12 African startups have been selected to take part in the 3rd edition of the CATAPULT: Inclusion Africa 2021 programme with one of them being Kotani Pay – a blockchain-based startup from Kenya.
The programme targets companies in the financial inclusion space in Africa that are looking to build bridges between Africa and Europe.
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
The programme is funded by the LHoFT foundation – a public – private sector initiative that drives technology innovation for Luxembourg’s financial services industry, connecting the domestic and international Fintech community.
14 startups have been selected to take part in the programme, out of which, 12 are from Africa. These include:
- Abawah (Nigeria) – Providing access to retirement savings for Africa’s unbanked and underbanked population. We are improving the customer experience when interacting with pensions by merging financial literacy with easy to use technology
- Asilimia (Kenya) – An android application that allows informal traders in Africa to create a formal business account within their personal mobile money account. With Asilimia, all their future B2B transactions will be categorized as business transactions even though initiated from their personal mobile money account, saving 90% of their mobile money transaction fees
- ChromePay (Israel) – Providing merchants and vendors with an affordable way to run all financial aspects of their business without using a bank or POS system. Our platform allows each merchant to manage products and generate invoices embedded in a unique QR code that can be scanned by customers to instantly pay for goods and services
- Crop2Cash (Nigeria) – Banks and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) find agricultural financing risky, which has created a $330 billion funding gap in agriculture globally. This tool can provide this finance with a high level of assurance that it would be efficiently used by the farmers
- Emata (Uganda) – Disrupting the $65bn agricultural financing opportunity in Africa. The company digitizes farmers’ cooperatives and gives farmers access to digital and affordable financial products
- Igugu Global (Nigeria) – Accelerating the flow of capital to Africa’s US$1.5 trillion sustainable infrastructure gap. We are solving the problem of fragmentation in financial markets by providing ESG mapping, structuring and due diligence for green building, transport and energy portfolios
- Juakali (France) – Simplify financial institutions’ lives by eliminating paperwork & automating valueless tasks, so that employees can make the most of their time at work and companies boost their productivity
- Kotani Pay (Kenya) – A technology stack that enables Blockchain protocols, dApps, and Blockchain FinTech companies to integrate seamlessly into local payment channels providing them with a reliable on-ramp and off-ramp service to reach a wider customer base in Africa
- Mipango (Tanzania) – a personal finance mobile application that enables users to manage their income, expenses, savings, financial targets, help and offerings. Mipango app uses artificial intelligence to guide users to better financial management and financial deals towards attaining financial freedom
- Moja Bank (Ivory Coast) – Provides a digital payment App and a contactless card which is used by consumers to facilitate everyday payment in emerging markets. Consumers in the US use the App to manage their finances, and send money to their families back home
- Mosabi (Sierra Leone) – Linking fintech and edtech with embedded, gamified upskilling for Africa’s financial products and platforms. This helps underserved citizens improve decisions and behaviours on their businesses and money. We harness data insights from user profiles and journeys, to match them to best fits across a marketplace of digital financial services
- Nokway Technologies (Ghana) – Enabling the potential of AI in the financial space, and its capacity to promote financial inclusion. Voice User Interface systems, for instance, enable people who cannot see, as well as people who cannot read and write, to interact with banking apps and systems through spoken commands
- Repay.Africa (Kenya) – API-driven platform serving as an electronic alternative to cash, cheques & banks for the un-banked Sub-Saharan Africa. Africa-wide payment & transfer platform that supports online money transfers and bill payments to merchants
- Vooli (Kenya) – A client-centric, technology-driven, disruptive insurtech, that offers on-demand general insurance through its app and website. Vooli bills users based on the duration they need insurance e.g. annually or semi-annually, and also seamlessly
As LHoFT partners, the startups will leverage Luxembourg’s Inclusive Finance and Fintech ecosystems in developing their businesses and achieving their inclusion goals, creating synergies between them, partners, sponsors, investors, microfinance instutions, and public financial institutions.
The tailor-made program will provide the following to the participating startups:
- Intensive mentoring
- Coaching
- Peer-to-peer learning
- Dedicated workshops
- Business model maping
- Investment readiness
- Funding and capital raising
- Social impact
- Scaling strategy
- Building teams
- Operational management
- Pitch development
____________________________________________________________________
RECOMMENDED READING: 1 Out of 20 Startups Selected for the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa (5th Edition) is a Blockchain Fintech
____________________________________________________________________
Follow us on Twitter for latest posts and updates
Join and interact with our Telegram community
_____________________
Subscribe to the channel below to keep updated on latest news on video:
____________________________________________________________________
Open a Bizlato Bitcoin Trading Account to get started!
____________________________________________________________________
