Visa names start-ups for Africa fintech accelerator
From left: Peach Payments co-founder and CEO Rahul Jain, Visa’s Aida Diarra, National Bank of Rwanda’s Christian Kajeneri, Visa’s Lesego Charlie and KCB Group CEO Paul Russo.
Visa has selected 16 fintech start-ups from Sub-Saharan Africa, including South African escrow payments provider Truzo, as part of the second cohort of its Africa Fintech Accelerator programme.
In a statement, Visa says the second cohort start-ups operate across 28 African countries, demonstrating a 55% increase from the first cohort where the representatives operated across 18 countries.
Furthermore, 65% of them feature female leadership, rising from 43% in the inaugural edition.
Aida Diarra, VP and head of Sub-Saharan Africa at Visa, remarks: “We are proud to say that our second cohort of accelerator participants represents more than 50% of countries across Africa, up from a third during our first cohort.
“Not only that, but women are in leadership roles across the majority of these cutting-edge start-ups. We have a robust, diverse selection of innovators seeking to shape the future of commerce and finance – and Visa is happy to help them take the next step to where they need to be.”
Introduced in June 2023, the accelerator programme is targeted at African fintech firms, to support these businesses through capital investment, training, mentorship, technology and networking opportunities.
It also aims to strengthen Africa’s payment ecosystem through innovations and technologies, focusing on digitising economies, upskilling talent and building capacity, according to Visa.
The biannual programme runs over 12 weeks, concluding with an in-person demo day, where the start-ups will have the opportunity to pitch their innovations to key ecosystem players.
The programme’s second cohort of start-ups offer solutions such as neo-banking, merchant payments, credit scoring, risk and identity management, embedded finance, social commerce and escrow services. They aim to address the challenges and opportunities in the African fintech landscape, such as financial inclusion, access to credit, cross-border payments and digital transformation, says Visa.
The other Sub-Saharan Africa start-ups shortlisted for the second cohort of the accelerator programme are:
- Chapa – Ethiopia – merchant solutions
- CheckUps Medical Hub – Kenya – embedded finance (health)
- AzamPay – Tanzania – B2B marketplace
- Beem– Tanzania – social commerce
- Bizao – Ivory Coast – merchant payments solution
- Hub2 – Ivory Coast – enabler infrastructure
- Iwomi Technologies – Cameroon – money movement
- Proboutik – Cameroon – merchant payments solution
- Vaultpay – Democratic Republic of Congo – merchant payments solution
- Aku – Nigeria – neo-banking
- Cleva – Nigeria – money movement
- Curacel – Nigeria – insurance management
- E-doc Online – Nigeria – open banking
- Raenest – Nigeria – money movement
- Bridgecard – Nigeria – enabler infrastructure
