Taking part in the third edition of its biannual Africa Fintech Accelerator, Visa has selected 19 startups from around the continent to get mentorship, industry connections, and tools to help them scale their innovative ideas.
The Africa Fintech Accelerator was started in 2023 by Visa’s commitment to invest USD 1 billion in financial inclusion in Africa by 2027.
So far, it has accelerated 45 startups in two cohorts, with 15 partnerships already in operation.
Visa recently announced the 19 startups selected for the third edition of the three-month program, while four startups that participated in the initial program last year received strategic funding from the company.
The 19 startups, who come from all over the continent, will have access to technology credits, mentorship, and demo day opportunities to network with potential investors.
They will also have the chance to get strategic investment from Visa.
Four Kenyan startups were selected and they are as follows:
Credable, which gives companies and financial institutions in MEA access to a digital banking platform so they can deliver financial services;
Melanin Kapital is a carbon neobank that provides carbon credits and green loans to African companies;
Umba, a digital microfinancing institution;
Zendawa provides integrated finance services and online sales support to local pharmacies.
Three are from South Africa:
Block Markets Africa, which constructs infrastructure for open financial markets through asset tokenization;
Ordev, which offers middleware solutions that help firms in the retail and hospitality sectors combine digital services;
Sticitt, which streamlines school payments, boosting revenue and cutting down on administrative work.
Three more are from Nigeria, specifically:
Bumpa, which facilitates online sales for retailers and direct-to-consumer companies;
Kredete, a digital marketplace for lending;
NearPays is a comprehensive company payment platform.
Egypt has two participants;
MoneyHash, which combines several payment APIs into a single merchant connection point, and;
Enza, assists banks in providing SMEs with mobile-led financial services and payment acceptance.
However, the remainder of the cohort is made up of
Fixa from Rwanda,
Kacha from Ethiopia,
Moneco from Algeria,
WafR from Morocco
Jabu from Namibia,
PaySika from Cameroon,
WeWire from Ghana.
Read more on Tech Gist Africa:
AfriLabs and NASENI collaborate to launch an innovation hub for Nigerian tech entrepreneurs
The Nigerian government has launched a ₦100 million AI Fund for startups in partnership with Google
The HERCCELERATE program is now open to women-led technology startups
