Catapult Inclusion Africa is a programme that aims to promote financial inclusion through fintech, produced by LHoFT Foundation a private sector initiative reaching the world from Luxemburg. Building on the success of the 2018 and 2020 editions of Catapult Inclusion Africa, the programme aims to build bridges between Africa and Europe by highlighting their initiatives and very much aligned with the sustainability goals of Luxembourg’s finance centre. The selected fintech startups will participate in eight day training and networking Bootcamp hosted online to improve financial inclusion in Africa. The programme will run from 19th to 28th May sponsored by the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign &European Affairs. Additionally, the programme will feature investors from several financial outlets. The outlets include Bamboo Partners, ZedCrest Capital, AfricInvest, and Sherpa Africa Partners. The investors will work with the startups throughout the programme as part of the boot camp. The following 14 startups have been selected to participate in the 2021 edition of Catapult Inclusion Africa: Emata – Kampala, UgandaEmata is disrupting the $65bn agricultural financing opportunity in Africa. The company digitizes farmers’ cooperatives and gives farmers access to digital and affordable financial products. Moja Bank – Abidjan, Ivory CoastMoja Bank provides a digital payment App and a contactless card which is used by consumers to facilitate everyday payment in emerging markets. Consumers in the US use the App to manage their finances, and send money to their families back home. AWABAH – Lagos, Nigeria Awabah provides access to retirement savings for Africa’s unbanked and underbanked population. The startup is improving the customer experience when interacting with pensions by merging financial literacy with easy to use technology. Mosabi – Freetown, Sierra LeoneMosabi links fintech and edtech with embedded, gamified upskilling for Africa’s financial products and platforms. This helps underserved citizens improve decisions and behaviors on their businesses and money. The startup harness data insights from user profiles and journeys, to match them to best fits across a marketplace of digital financial services. Mipango – Dar es Salaam, TanzaniaMipango is a personal finance mobile application that enables users to manage their income, expenses, savings, financial targets, help and offerings. Mipango app uses artificial intelligence to guide users to better financial management and financial deals towards attaining financial freedom. Igugu Global – Lagos, NigeriaIgugu Global is accelerating the flow of capital to Africa’s US$1.5 trillion sustainable infrastructure gap. The startup is solving the problem of fragmentation in financial markets by providing ESG mapping, structuring and due diligence for green building, transport and energy portfolios. Chromepay – Tel Aviv, IsraelChromepay provides merchants and vendors with an affordable way to run all financial aspects of their business without using a bank or POS system. The platform allows each merchant to manage products and generate invoices embedded in a unique QR code that can be scanned by customers to instantly pay for goods and services. Nokwary Technologies – Accra, GhanaThe startup is excited about the potential of AI in the financial space, and its capacity to promote financial inclusion. Voice User Interface systems, for instance, enable people who cannot see, as well as people who cannot read and write, to interact with banking apps and systems through spoken commands. Kotani Pay – Nairobi, KenyaKotani Pay is a technology stack that enables Blockchain protocols, dApps, and Blockchain FinTech companies to integrate seamlessly into local payment channels providing them with a reliable on-ramp and off-ramp service to reach a wider customer base in Africa. Juakali – Paris, France Juakali simplifies financial institutions’ lives by eliminating paperwork & automating valueless tasks, so that employees can make the most of their time at work and companies boost their productivity. RePay.Africa – Nairobi, KenyaRePay Africa’s API driven platform serves as an electronic alternative to cash, cheques & banks for the un-banked Sub-Saharan Africa. Africa-wide payment & transfer platform that supports online money transfers and bill payments to merchants. Crop2Cash – Ibadan, NigeriaBanks and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) find agricultural financing risky, which has created a $330 billion funding gap in agriculture globally. With the use of the startup’s tools, they can provide this finance with a high level of assurance that it would be efficiently used by the farmers. Asilimia France – Paris, FranceAsilimia is an android application that allows informal traders in Africa to create a formal business account within their personal mobile money account. With Asilimia, all their future B2B transactions will be categorized as business transactions even though initiated from their personal mobile money account, saving 90% of their mobile money transaction fees. Vooli Insurtech – Nairobi, KenyaVooli is a client-centric, technology-driven, disruptive insur-tech, that offers on-demand general insurance through its app and website. Vooli bills users based on the duration they need insurance e.g. annually or semi-annually, and also seamlessly.
