Out of over 400 startups, Nigeria’s Alajo and Sosocare and 13 other startups were selected by the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology Foundation (LHoFT) to participate in the 2022 catapult inclusion program.
The 15 Fintech startups are AFRICRED (Mali), AgrixTech (Cameroon), Alajo (Nigeria), ChapChap Africa (Uganda), ComGrow (Zambia), Radava Mercentile (Kenya), Hello Tractor (Kenya), Kayko (Rwanda) Lami Insurtech (Kenya), Nkwa (Cameroon), Proxalys (Senegal), Servichain (Luxembourg), Sosocare (Nigeria), Yalla Solutions (Egypt) and DanAid (Cameroon)
The 2022 edition, which is also the fifth edition of the acceleration program has focused the light on startups driving financial inclusion and keen to build bridges between Africa and Europe, as it aligns with the sustainability goals of Luxembourg’s finance centre.
Developed by the LHoFT Foundation and sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign & European Affairs – Directorate for Development and Humanitarian Affairs, the program targets companies focusing on financial inclusion in Africa, aiming to build bridges with Luxembourg’s Microfinance and broader finance industry while highlighting their initiatives in alignment with the sustainability goals of Luxembourg’s finance center.
The LHoFT team will be joined by key partners from Ada, Infine, Luxembourg for Finance, the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), the European Investment Bank (EIB), Luxembourg Microfinance and Development Fund, Bamboo Capital Group, Double Feather Partners, SPTF, LuxDev, Business Partnership Facility, ACRC, Compelio, and more, who will be working with the cohort throughout the program.
The one-week acceleration program takes off today October 24, 2022 in a key leading Microfinance center in Luxembourg and last till 28th October 2022. CATAPULT: Inclusion Africa will cover a range of broad topics, including business model mapping, scaling strategies, investability, business plan presentation, legal strategy, pricing, marketing strategy, and more. The selected Fintech will have the opportunity to connect with partners, sponsors, investors, Microfinance institutions (MFI) and Public Financial Institutions (PFIs), and also get InFiNe.lu mentorship.
- AFRICRED (Bamako, Mali) – founded in 2020, is a platform of the fintech AFA Digital Finance and an African fintech solution. Africred is providing digital finance solutions to microfinance, micro-insurance to unbanked and MSME companies across Africa.
- AgrixTech (Yaounde, Cameroon) – founded in 2018, is an Agri-FinTech company that assists small-scale farmers in transitioning from subsistence farming to commercial farming while maximising profit.
- Alajo (Lagos, Nigeria) – founded in 2021. A personal finance platform that is designed to be the smart solution to the traditional savings system for the under(un)banked and non-smartphone users, using USSD and SMS Infrastructure.
- ChapChap Africa (Kampala, Uganda) – founded in 2016, provides financial digital solutions to African MSMEs by helping informal entrepreneurs to establish new business lines.
- ComGrow (Lusaka, Zambia) – is a fintech startup that digitises informal savings and credit groups among friends and family networks
- Radava Mercentile (Nairobi, Kenya) – founded in 2021. Is empowering empower smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa with an agricultural commodities exchange market, alternative financing, and post-harvest technologies.
- Hello Tractor (Nairobi, Kenya) – founded in 2014, is a PAYG loan technology finance company that enables low-risk, lower-cost financing for rural entrepreneurs while de-risking the creditor through tractor investments into pre-booked assets.
- Kayko (Kigali, Rwanda)- assists small businesses in streamlining their financial administration and providing simple access to financial services with its mobile app.
- Lami Insurtech (Nairobi, Kenya) – founded in 2018, is set to revolutionise insurance for African underwriters and businesses through an end-to-end insurance platform and robust APIs.
- Nkwa (Buea, Cameroon) – a personal finance tool that allows users to plan, save, and invest their money.
- Proxalys (Dakar, Senegal) – digitising West African informal trading by allowing local store owners to purchase agricultural products as well as consumer goods at the highest quality/price ratio possible, with the option to pay in instalments.
- Servichain (Luxembourg, Luxembourg) – solves financial inclusion and identification issues on blockchain addresses using mobile phones and its web3 mobile wallet.
- Sosocare (Abuja, Nigeria) – a health insurtech startup using recyclable waste as the financial resource to allow millions of uninsured slum residents, primarily pregnant women and children, to acquire micro health insurance across over 1000 hospitals around the country.
- Yalla Solutions (Cairo, Egypt) – democratizes access to financial services to the masses using digital-first, user friendly experience in the form of a card + Super App.
- DanAid (Douala, Cameroon) – a micro-health insurance platform that provides Africans in the diaspora with real-time access to money for their care through their mobile.
CATAPULT Inclusion Africa provides a tailor-made program with intensive mentoring, coaching, peer to peer learning and dedicated workshops for the selected Fintech startups. The program will include sessions on business model mapping, investment readiness, funding and capital raising, social impact, scaling strategy, building teams, operational management, advisory meetings with investors, and pitch development. Several alumni of previous year’s programs will travel to Luxembourg to share their experiences, delivering educational sessions and mentoring to the 2022 cohort.
In addition, for this year, the selected firms will actively participate in the Arch Summit on 26 and 27 October. The Summit organisers, Tomorrow Street (Vodafone) have centered the Summit’s program around three core themes: Digital Society – connecting people, communities, and things for a smarter digital lifestyle; Inclusion – enabling an accessible digital future for all; and Planet – reducing environmental impact and achieving a sustainable future.
