Four black-owned South African fintech startups have secured ZAR1 million (US$70,000) each in funding from Merrill Lynch at an event hosted by fintech club AlphaCode.
The event – which took place last week – is an initiative of Merrill Lynch South Africa and Royal Bafokeng Holdings, and aims to reward fintech entrepreneurs and assist them in growing their businesses.
After 10 startups pitched in front of a panel of judges, four startups were named as overall winners, each taking home the funding as well as membership of AlphaCode’s BEE Centre of Excellence.
The winning startups were alternative credit-scoring startup Commuscore, investment fraud insurance platform Investsure, insurance savings product Cascade, and SME finance advisory company Everest Ventures.
“We have seen that this funding is used for the development of technology platforms to create annuity revenue for the businesses; recruitment of highly skilled team members; purchasing of equipment such as laptops and boosting marketing and business development efforts,” said Chipo Mushwana, head of ecosystem development at AlphaCode.
