14 startups from Africa are among SWIFT Innotribe’s 60 finalists out of the 370 early-stage and growth-stage startup applicants, to participate in the 2015 Startup Challenge.
The Cape Town Semi-finalists include:South Africa’s 2Quins, Zimbabwe’s BitFinance, Bristlecone Holdings, Creditable, Ex Nihilo Labs, Uganda’s Intelworld, SA’s Kulea Consulting, LulaLend, MyDigiVault, SA’s Notafy, Nigeria’s SafePersona Services, SA’s ScanMan, YueDilligence and ZAQ. The Cape Town leg of the startup challenge will see a hand-picked audience of financial services experts, angel investors, venture capitalists, and global bank decision-makers attend the Cape Town showcase and vote for the top five companies which will progress to participate as finalists in the Innotribe Startup Challenge Grand Finale, which will be held on 14 October 2015 at Sibos in Singapore.
Fabian Vandenreydt, Head of Markets Management at SWIFT said, “The regional showcases represent a unique platform for discussion, debate, and high-level networking for our community and are a great opportunity for the startups to meet face to face with potential investors, partners and customers. We are excited to start this year’s journey and look forward to seeing the startups pitch their innovative products with determination during the regional showcases.”
Each semi-finalist will receive complimentary coaching sessions with seasoned entrepreneurs to give them advice ahead of the formal pitches to a select audience of judges from across the financial services industry.
The Innotribe programme gives coaching to startups in how to engage the more established financial services providers and between how startups and banks practice innovation, and is a meetup to evaluate new technologies and models, and helps our startups identify appropriate partners and investors.
