Ten Southern African startups have received awards for their solutions to bridge the gap in financial access for underserved communities as part of a challenge supported by the World Bank. The Fintech Challenge was part of the ecosystem development initiatives under the Southern Africa Innovation Bridge Portal supported by the World Bank to crowd-source new and impactful ways to utilise the latest innovations in fintech. The initiative is aimed at providing low-cost and appropriate savings and de-risking products for the low- and middle-income market and lending solutions for SMEs. In all, 10 Southern African startups were each awarded US$5,000 to get their businesses investment-ready at a recent awards event. South Africa was home to six of the winning startups, namely abela, Bento Technologies, Fintr, Moya Money, Sum1 Investments, and Thumeza. Two are from Lesotho – Chaperone and Prime Capital – while there was one each from Botswana (Ipachi Capital) and Namibia (FundRoof).
These 10 Southern African Fintech Startups Wowed the World Bank
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