LIST | Out of 23 African Startups Selected for the Inaugural VISA Fintech Accelerator, One Enables Crypto

VISA has chosen 23 African startups to be part of the inaugural cohort of its Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator.

Nigerian startups dominated the cohort of selected startups, followed by Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, South Africa, Egypt, Uganda, Zambia, and Tunisia.

The following startups were selected from:

Nigeria:

• Anchor: Provides APIs, dashboards, and tools for developers to embed and build banking products
• Dojah: Offers a comprehensive Know Your Customer (KYC) and digital onboarding solution
• Moni: Provides low-interest loans to mobile money agent communities
• OkHi: Allows banks, fintechs, and businesses to collect and verify customers’ addresses
• Orda Africa: African restaurant cloud operating system provider
• Traction: Builds the next generation of payment solutions and business tools

Ghana:

• OZÉ: Provides digital record-keeping tools with embedded finance products to medium and small businesses
• The Blu Penguin: Delivers an in-store Point of Sale (PoS) system
• AgroCenta: Runs a mobile merchant platform for smallholder farmers
• Affinity Africa: Provides banking products to the underserved and unbanked

Kenya:

• Duhqa: B2B platform for retail distribution of consumer goods
• Power: Allows workers to take control of their financial health
• WorkPay: HR payroll provider

Morocco:

• Chari: B2B e-commerce and retail startup
• PayTic: Streamlines the back-office operations and risk control of digital payments
• Weego: Offers a variety of transportation options and solutions

South Africa:

• FloatPays: On-demand wage access platform
• Franc: Allows users to invest in leading cash and equity funds
• OnLife: All-in-one money management wallet

Rest of Africa:

• Sympl (Egypt): Enables customers to shop and pay later, with no interest
• Eversend (Uganda): Payments platform offering cross-border payments, virtual cards, currency exchange, and crypto buying and selling
• PremierCredit (Zambia): Online microlending and investment platform
• Konnect (Tunisia): Offers payment links by SMS, email, Messenger, or WhatsApp

The chosen startups will receive:

• 1:1 mentoring from experts and founders in the African ecosystem
• VISA-specific training
• Partnership opportunities
• Undisclosed funding
• Access to various product perks and discounts from over 100 vendors, valued at $200,000. This includes credits from Google Cloud and HubSpot.

As reported by BitKE back in June 2023, the VISA Africa Fintech Acceleratory Program follows VISA’s commitment to invest $1 billion in Africa’s digital transformation.

The Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator program will provide up to 40 startups annually with a three-month intensive learning program focused on business growth and mentorship. Upon completing the program, select participating businesses will receive further support from Visa through capital investment, along with access to Visa’s technology and capabilities, to accelerate their commercial launch.