Dancing all the way to the bank: Announcing our Fintech Africa 2017 Class
We held the first of three workshops for entrepreneurs working to improve financial health in Africa — and had fun doing it.
Hello from Nairobi!
In January Village Capital launched FinTech Africa 2017, our seventh program in sub-Saharan Africa, and our second focused on supporting financial technology entrepreneurs in the region.
We’re incredibly excited about this group of nine entrepreneurs — and we’ve also been having a lot of fun(if you’re wondering about the title of this blog, scroll down)!
The three-month FinTech Africa 2017 program is being run in partnership with The MasterCard Foundation, The DOEN Foundation and VC4A (Venture Capital for Africa). It’s designed to support nine early-stage entrepreneurs focused on improving financial health for low-income Africans and African small businesses.
Why is this important? We’ve seen growing access to financial services in Africa over the last several years, but growing access does not necessarily mean improved financial health. There is still a real lack of savings, credit, and investment solutions that work for women, youth, farmers, small businesses, and other underserved communities. We are working with our nine founders to move them toward investment readiness and support their future growth. We believe these companies can a transform the financial health of the communities they serve.
January’s workshop took place in Accra, Ghana, and we just completed a second one in Nairobi. The third will be in Lagos, Nigeria next month. And as always, we will end the program by putting the power of investment in the hands of entrepreneurs; we have pre-committed a total of US$100,000 in investment to the two companies that are ranked highest by their peers at the end of the program (more about peer-selection here).
Village Capital programs put entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and stakeholders side-by-side so they can solve problems together, and build and contribute to ecosystems that support local entrepreneurs over the long-term. We’re excited to continue our work in sub-Saharan Africa with the 2017 cohort:
- IroFit has developed a mobile card reader that allows small businesses to accept card payments anywhere they operate, even in areas with poor internet connection
- LipaMobile has developed mPocket, a cashless transaction system used in schools by students to purchase goods using smart cards
- MaTontine digitizes the traditional peer-to-peer savings system in Africa, in order to offer financial services like small loans
- Olivintech has created ASiM, a Sales (POS) and stock management solution, that networks multiple sites seamlessly, such as a HQ with its warehouses, outlets, field sales/service agents, and customers
- Piggybank.ng is a service that works directly with financial institutions to enable debit card holders in Nigeria save small sums of money frequently through automation of the saving process
- Student Finance Africa is using predictive analytics and credit assessment tools to assist young people and their families to obtain financial support for education when they need it and to pay it back when they can
- TalentBase is a mobile-first payroll software for SMEs across Africa
- VugaPay is a fast and safer way to send and receive mobile money payments online without sharing personal financial information.
Finally, as promised, get an inside look at how we build a community of support around our companies, and have fun doing it!
Village Capital finds, trains and invests in entrepreneurs solving real-world problems. Learn more on our website, and read our insights on Medium.
