Ugandan financial tech startups have not made it to the finals of the ‘Ecobank Fintech Challenge,’ a competition for African technology start-ups launched in January 2017.
Instead, neighbors Kenyan have five; MobiTill, TEAM SAFEPA, Greenshoe, Shield Finance and Circle Group Savings and Investment, will joing 15 other innovators from across the continent in an awards ceremony on June 21, at Ecobank headquarters in Lome.
At the ceremony, the start-ups will exhibit and pitch their products to a jury for the ‘Ecobank Africa Fintech Prize’, which will be awarded the top innovator and two runners-up. In addition to the fellowship program, the top three innovators will win cash prizes worth US$10,000, US$7,000, and US$5,000 respectively.
The 20 Ecobank Fintech Fellows will benefit from an opportunity to partner with the Ecobank Group that includes start-up funding worth up to US$500,000 for products that meet Ecobank’s investment criteria, multinational product roll-out support for the most commercially viable start-ups to launch their products across Ecobank’s 33 markets in Africa.
The startups will also get service provider & ecosystem partner deals for start-ups with deep capabilities to become service partners within Ecobank’s ecosystem and technical & mentoring support.
Eddy Ogbogu, Ecobank Group Executive for Operations and Technology said the Fintech Challenge has been a huge success with over 850 start-ups and developers submitting products from all over Africa, as well as the US and Europe.
“As a pan-African bank, we want to help grow pan-African fintech companies. The Ecobank Group and its partners are looking forward to working with the 20 start-ups to help them mature into major African and global commercial success stories,” Group CEO Ade Ayeyemi added.
The other 20 start-ups are; Piggybank.ng (Nigeria), Digi Teller (Ghana), Wallettec (South Africa), , Invest Mobile (Ghana), KUDI(Nigeria), Wayagear Innovations Lagos (Nigeria), Paylater OneFi (Nigeria), PAYVITE (Algeria), PurseNG (Nigeria), IroFit(Nigeria), Inclusive Financial Technologies (Ghana), Electronic Settlement Limited(Nigeria), Social Lender(Nigeria), General Marchant (United States), Mi Nafa (Burkina Faso).
Ecobank Fintech Challenge is designed in partnership with the advisory firm Konfidants and supported by partners across Africa and the world.
