Village Capital and PayPal Announces Its First Cohort For Fintech Africa 2018
The Village Capital Fintech Africa 2018 program that launched last year, has announced a cohort of 12 early stage fintech startups, in collaboration with PayPal.
Village Capital and PayPal had received 165 applications for the round whereas they sieved out 12. Each of these startups has developed an innovative technology or business model that improves financial health for consumers and/or businesses. The companies are based in Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria.
According to a recent report by independent pan-African banking group Ecobank, the fintech sector in Africa is expected to grow by $3 billion over the next two years. Fintech also has the potential to expand access to financial services and improve financial health for millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa.
From March through May, the startups will participate in three four-day workshops to sharpen their case for investment and engage with potential customers, strategic partners, mentors, investors, sector experts, and PayPal employees.
At the end of the program, investments of USD 50k will be offered to the top two startups in the cohort, selected by their peers. According to Villcap, entrepreneurs already have the market and sector context and can fast-track to conducting an in-depth analysis of each other’s businesses, with the advantage of social capital built as equals.
The selected startups address insurtech, pensions and savings, cooperative finance, and financial literacy; leverage data for credit scoring and consumer insights; and apply fintech to our other sectors of interest: agriculture, energy, education, and health.
Here’s the complete list of the startups that made it to the cohort.
Annona (Kenya) is a technology platform for managing small-scale producers in global supply chains, helping them fulfil contracts and make digital payments.
CredPal (Nigeria) is a technology company that allows consumers to make purchases across various online and offline merchants and pay for it in instalments.
Ensibuuko (Uganda) helps cooperative microfinance organizations automate how they manage customer and transaction data using Mobis, a cloud-based software platform. It also made it to the second cohort of GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator last week and received an equity free grant.
Finance Life Technologies Limited (Riby Finance) (Nigeria) provides a software that enables cooperatives, associations and trade groups to automate and manage their financial transactions.
FPESA® (Kenya) helps small- and medium-sized Kenyan enterprises that transact foreign exchange discover, negotiate, book and settle foreign currency transactions.
GrassRoots Bima (Kenya) helps customers access insurance services transparently through both online and offline applications.
Mazima Retirement Plan (Uganda) helps Africa’s informal sector save for retirement.
Numida Technologies (Uganda) is building the missing digital products that African small businesses need in order to thrive.
Patasente Inc (Uganda) provides purchase order financing for SMEs in Uganda.
Social Lender (Nigeria) is the leading credit lending solution based on social reputation on mobile, online, and social media platforms.
Tulaa (Kenya and Ghana) is a mobile-based marketplace that helps smallholder farmers in Africa access affordable finance, quality agricultural inputs, and markets.
Youverify (Nigeria) is an API for address and identity verification in Africa.
