Kenya Leads the 3rd Cohort of Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator

The Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator has revealed the 19 startups selected for its third cohort of the biannual program. Representing 21 African countries and a range of fintech subsectors—from embedded finance to SME lending and digital banking—these startups will receive access to tools, industry connections, and mentorship to scale their innovative solutions. This initiative aligns with Visa’s commitment to driving Africa’s digital transformation.

The three-month program will conclude with an in-person Demo Day, where startups will present their solutions to investors, industry leaders, and potential partners. Visa recently invested in four graduates from its inaugural cohort—Oze, Workpay, OkHi, and ORDA.

The 19 startups selected for Cohort 3 include:

• Credable (Kenya) provides a digital banking platform that enables businesses and financial institutions in MEA to offer financial services.
• Fixa (Rwanda): Offers end-to-end staffing solutions, enabling quick deployment of on-demand blue-collar workers.
• Kacha (Ethiopia): Ethiopia’s first private payment instrument issuer, offering mobile money and remittance services.
• Melanin Kapital (Kenya): Develop a carbon neobank offering African businesses green loans and carbon credits.
• Umba (Kenya): A digital microfinance bank providing accounts and financial services in Kenya and Nigeria.
• Zendawa (Kenya): Supports neighbourhood pharmacies with online sales and embedded finance services.
• Enza (Egypt): Helps banks engage SMEs with mobile-led payment acceptance and financial services.
• Moneco (Algeria): A neobank linking Europe and Africa for easier diaspora banking.
• MoneyHash (Egypt): Consolidates multiple payment APIs into a single merchant integration point.
• WafR (Morocco): Develop a digital wallet for informal merchants to market financial services.
• Block Markets Africa (South Africa): Uses asset tokenization to build open financial market infrastructure.
• Jabu (Namibia): Offers cash management and digital financial products across Southern Africa.
• Ordev (South Africa): Provides middleware solutions that integrate digital services for retail and hospitality businesses.
• Sticitt (South Africa): Simplifies school-related payments, increasing collections and reducing administrative tasks.
• Bumpa (Nigeria): Enables digital commerce for retail and direct-to-consumer businesses.
• Kredete (Nigeria): A digital lending marketplace connecting borrowers and lenders.
• NearPays (Nigeria): A full-service payment platform for businesses to accept payments, transfer funds, and manage cash flow.
• PaySika (Cameroon): A challenger bank empowering individuals and SMEs with IBANs and money transfer services.
• WeWire (Ghana): Provides B2B cross-border payment solutions for businesses.