Two African startups win investments in regional competition for funding

The two top peer-ranked companies are:

Atikus Insurance (Rwanda) expands access to credit by increasing the capacity of MSME lenders via reimagined insurance and technology risk solutions.

Farmerline (Ghana, expanding to East Africa) provides accurate and timely agricultural information to farmers and also provides technology to stakeholders to work better.

The program supports entrepreneurs in making financial services more affordable and accessible for smallholder farmers and other underbanked individuals in East Africa. The program is supported by the DOEN Foundation, The MasterCard Foundation, and Duncan Goldie-Scot.

“We are proud to have partnered with the DOEN Foundation, The MasterCard Foundation, and Duncan Goldie-Scot to work with the best local entrepreneurs providing alternative financial services through their technology platforms,” said Ross Baird, Executive Director of Village Capital. “We are excited about the positive impact that our entrepreneurs can have on improving the income of smallholder farmers–the backbone of the African economy–and eager to see our enterprises’ growth through communities across the continent.”

Over 65% of Sub-Saharan Africans do not use financial institutions or mobile money accounts to save or borrow money. Access to financial services can be especially difficult for smallholder farmers, often far from a financial access point.

Furthermore, many promising early-stage entrepreneurs addressing this issue cannot find the resources they need to get off the ground.

Village Capital East Africa: FinTech for Agriculture 2015 provided these resources to 12 high-potential, early-stage entrepreneurs from across East Africa. The program also supported them through business development training, mentorship, and opportunities to meet potential customers and pitch to investors.

At the end of the 12-week program, the entrepreneur-participants ranked each other on six criteria, and chose two companies to each receive a 50,000 USD investment.

“One of the main reasons we support Village Capital is because of its unique peer selection technique. Therefore the organisation is able to create a pipeline of investments at a much lower cost than other parties and at the same time offers its participants an interesting network. In the end many more entrepreneurs with impact businesses can profit as well as the East African society as a whole,” said Nina Tellegen, CEO of the DOEN Foundation.

“I’m very pleased to be supporting these two companies. It has also been fascinating to see the progress of all the teams who have come through the program over the past three months. They have all learnt so much, from the trainers, the mentors and each other,” said Duncan Goldie-Scot.

The other companies selected for the program are:

Chamasoft (Kenya) is a web and mobile app to automate record-keeping for investment groups.

FarmDrive (Kenya) is transforming how smallholder farmers access financial services.

M-Shamba (Kenya) is an interactive platform for smallholder farmers and traders.

Mobipay (Kenya) provides technology solutions to various economic sectors to drive commerce and trade.

nanoCredit Technologies (South Africa, expanding to Kenya) offers a series of lending and de-risking engines, providing structured digital finance for small farms.

Mifugo.Trade/Rangerland Solutions (Kenya) is an online livestock marketing platform that directly connects buyers and sellers, reducing marketing costs.

Redcore Interactive (Uganda) has developed remit.ug, which is a platform for online international money transfers to mobile money in Africa.

YieldUganda (Uganda) sources high quality, traceable food products for local and export markets.