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These 10 Southern African Fintech Startups Wowed the World Bank

Ten Southern African startups have received awards for their solutions to bridge the gap in financial access for underserved communities as part of a challenge supported by the World Bank. The Fintech Challenge was part of the ecosystem development initiatives under the Southern Africa Innovation Bridge Portal supported by the World Bank to crowd-source new and impactful ways to utilise the latest innovations in fintech. The initiative is aimed at providing low-cost and appropriate savings and de-risking products for the low- and middle-income market and lending solutions for SMEs. In all, 10 Southern African startups were each awarded US$5,000 to get their businesses investment-ready at a recent awards event. South Africa was home to six of the winning startups, namely abela, Bento Technologies, Fintr, Moya Money, Sum1 Investments, and Thumeza. Two are from Lesotho – Chaperone and Prime Capital – while there was one each from Botswana (Ipachi Capital) and Namibia (FundRoof).

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