Innotribe’s Startup Challenge attendees selected the three most promising African FinTech companies during its third annual showcase held in Abidjan, Ivory Coast on Wednesday 17 May, in partnership with SWIFT’s African Regional Conference (ARC).
The three winners, Nigeria’s Irofit Technologies, Kenya’s Sokowatch and Rwanda’s Vugapay took home 10,000 EUR cash prize each and will attend Sibos SWIFT global fintech conference in Toronto from 16-19 October in Toronto this year.
“Our partnership with SWIFT’s African Regional Conference over the last three years has highlighted how much SWIFT’s community is keen to understand FinTech innovation, whether we refer to its latest developments, benefits or the opportunities it can unlock”, says Fabian Vandenreydt, Global Head of Securities Markets, Innotribe and the SWIFT Institute at SWIFT. “It was a real pleasure for us to provide expert mentoring and in-depth industry feedback to the 9 participating startups and we wish them all a lot of success in the future”.
The African showcase was the first regional event to be held in 2017. The next regional Startup Challenge will be organised in St Petersburg on 14 July 2017 during the Bank of Russia’s International Financial Congress (IFC). Hosted by the Bank of Russia, our general partner for this first Startup Challenge in Russia, the IFC is Russia’s largest international financial forum and will take place from 12-14 July 2017.
Irofit provides a mobile Point of Sale that helps small retailers process card payments in REAL-TIME, even in settings where internet connection is poor while Sokowatch is a last-mile distribution channel for consumer goods companies to better reach and sell more to small shops through an SMS ordering system. Vugapay is helping mobile money merchants to get paid across Africa.
