The Innotribe Startup Challenge attendees selected the three most promising FinTech companies during its second annual showcase for Africa. The event was held in Mauritius in partnership with Swift’s African Regional Conference. The three winners of the African Start-up Challenge were Hello Paisa, The Sun Exchange, WeCashUp.
Based in South Africa, Hello Paisa is a low cost international money transfer solution for remittances. “My experience at Innotribe has been invaluable. The quality of the coaching sessions has been extraordinary, and the lessons learnt will stay with me forever. To represent the best the African continent can offer in the FinTech space at Sibos is truly an honour and we are humbled”, says Ahmed Cassim, Managing Director, Hello Paisa.
Also based in South Africa, The Sun Exchange is a peer to peer lending platform for investors to fund solar energy projects across the globe. “It has been pretty intense coaching for the past couple of days with pretty blunt and to the point feedback to help hone not only our pitches but identify the strengths and areas of innovation of our businesses. It is an honour and a privilege to be invited to present our international finance origination service to the Geneva audience, and demonstrate how borderless peer-to-peer lending holds the key to a cleaner and more lucrative future for not just Africa, but for the whole planet”, says Abraham Cambridge, Founder and CEO, The Sun Exchange.
Based in Cameroon, WeCashUp has created a cross border mobile money platform, enabling users to make secure payments via their mobile phones all across Africa. “The Innotribe start-up competition has been an infinitely unique experience. I have been challenged so much by the coaches and I learnt so much that I think my team and I received everything to become a world class startup. I recommend Innotribe to all the start-ups who want to put a dent in the universe like us,” says Cedric Atangana, CEO and Co-founder, WeCashUp.
Winners of this year’s challenge received a $10,000 cash prize and invitations to attend Sibos, Swift’s annual global financial services conference, taking place in September in Geneva.
In its 23rd year, Swift African Regional Conference 2016, brings together policy makers, industry leaders and the broader financial community from across the African continent. This year’s conference theme Facing Global Challenges focused on Africa’s positive trends: a growing and young workforce, plentiful natural resources and seven of the world’s ten fastest growing economies.
“Our partnership with the Swift African Regional Conference over the last two years has highlighted how much Swift’s member institutions are keen to understand the FinTech innovation that is happening in their own communities and the importance for local start-ups to benefit from in-depth industry feedback and gain exposure at a global stage”, says Fabian Vandenreydt, Global Head of Securities Markets, Innotribe and the Swift Institute at Swift. “It was a real pleasure for us to provide expert mentoring and in-depth industry feedback to all participating start-ups and we wish them a lot of success in their future developments”.
Commenting on Africa’s innovation landscape, Sido Bestani, Head of Middle East, Turkey and Africa at Swift says: “This year’s Innotribe Startup Challenge highlights the exciting developments across African FinTech and the range of different business sectors represented shows that innovation is not just focused in one area, The showcase at ARC is a wonderful opportunity for Swift and Innotribe to be part of this journey and we look forward to continuing our support for the three winners when they come to Sibos in Geneva later this year.”
Launched in 2009, Swift Innotribe is about innovation and connecting people, networks and ideas. Through the Startup Challenge competition, Swift bridges the gap between the start-up ecosystem and the financial service community. Swift is a global member-owned cooperative and the world’s leading provider of secure financial messaging services.
