Founders Factory Africa (FFA) has invested $40k each into its first five fintech startup businesses in Africa in partnership with its investor South Africa’s Standard Bank.
Based in South Africa and operating across Africa, Founders Factory Africa runs a corporate-backed accelerator and incubator with plans to build and scale 140 tech-based startups over the next five years in Africa.
According to Roo Rogers, CEO of Founders Factory Africa: “Digest Africa, LipaLater, Kudigo, Allpro, and EazyHire all represent the best of African leadership and innovation. Our investment and focus on growing pan-African products and market solutions will enable these exceptional entrepreneurs to address the needs of millions of people and deliver scaled financial and impact returns across the continent. Together with our multi-national corporate investors we are excited to support these business on their pathway to scale.”
The five include Nigeria’s Schoolable and EazyHire, Kenya’s LipaLater, Ghana’s Kudigo and Uganda’s Digest Africa.
Schoolable is a school financing solution that collects money from parents and provides it to schools, with the ambition of providing credit to both parties in the future. Currently, the company has launched its SaaS platform and is building the technology that leverages the data created by schools and their interactions with stakeholders.
LipaLater is a lending marketplace for individuals for high-end goods. It provides individuals with great credit terms through a seamless digital platform at the point of purchase or online and allows them to redeem the goods in store.
Eazyhire is a peer to peer leasing platform with a presence in Nigeria and Kenya. The company has a technology-enabled platform that enables leasing solutions for the building and heavy machinery industries.
Kudigo is a software as a service (SaaS) startup developing user-oriented retail solutions and big data for the consumer retail industry in sub-Saharan Africa. The company also offers “Storefront,” a mobile-based business management suite including a retail management suite, accounting module, non-cash payment processing and AI powered data analytics.
Digest Africa is a digital investor and corporate research and tech news site about Africa’s early-stage technology companies. The news is fact-checked and up-to-date and includes analysis that is easy to consume and understand to guide profitable decision-making.
Founders Factory Africa says it will help scale these companies across Africa after a bespoke six-month acceleration programme offering product design, tech engineering, data science, growth marketing, investment, to name a few.
After the program, the participating startups will also have access to global capital, talent and knowledge transfer through the Founders network that includes world class entrepreneurs, investors, corporates and successful startups across Africa, Europe, the UK and the US.
Darren Segal, executive and head of Moonshots at Standard Bank, comments: “These businesses are just the start of an exciting journey working with Founders Factory Africa. We see huge potential to grow these businesses and create jobs. Through our partnership, there is also a unique opportunity to catalyze the start-up culture and early-stage investment into these ventures in Africa.”
