Visa names six Nigerian firms, others for Africa Fintech Accelerator

Visa has unveiled the 16 fintech start-ups from Sub-Saharan Africa chosen for the second round of its Africa Fintech Accelerator programme. Among the selected companies are six Nigerian firms.

In an official announcement, Visa highlighted that the start-ups in this second cohort operate across 28 African countries, marking a significant 55% increase from the first cohort, which had participants from 18 countries. Additionally, 65% of the selected start-ups have female leaders, up from 43% in the first cohort.

Aida Diarra, Visa’s Vice President and Head of Sub-Saharan Africa, stated, "We are thrilled to see that our second cohort represents over 50% of the countries in Africa, an increase from one-third in our inaugural group. Moreover, the majority of these innovative start-ups are led by women. We are committed to supporting these diverse pioneers as they work to transform the future of commerce and finance."

Launched in June 2023, the accelerator programme aims to support African fintech firms through investment, training, mentorship, technology, and networking opportunities. Visa's goal is to enhance Africa's payment ecosystem with new innovations and technologies, focusing on digitising economies, upskilling talent, and building capacity.

This biannual programme spans 12 weeks and concludes with a demo day, where the start-ups present their innovations to key players in the ecosystem. The second cohort offers a variety of solutions, including neo-banking, merchant payments, credit scoring, risk and identity management, embedded finance, social commerce, and escrow services. These start-ups aim to address significant challenges in the African fintech landscape, such as financial inclusion, access to credit, cross-border payments, and digital transformation.

The start-ups selected for the second cohort of the accelerator programme include:

• Chapa (Ethiopia) – Merchant solutions
• CheckUps Medical Hub (Kenya) – Embedded finance (health)
• AzamPay (Tanzania) – B2B marketplace
• Beem (Tanzania) – Social commerce
• Bizao (Ivory Coast) – Merchant payments solution
• Hub2 (Ivory Coast) – Enabler infrastructure
• Iwomi Technologies (Cameroon) – Money movement
• Proboutik (Cameroon) – Merchant payments solution
• Vaultpay (Democratic Republic of Congo) – Merchant payments solution
• Aku (Nigeria) – Neo-banking
• Cleva (Nigeria) – Money movement
• Curacel (Nigeria) – Insurance management
• E-doc Online (Nigeria) – Open banking
• Raenest (Nigeria) – Money movement
• Bridgecard (Nigeria) – Enabler infrastructure

These innovative start-ups are poised to make significant contributions to the fintech sector in Africa, fostering greater financial inclusion and technological advancement across the continent.