Nigerian CredPal And Growselwill Among Winners Of VISA’s Everywhere Initiative
Four fintech startups from Nigeria made it through to the finals of Visa’s Everywhere Initiative, which is a global innovation platform that gives startups tasks to solve everyday challenges in e-commerce. VoguePay, CredPal, Loystar, and Growselwill were selected from the prior 12, from the pool of 238 entries. These four startups went on a headlock with other innovators from across Sub-Saharan Africa, gunning for the ultimate prize of USD 50 K that will help them expand their ventures.
Fintech startups in Africa are unusual sensations, as they are not only providing more convenient services to consumers, but as well enabling connection for people who would otherwise be denied access to financial services, or even a medium through which they can connect to formal banking systems. Venture funding targeted to African startups skyrocketed from 51 percent to USD 195 Mn in 2017, and as African fintech continues to ripple the traditional financial sector, it is expected to experience a significant growth in the next few years.
Tailored to reduce cash reliance, build economy-based digital payment and bring about an upheaval in financial inclusion, Visa informed of its commitment to fostering entrepreneurial drive and inspiring motivation in the payment landscape. Sub-Saharan Africa led of the Visa’s Everywhere Initiative came as a challenge to local fintech startups to deliver solution services based around a trio of real-life business bottlenecks.
The first was how startups can leverage Visa Develop APIs to either give small merchants the enablement to accept payments in-store digitally or provide a secure solution for online merchants to drive e-commerce and reduce cash-on-delivery. CredPal won this brief of the challenge, along with the USD 25 K prize, for its solution that helps businesses and individuals pay for purchases in installments across online and offline merchants, providing them with immediate access to credit at the point of checkout.
Also, the challenges centered on how startups can use tech to provide functional services for illiterate customers, providing them with secure payment experiences that would build on their confidence in the banking system. This brief was won by Growselwill, along with the USD 25 K prize.
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Another consideration was how startups can use Visa’s APIs as a means to leverage the mass reach and social media partner platforms such as Facebook to enable businesses operating in fast-paced consumer-centric environments enhance the flow of cash and receive payments.
The entrants for the challenge were requested to tender their ideas to leverage Visa’s network and tech to resolve at least one of the challenges as mentioned above. One winner per brief was selected, and each received a USD 25 K funding.
Source: Vanguard.ng, image source: Visa
