Alternative Circle, the firm that runs Shika app, a micro-lending and financial services app has been selected as only company from Africa in the 2017 Global FinTech Hackcelerator and FinTech Awards.
Alternative Circle qualified under the Financial Inclusion category and will undergo a 12-week program led by KPMG Digital Village. The program will enable Alternative Circle to work and meet with corporates, investors, partners and regulators.
The winner stands a chance to will 50,000USD, which will be additional to the 15,000USD awarded to the top 20 finalists. This year’s Singapore FinTech Festival, will take place in Singapore from 13 to 17 November 2017.
In March, the firm raised investments from top investors and has released its Shika app to beta testers. Its competition includes Tala and Branch, KCB M-Pesa and Safaricom’s M-Shwari.
List of Global FinTech Hackcelerator Finalists
| Category | Finalists (Location) |
| Customer-Facing | ERNIT (Denmark) Moxtra (India) PayKey (Israel) Smartfolios (Singapore) SnapCheck, Inc. (USA) |
| Financial Inclusion | AID:Tech (UK) Alternative Circle (Kenya) ConfirmU (Israel) ftcash (India) MyCash Online (Malaysia) |
| RegTech | Apiax (Switzerland) Dathena Science (Singapore) Solus Connect (Malaysia) Trunomi (USA) VoxSmart (UK) |
| General | Kyckr (Ireland) Lingua Custodia (France) Privé Services (Hong Kong) Roameeo (Australia) SQREEM (Singapore) |
The Singapore FinTech Festival is a platform for key stakeholders of the global and regional FinTech community to connect, learn from one another and co-create new solutions to real problems. The inaugural Festival in 2016 attracted more than 13,000 participants from across 60 countries. The Festival is organised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), in partnership with the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS), and in collaboration with SingEx.