Visa has announced the launch of a Fintech Accelerator program for Africa. Today, Visa announced the launch of the new Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator program aimed at fostering the growth of the African startup community through expertise, connections, technology, and investment funds. The initiative was presented by Visa’s Executive Chairman, Alfred F. Kelly Jr., at the Bloomberg New Economy Gateway Africa in Marrakech, Morocco.
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The Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator will enable 40 startups each year to accelerate and scale their growth through an intensive three-month training program focused on business development and mentorship. Upon completion of the program, Visa plans to further support fintech growth by making equity investments in selected participating companies, while accelerating their commercial launch through access to Visa’s technology and resources.
The launch of the Africa Fintech Accelerator program follows Visa’s recent commitment to invest $1 billion in the digital transformation of Africa and its long-term commitment to advancing African economies and fostering inclusive growth. Fintech startups from across Africa can apply to be part of the program through two open application phases each year, starting in July 2023. With over 1,000 African fintech startups participating in the Visa Everywhere Initiative (VEI) competition in 2022, finalists from this year’s African country editions will be invited to join the program.
“Africa has one of the most exciting and admired fintech ecosystems in the world, bringing exceptional entrepreneurial talent to a young and digitally eager population that is expanding rapidly,” said Alfred F. Kelly Jr., Executive Chairman of Visa, Inc. “Visa has been growing its investments in Africa for decades and strengthening partnerships across the continent to support the next wave of innovation and growth. Our new Fintech Accelerator will bring expertise, networks, and investments to the best fintech startups in Africa, enabling them to scale up.”
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Supporting participating fintechs will contribute to strengthening the payment ecosystem by accelerating new innovations and technologies that provide solutions to Africa’s specific challenges and advance digitalization. In line with Visa’s mission to advance everyone, everywhere, by being the best way to pay and be paid, this support for African fintechs will facilitate the emergence of new opportunities to spread financial inclusion.
“The African fintech community is at the forefront of payment innovation, enabling a greater number of the unbanked to access the digital economy,” said Otto Williams, Director of Partnerships, Products, and Solutions for Central Europe, Middle East, and Africa at Visa. “Visa has been working with this innovative community to create new programs and solutions to help fintechs grow while providing them access to Visa’s technology and partner ecosystem. With the new Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator, we look forward to collaborating with more brilliant entrepreneurs and companies to shape the future of money.”
In addition to its $1 billion commitment to Africa, Visa has recently launched several commercial initiatives and programs to advance the payment ecosystem in Africa. These include:
- Establishing local operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, and Sudan to help support and strengthen the local financial ecosystem. Visa has 10 offices across Africa, from which it facilitates payments across all 54 countries.
- Unveiling the first-ever Visa Innovation Studio for Sub-Saharan Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, to provide a state-of-the-art environment for bringing together clients and partners to co-create future-ready payment and commerce solutions.
- Introducing and developing new technologies that help African consumers and merchants make and receive digital payments, such as Tap to Phone, which turns a regular mobile phone into a point-of-sale terminal, as well as reducing remittance costs through innovative solutions like Visa Direct.
- Establishing Visa as a preferred partner of fintech by working with innovators and entrepreneurs, including through the Visa Everywhere Initiative program, with specific initiatives in South Africa, Kenya, and Egypt.
- Launching new programs to support women’s empowerment in collaboration with financial partners, including She’s Next, which provides financing, mentoring, and networking opportunities to women entrepreneurs leading growing SMEs in Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, and South Africa.
- Collaborating with partners to advance financial education in multiple languages, including localized versions of Practical Money Skills in Egypt and Morocco for the first time.
Visa Everywhere Initiative is Visa’s global open innovation competition that allows startups to present their innovative solutions to solve tomorrow’s payment and commerce challenges. The program was first launched in the United States in 2015 and quickly expanded globally. To date, nearly 12,000 startups have applied to the program, many of which are now working with Visa or its clients. In addition to cash prizes, VEI program winners gain access to Visa’s extensive partner networks in banking, commerce, venture capital, and government sectors. Winners also benefit from the recognition of one of the world’s most trusted and valuable brands.
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Visa (NYSE: V) is a global leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions, and government entities in over 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable, and secure payment network, enabling individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone, everywhere, uplift everyone, everywhere, and consider access fundamental to the future of the movement of money. For more information, visit Visa.com.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard