A South African company called Vuleka has won the Visa Everywhere Initiative competition (VEI).
This is the South African version, held in Cape Town, where Vuleka won $50,000 (R926,751) in prize money. This will get the startup to the regional finals of the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (CEMEA) competition, which are planned for July.
“I’m very happy that we won, and I’m looking forward to working with Visa in the future,” said Brian Makwaiba, the founder of Vuleka. We plan to put the money back into the business and pay more attention to the fintech side of things.”
If Vuleka does well at the CEMEA regionals, it will participate in the world final on September 19 in San Francisco.
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About Vuleka
Vuleka was created in 2017 and helped trade in the informal sector by connecting small manufacturers, big wholesalers, and spaza shop owners through its platform. You can get to this platform in a number of ways, such as through an app, WhatsApp, a network of employees, or the phone. It lets people who own spaza shops sell their goods straight to customers.
Since its launch, the platform has drawn more than 7,000 customers and given its clients’ businesses a way to let people buy now and pay later. Makwaiba said, “We want to make every small business cashless, just like Visa does.”
“We started this business and grew it, and now we know there is a market for it. The business will put more effort into making these options work. We think that our approach will be easier to scale up,” Makwaiba said.
Lineshree Moodley, the General Manager of Visa South Africa, said that the event was put together to recognise innovation and new ideas that will solve problems and challenges in the payments environment in the future. She emphasised that the focus was not just on finding new solutions but also on making sure that everyone could benefit from new ideas.
Moodley said that this year’s competition finalists had a wide range of ideas and were focused on solving real problems in South Africa and across the continent.
“This is what success looks like when we find ways to make more people have access to money. Our winner solves a problem that we have that is very real: “SMEs are the heart of our economy, and we all need to work together to figure out how to bring them into the digital financial ecosystem,” she said.
The Visa Everywhere Initiative
VEI is an international innovation competition that started in 2015. It asks start-ups and fintech companies to solve payment and trade problems that businesses of all sizes and types will face in the future. Its goal is to show off the goods and services of new businesses and help them connect with important people in the banking, retail, venture capital, and government sectors.
Visa says that since it began, the programme has helped start-ups from more than 100 countries get more than $16 billion in funds. Nearly 12,000 start-ups and businesses from all over the world are part of the initiative’s network.
Visa Everywhere Initiative Competition previous winners
Last year, ThriveAgric from Nigeria won the VEI global grand prize and got $100,000 (R1.9 million). Five start-ups, including Franc, Tweak, Float, iiDENTIFii, and Vuleka, pitched their ideas to a group of judges at Innovation City in Cape Town during the local round of the competition.
Franc was given the $10,000 (R185,183) social impact prize. iiDENTIFii won second place and got $20,000 (R370,345). Tweak won third place and got $30,000 (R555,517).
Moodley said this about the importance of VEI: “We know that we need a lot of bold ideas, that we need to push limits, and that we need to look at all of the different players in the ecosystem. Fintechs, start-ups, and entrepreneurs can do a lot to help provide these answers.
“If you look at the pitches of the five finalists, they all have very good ideas that solve problems we see in the future, with inclusion being the biggest one. The Visa Everywhere Initiative gives them a place to say what they think. Many people have great ideas, but because they don’t have the right tools, they don’t always see their full potential.
Moodley said that she thinks Vuleka will win the big prize of $100,000 in San Francisco at the end of this year.