The World Bank has awarded 10 Southern African fintech start-ups $5,000 (R94,020) each to help bridge the gap in financial access for innovative emerging companies in underserved communities.
The award was part of a Fintech Challenge aimed at helping underserved entrepreneurs get their businesses investment ready to boost their access to markets, improve business networks and open up new investment opportunities. The event formed part of a wider ecosystem of development initiatives being run under the banner of the Southern Africa Innovation Bridge Portal, an initiative of the department of science and innovation and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) that is further supported by the department of small business development.
“The region’s most innovative and impactful fintech companies unveiled their solutions to enable greater financial access to the poor, after an eight-week investment readiness programme, which included masterclasses and mentoring,” said Marie Francoise Marie-Nellie, World Bank country director for Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and SA. “Of the 15 participating start-ups, 10 were awarded financing. These businesses are investment ready and now eager to engage further with interested investors.”
The event helped facilitate training for the start-ups to improve their engagement with investors and enhance their chances of successful capital raising. All the entrepreneurs already had businesses that have achieved some market traction and are in a position to engage with pre-seed and seed investors.
The SA-based start-ups that received awards are: mobile payments platform abela; Bento Technologies, an employee benefits platform; Fintr, a gamified financial education platform; Moya Money, a business administration platform aimed at freelancers; Sum1 Investments, an investment focused stokvel; and Thumeza; a credit access provider to small-scale transporters.
Start-up winners from the rest of Southern African include Chaperone (Lesotho), a provider of digital financial solutions; FundRoof (Namibia), a mortgage platform; Ipachi Capital (Botswana), an app that provides real-time financial reports for SMEs to prove their creditworthiness; and Prime Capital (Lesotho), a microfinancier.
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