{"id":31946,"date":"2024-05-20T11:48:41","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T11:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=31946"},"modified":"2024-05-20T11:48:41","modified_gmt":"2024-05-20T11:48:41","slug":"over-20-african-fintech-startups-join-visas-second-accelerator-program-cohort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2024\/05\/20\/over-20-african-fintech-startups-join-visas-second-accelerator-program-cohort\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 20 African Fintech Startups Join Visa\u2019s Second Accelerator Program Cohort"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Visa has announced the shortlisted startups from across Africa that will participate in the second cohort of its Africa Fintech Accelerator program. This initiative aims to support seed to series A startups with mentorship, training, and exclusive opportunities for funding and development.<\/p>\n<p>The second cohort, which spans 28 African countries, represents a 55% increase from the first cohort, which had startups from 18 countries. Notably, 65% of the selected startups have female leadership, a significant rise from 43% in the inaugural cohort.<\/p>\n<p>These startups provide various solutions, including neo-banking, merchant payments, credit scoring, risk and identity management, embedded finance, social commerce, and escrow services. They address critical challenges and opportunities in the African fintech landscape, such as financial inclusion, access to credit, cross-border payments, and digital transformation.<\/p>\n<p>Aida Diarra, Vice President and Head of Sub-Saharan Africa at Visa, emphasized the importance of innovation and inclusion in the financial ecosystem. She noted that the program&#8217;s expansion and the increased female leadership among the startups highlight Visa\u2019s commitment to driving access and inclusion across the financial ecosystem. Visa&#8217;s broader efforts include a pledge to invest $1 billion in Africa by 2027 to revolutionize the payments ecosystem.<\/p>\n<p>The 12-week virtual Accelerator program will conclude with an in-person Demo Day. During this event, startups will pitch their innovations to key ecosystem players, funding partners, angel investors, and venture capitalists, helping them unlock their full potential.<\/p>\n<p>The program builds on the success of the first cohort, which graduated in February 2024. The first cohort&#8217;s Investor Week in Nairobi attracted over 250 attendees, including banking and fintech partners, investors, and venture capital firms. These startups reported positive outcomes such as increased user growth, product enhancements, funding opportunities, and strategic partnerships with Visa and other industry players.<\/p>\n<p>The Sub-Saharan Africa startups shortlisted for the second cohort include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ethiopia:<\/strong> Chapa<\/li>\n<li><strong>Kenya:<\/strong> CheckUps Medical Hub<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tanzania:<\/strong> AzamPay, Beem<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ivory Coast:<\/strong> Bizao, Hub2<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cameroon:<\/strong> Iwomi Technologies, Proboutik<\/li>\n<li><strong>Democratic Republic of Congo:<\/strong> Vaultpay<\/li>\n<li><strong>Nigeria:<\/strong> Aku, Cleva, Curacel, E-doc Online, Raenest, Bridgecard<\/li>\n<li><strong>South Africa:<\/strong> Truzo<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These startups are set to make significant strides in addressing the diverse fintech needs across the continent, fostering innovation, and contributing to the growth of Africa&#8217;s digital economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Visa has announced the shortlisted startups from across Africa that will participate in the second cohort of its Africa Fintech Accelerator program. This initiative aims to support seed to series A startups with mentorship, training, and exclusive opportunities for funding and development. The second cohort, which spans 28 African countries, represents a 55% increase from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":31949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31946"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31953,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31946\/revisions\/31953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}