT Institute at SWIFT. “The Startup Challenge is an enriching experience for every company participating as they benefit from expert mentoring and get that much needed exposure to financial institutions. We are excited to start this year’s journey and look forward to seeing the startups pitch their innovative products with determination in Mauritius.”

As a part of the programme, each semi-finalist will also receive complimentary coaching sessions with seasoned entrepreneurs who will give them sound advice ahead of the formal pitches taking place on 18 May.

The three finalists who end up going to Sibos will have the opportunity to share the stage with FinTech experts, providing insights on innovation happening on the ground in Africa to the financial industry at large. They will also receive a US$10 000 cash prize each.

The semi-finalists, and descriptions of what they do, can be found below:

Alternative Circle — Kenya

Alternative Circle has created an app based marketplace to enable Financial Institutions to lend capital directly to end users without the need to build their own systems.

AMoney — Cameroon

AMoney enables cross border payments and unifying mobile wallets using blockchain.

BitPesa — Kenya

BitPesa is Africa’s fastest and most affordable bitcoin trading platform.

CashMadam — Nigeria

CashMadam is a mobile sales, and Inventory Management system combined with advanced analytics to help SMEs.

GeoPay — South Africa

GeoPay is a mobile application that lets people transfer money cross-border instantly.

HelloPaisa — South Africa

Hello Paisa is a low cost international money transfer solution for remittances.

Ranis Capital — Kenya

Ranis Capital is a marketplace to leverage customer invoices to provide low cost short term financing.

Stock Shop — South Africa

Stock Shop builds white label & bespoke financial products targeting millennials, levering emotional algorithms and artificial intelligence.

The Money School — South Africa

The Money School offers effective employee financial education to eliminate financial related stress, and positively influence productivity.

The Sun Exchange — South Africa

The Sun Exchange is a peer-to-peer lending platform for investors to fund solar energy projects across the globe.

WeCashUp — Cameroon

WeCashUp has created a cross border mobile money platform, enabling users to make secure payments via their mobile phones all across Africa.

Yo Uganda — Uganda

Yo Uganda builds solutions that leverage existing mobile services to enable payments to be made through Point of Sales devices, mobile applications or online.