Pan-African banking group Ecobank has announced 20 finalists for the Ecobank Fintech Challenge, which will see winning solutions given the chance of earning up to US$500,000 in funding as well as expert mentoring and access to the Ecobank ecosystem.
Ecobank launched the challenge in January, and will now honour the startups at a ceremony on June 21 at the global headquarters of Ecobank in Lomé, Togo. The awards ceremony will also mark the official induction of all 20 startups into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship.
The ceremony will also see judges pick the top innovator and two runners-up. In addition to fellowship programme, the top three innovators will win cash prizes worth US$10,000, US$7,000, and US$5,000 respectively.
The 20 Ecobank Fintech Fellows will benefit from an opportunity to partner with the Ecobank Group that includes the possibility funding worth up to US$500,000, multinational product rollout support, mentoring, and service provider and ecosystem partner deals.
Shortlisted startups include Piggybank.ng (Nigeria), Digi Teller (Ghana), MobiTill (Kenya), TEAM SAFEPAY (Kenya), Wallettec (South Africa), Greenshoe (Kenya), Invest Mobile (Ghana), KUDI(Nigeria), Wayagear Innovations Lagos (Nigeria), and Paylater OneFi (Nigeria).
PAYVITE (Algeria), PurseNG (Nigeria), Shield Finance (Kenya), IroFit(Nigeria), Circle Group Savings and Investment (Kenya), Inclusive Financial Technologies (Ghana), Electronic Settlement Limited (Nigeria), Social Lender (Nigeria), General Marchant (United States), and Mi Nafa (Burkina Faso) complete the list.
“The Ecobank Fintech Challenge has been a huge success; over 850 startups and developers submitted products from all over Africa, as well as the US and Europe. The sheer breadth of innovative products and ideas we’ve seen shows that African fintech has a bright future,” said Eddy Ogbogu, Ecobank Group executive for operations and technology.
