Visa Launches First Cohort For Its Accelerator Program

Visa held its Africa Accelerator Program first demo day on February 13^th in Nairobi to showcase innovations from fintech startups from 18 countries across Africa.

Launched in June 2023, the program aims to enable Africa’s expanding startup community by bringing expertise, connections, technology, and investment funding.

During the first demo day, the first-cohort startups showcased their innovations to key ecosystem players, funding partners, angel investors, and venture capitalists. The first program participants were selected from more than 1,000 applicants across diverse sub-sectors including merchant payment solutions, lending infrastructure, Banking-as-a-Service, and B2B marketplaces.

The fintechs that participated in the first demo day included Duqha, Kenya, Power, Kenya, Workpay, Kenya, OkHi, Nigeria and Eversend, Uganda.

The program is now accepting applications for its second cohort. Seed to Series A startups operating in Africa and that fall under the following categories are encouraged to apply, with applications open until February 29^th.

Unlocking money movement: Digitizing various payment types (P2P, B2C, B2B, G2C) to create new commerce opportunities, including cross-border remittances and funds disbursements, open banking and account-to-account solutions, mobile money flows, and interoperability.
Embedded finance: Creating advanced intelligence to enhance payment and finance experiences in B2C and B2B commerce models, including installments, flexible financing, consumer loyalty, and Fintech-as-a-Service.
Empowering merchants and SMEs: Accelerating the growth of merchants and SMEs through digital payment solutions to foster financial inclusion, focusing on next-generation omnichannel payments, digital onboarding, working capital optimization, and merchant value-add solutions.
Payment infrastructure enablers: Building the base layer of payment infrastructure and key enabling services such as authentication and fraud solutions, digital onboarding and identity management, credit scoring and risk management solutions, and data solutions and insights.
The future of finance: Embracing emerging technologies to revolutionize financial services, such as AI-powered payments, blockchain and enterprise DLT, and programmable money.
Sustainable and inclusive finance: Enhancing payments technology to contribute to an eco-friendly economy, drive inclusiveness, reduce inequality, and create positive impact through financial services for underserved communities or climate-vulnerable communities and affordable and accessible financial solutions.

Otto Williams, Senior Vice President, Head of Product, Partnerships and Digital Solutions for Visa Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (CEMEA), said: “Following the success of the inaugural accelerator, Visa is inviting a second round of disruptive startups to apply to the program, in an ongoing effort to support Africa’s growing fintech ecosystem. This unique experience will offer entrepreneurs an opportunity for mentorship and fast-tracked growth, while also providing them access to a wider network of partners and investors.”