Ten Southern African Fintech Startups Secure USD 5 K Grant Funding From World Bank

The World Bank-supported Fintech Challenge has honored ten startups from Southern Africa for their innovative solutions in addressing the financial access gap among underserved communities. The Fintech Challenge was part of the ecosystem development initiatives under the Southern Africa Innovation Bridge Portal supported by the World Bank to crowd-source new and impactful ways to utilise the latest innovations in fintech. 

The primary objective of the initiative is to offer affordable and suitable savings and de-risking products to the low- and middle-income market, along with lending solutions specifically tailored for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Each startup was awarded USD 5 K to get their businesses investment-ready.

South Africa was home to six of the winning startups, namely abela, Bento Technologies, Fintr, Moya Money, Sum1 Investments, and Thumeza. Two are from Lesotho; Chaperone and Prime Capital, while there was one each from Botswana, Ipachi Capital; and Namibia FundRoof.