More than 1 400 fintech startups from 64 countries across Africa and beyond applied for this year’s Ecobank Fintech Challenge, with eight of them making the cut to the final where they will compete for the ultimate prize.
This is the sixth edition of this international competition, with the highest number of applications on record.
Ecobank Group, Africa’s leading pan-African banking group, said this year’s applications had more than doubled compared to last year’s 703 applications received from 59 countries.
The eight finalists will compete for the top prize of $50 000 at the grand finale, which is scheduled to take place at the Ecobank Pan African Centre in Lomé, Togo, on 6 October 2023.
The 2023 Ecobank Fintech Challenge finalists in alphabetical order are:
* Flexpay Technologies (Kenya) – FlexPay offers customers a merchant-embedded saving-based purchase experience called Save Now, Buy Later.
* IPOXCap AI (South Africa) – FinanceGPT is a financial analysis platform for frontier markets. It processes structured and unstructured financial data to generate actionable insights, using advanced algorithms for financial forecasting, health monitoring and valuation.
* Kastelo (South Africa) – Provides a democratised solution through diversified products, focusing on transaction, savings and forex offerings, aimed at banking the underbanked in emerging markets through client-centric solutions.
* Koree (Cameroon) – Koree is a card wallet application that addresses sub-Saharan Francophone Africa spare change scarcity by digitising cash merchant payments, while empowering millions of African consumers through an incentive reward system.
* Kori Tech (Senegal) – Koripass is an E-wallet linked to physical payment accessories such as bracelets, stickers and keychains. It enables quick and easy merchant payments using NFC and QR Code technology. No internet or smartphone required.
* Smart Teller Technologies (Nigeria) – Empowering cooperative digital banking, IT services, and online bill payments for seamless services.
* Rubyx (Belgium and Senegal) – Rubyx enables digital lending solutions for service providers in emerging markets to bridge the financing gap that faces informal entrepreneurs and small businesses to fund their activities.
* Wolf Technologies (Democratic Republic of Congo) – Makuta is a state-of-the-art application that provides a simple, convenient and secure electronic money transfer and payment experience.
Jeremy Awori, CEO of Ecobank, who will be hosting the Fintech Challenge final for the first time, says: “We are encouraged by the very high number of applications received for the sixth edition of our Ecobank Fintech Challenge. The significant increase in the number of participants reflects the growing impact of our investments in the fintech space, and on our operations and fintech initiatives across Africa. The finalists went through a rigorous process, and we look forward to the pitches of the eight competitors vying for the top prize and ultimately partnering with the Ecobank Group.”