Rinchi
TechInAfrica – A South African corporate-backed accelerator and incubator, Founders Factory Africa (FFA) and Standard Bank have selected the first five African fintech startups to be invested their capital in.
FFA helps to build and scale around 140 tech-based startups across four sectors for the next five years. During the first launching, FFA received more than 500 applications from African fintech startups and finally, only five of them got selected. These five startups are from different locations of Africa, including Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda.
The five startups are:
- LipaLater(Kenya) – A lending marketplace for individuals that provides great credit terms through a seamless digital platform at the point of purchase or online. Through the platform, users are also able to redeem high-end goods in store.
- KudiGO(Ghana) – A SaaS startup developing user-oriented retail solutions and big data for Sub-Saharan African consumers in the retail Industry. The startup also develops Storefront, a mobile-based business management suite—a retail management suite, accounting module, cashless payment processing, and AI-enabled data analytics
- Schoolable(Nigeria) – A school financing solutions that collect money from parents and delivers it to school. The company has also launched a SaaS platform and using the technology to leverage the data created by schools and their interactions with stakeholders.
- Eazyhire(Nigeria) – A peer-to-peer leasing platform that provides leasing solutions for the building and heavy machinery industries. The tech-enabled platform has a presence in Kenya and Nigeria.
- Digest Africa(Uganda) – An online platform that allows investors and corporates to access verified, tailored, and real-time news about Africa’s early-stage tech companies. The platform provides fact-checked and up-to-date news that includes analysis which is easy to understand.
FFA have invested in these five fintech startups and committed to helping them to scale through a bespoke six-month acceleration program. The program includes tailored support from a specialist team in product design, tech engineering, data science, growth marketing, investment, among others. Furthermore, they also have access to global capital, talent and knowledge transfer through Founders network.
“Digest Africa, LipaLater, KudiGO, Allpro, and EazyHire all represent the best of African leadership and innovation. Our investment and focus on growing pan-African products and market solutions will enable these exceptional entrepreneurs to address the needs of millions of people and deliver scaled financial and impact returns across the continent. Together with our multi-national corporate investors, we are excited to support these businesses on their pathway to scale,” said Roo Rogers, CEO of Founders Factory Africa (FFA).
Darren Segal, Executive and Head of Moonshots at Standard Bank said: “These businesses are just the start of an exciting journey working with Founders Factory Africa. We see huge potential to grow these businesses and create jobs. Through our partnership, there is also a unique opportunity to catalyze the start-up culture and early-stage investment into these ventures in Africa.”
Source: itnewsafrica.com
