Visa has announced the African startups chosen to participate in the second round of its continent-wide Fintech Accelerator program. This program offers a concentrated 12-week period of personalized training and one-on-one mentorship tailored for seed and Series A startups. Participants gain exclusive access to resources, development opportunities, and potential funding.
This year’s cohort represents a broader geographical scope, with startups from 28 African countries taking part, marking a significant increase from the inaugural program, which included representatives from 18 nations. Notably, there has been a rise in female leadership within the selected startups, with the percentage of female-led companies jumping from 43% in the first edition to an impressive 65% in the second.
The selected startups address various challenges and opportunities in the African fintech landscape. Their solutions cover a wide range of areas including neo-banking, merchant payments, credit scoring, risk and identity management, embedded finance, social commerce, and escrow services, among others.
“Visa is committed to fostering innovation while promoting financial inclusion and accessibility across the ecosystem,” said Aida Diarra, Visa’s Vice President and Head of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Read also: Visa Accelerator Program 2024, Applications Now Open.
Launched in June 2023, the Visa Fintech Accelerator program aligns with Visa’s ongoing commitment to drive Africa’s digital economy forward. This commitment includes a $1 billion investment pledge by 2027 to transform the continent’s payments landscape.
The virtual program concludes with a live Demo Day where startups present their innovations to key stakeholders in the ecosystem, potential investors, angel investors, and venture capitalists.
Here are the selected startups:
- CheckUps Medical Hub (Kenya): Specializes in embedded finance within the healthcare sector.
- AzamPay (Tanzania): A B2B marketplace facilitating smoother transactions for businesses.
- Beem (Tanzania): Engaged in social commerce, enhancing business-consumer interactions through social media platforms.
- Aku (Nigeria): A neo-banking platform offering innovative banking solutions.
- Cleva (Nigeria): Focuses on efficient money movement solutions to enhance financial transactions.
- Curacel (Nigeria): A technology-driven insurance management startup streamlining claims and reducing fraud.
- E-doc Online (Nigeria): Specializes in open banking, facilitating secure sharing of financial information.
- Raenest (Nigeria): Enhances money movement capabilities with their financial technology solutions.
- Bridgecard (Nigeria): Provides infrastructure to enable various financial services.
- Truzo (South Africa): Offers escrow services to secure transactions and enhance trust between parties.
- Bizao (Ivory Coast): A merchant payments solution simplifying payment processes for businesses.
- Hub2 (Ivory Coast): Focuses on providing essential infrastructure to enable various fintech services.
- Chapa (Ethiopia): Provides merchant solutions to enhance business transactions.
- Vaultpay (Democratic Republic of Congo): Focuses on merchant payments to aid businesses in financial transactions.
- Iwomi Technologies (Cameroon): Specializes in money movement to facilitate better transaction processes.
- Proboutik (Cameroon): Another merchant payments solution aimed at improving business transactions.
