Visa on Monday announced that 19 African startups have been selected for the third cohort of its Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator program. These startups, representing 21 countries and spanning sectors such as embedded finance, SME lending, and digital banking, highlight the continent’s vibrant fintech landscape.
Empowering female leadership
One of this cohort’s most notable characteristics is its remarkable representation of women in leadership positions—85 percent of the chosen firms had female leaders. This is a noteworthy rise over prior cohorts and highlights the expanding role of women in Africa’s innovation ecosystem.
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Comprehensive support for startups
The Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator, now in its third year, is a demanding 12-week program that gives businesses the tools, resources, and strategic connections they need to succeed.
Participants gain access to Visa’s broad network and professional advice, which promotes cooperation with business titans to improve their solutions and increase impact.
Showcasing innovations on demo day
At the program’s private Demo Day, innovators showcase their innovations to investors and business executives. Startups can use this event to build strategic alliances, raise capital, and increase awareness.
The Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator, introduced in 2023, provides investment opportunities and rigorous mentorship to up to 45 businesses each year. In Africa, the initiative develops scalable fintech solutions, encourages innovation, and advances financial inclusion.
Meet the startups of Cohort 3
Participants for this year include:
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MoneyHash (Egypt): A payment API aggregator simplifying financial transactions.
WafR (Morocco): A digital wallet for informal merchants.
Block Markets Africa (South Africa): Tokenising assets to create open financial markets.
Jabu (Namibia): Digital cash management solutions for Southern Africa.
Ordev (South Africa): Middleware integrating digital services for retail and hospitality.
Sticitt (South Africa): Simplifying school-related payments.
Bumpa (Nigeria): Digital commerce solutions for retail and D2C businesses.
Kredete (Nigeria): A lending marketplace for borrowers and lenders.
Enza (Egypt): A platform enhancing SME engagement for banks.
Moneco (Algeria): A neobank connecting Africa and Europe for diaspora banking.
PaySika (Cameroon): Central Africa’s first challenger bank.
WeWire (Ghana): A B2B cross-border payments solution.
NearPays (Nigeria): A payment platform for tracking cash flow.
Credable (Kenya): A digital banking platform enabling financial institutions to embed financial services.
Fixa (Rwanda): An end-to-end staffing solution for deploying blue-collar workers.
Kacha (Ethiopia): Ethiopia’s first licensed private payment platform offering mobile money services.
Melanin Kapital (Kenya): A carbon neobank providing green loans and carbon credits.
Umba (Kenya): A digital microfinance bank serving Kenya and Nigeria.
Zendawa (Kenya): An embedded finance solution for neighbourhood pharmacies.
These organisations are poised at the cutting edge of African fintech innovation, offering unique solutions to the financial sector’s various challenges.
By participating in the Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator program, these innovators are in a favourable position to significantly contribute to the continent’s initiatives to promote financial inclusion and economic growth.