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Avec cette prise de participation de 3 millions de dollars, Proparco soutiendra la croissance de JUMO. Elle contribuera au développement de l’inclusion financière des populations exclues du système bancaire formel. Deux tiers des clients de JUMO sont issus du secteur informel.

FarmDrive, a Kenyan data analytics startup helping smallholder farmers in Africa access credit from local banks, has raised funding from the venture arm of Safaricom, the biggest communication company in East and Central Africa, Safaricom Spark Venture Fund.

Ghanaian agritech startup Agrocenta will use its recently closed $650 000 round to expand operations in Ghana — the company’s CEO and co-founder Francis Obirikorang revealed yesterday.

Ghanaian agritech startup Agrocenta will use its recently closed $650 000 round to expand operations in Ghana — the company’s CEO and co-founder Francis Obirikorang revealed yesterday.

Last year the startup clinched several accolades including the Environment and Green Energy category at the World Summit Awards, the Young Entrepreneurs Competition at the World Export Development Forum and the Africa Social Good category at Tech Crunch Startup Battlefield Africa. In addition, Seedstars World recently selected AgroCenta for its Seedstars Growth Programme, an investment arm of the Swiss organisation which provides high-growth startups with $50 000 as well as access to business advisory and marketing services. Based on this wide acclaim, this startup is clearly onto something.

Realizing financial inclusion benefits through the adoption of artificial intelligence relies on its responsible adoption by firms, on competitive market settings, and on continued investment in the necessary infrastructure.

In its next phase of algorithm development, FarmDrive seeks to expand the environmental arm of the algorithm by incorporating more alternative data-sets, including satellite imagery and remote sensing data. They are currently engaging with Planet, a satellite company from Silicone Valley, and The Impact Lab, a Chicago-based data analytics firm to analyze the possibilities of using satellite images in predicting a farmer’s creditworthiness.In addition, FarmDrive also plans to use these environmental data-sets, in combination with crop cycle data to predict seasonal yield and influence agricultural insurance products.The startup also uses machine learning in generating the farmer’s profile by learning from the farmer’s input. Data points about the farmer’s behaviour, education level, and their interaction with the app are all analyzed to contribute to the farmers profile score.

Smallholder farmers, especially in Kenya face difficulties when it comes to accessing loans and financing from banks and other financial institutions. The agricultural sector is the backbone to Kenya’s economy, yet banks have very little incentive to work with farmers.

FarmDrive founded in 2014 has built an innovative solution that provides “detailed risk profiles of smallholder farmers to financial institutions”. FarmDrive does this through a credit score, generated by an algorithm developed by the team, in-house. The algorithm relies on data-sets collected from the farmers through their mobile phones, alternative data and machine learning.

MTN has also recorded an increase in data revenue which it ascribed to “greater population coverage, a revamp of our data portfolio and initiatives to drive 4G device penetration”

Jamiipay has been a part of the Accelerace accelerator program, that help startup companies accelerate and scale up their business model and finetune their companies. Jamiipay is one of more than 500 companies that Accelerace already have accelerated.

The future is really exciting for us and links into why we participate in these fintech festivals. We think what we’ve proven in South Africa is scalable to other markets, especially those with similar setup to South Africa five years ago. Our focus is largely on emerging markets and seeking to partner our capability into a market opportunity, where the partner brings local knowledge and regulatory understanding and we bring platform capability. There needs to be a level of maturity and fintech support that enables our business model. There must be a very strong payments layer and smartphone penetration rates must be good. If those are in place and there’s a low propensity for retail stock investors to be investing in the local stock market, we start to be interested.

EasyEquities clients won’t be able to buy Nokia shares, while the fight between retail investors and Wall Street hots up.Millions of small investors have been buying GameStop shares to squeeze large hedge funds, who bet big money that the US retailer’s share price would fall.

EasyEquities clients were informed that they won’t be able to buy Nokia shares for now.

Kiva has been awarded $2.5 million from the W-GDP Fund at USAID in an effort to identify innovative approaches to catalyze commercial investment for women’s economic empowerment and equality.

The Kiva Capital team will use this innovative funding to launch a comprehensive fund design and structuring process. This will include the development of an impact framework and a shared learnings platform.

“Businesses, as well as Kenyans and expatriates with friends and family abroad, send over US$18 billion to other African countries, Asia and Europe annually with several billion Kenya Shillings going through the Simbapay network. Therefore, this service will offer Prime Bank’s customers a world-class fully digital international money transfer service,” added Karanja.

Prime Bank’s Director for Business Development, Vijay Kantaria, said the tier 2 lender has embarked on investment in technology through partnering with various FinTechs to accelerate its digital integration plan.

Although Fawry, Egypt’s top e-payment platform and leading fintech, became Africa’s latest ‘unicorn’ this year via a listing on an African bourse, it will not be the last to emerge from the country’s burgeoning tech scene, according to the International Finance Corporation (IFC). “Egypt will produce further unicorns one day, absolutely,” says Walid Labadi, the IFC’s country manager for Egypt, Libya and Yemen. “We fundamentally believe in the power of the entrepreneurial spirit and its ability to address fundamental market needs, which will eventually create significant economic value and can become a driver for creating future entrepreneurs. Advertisement

Founded in 2008 by Ashraf Sabry and Mohamed Okasha, the company listed on the country’s main bourse, the Egyptian Exchange, in August 2019 and was valued at $275m. However, at the start of October this year, its valuation surpassed more than $1bn.It is the third African start-up to reach unicorn status and the first one to do so after going public on an African stock exchange.

Fawry offers an online payment gateway for business owners to transact with customers via cash, credit cards and e-wallets. It has helped to transform the Egyptian economy by reducing the reliance on cash, lowering costs and offering a more convenient way to pay. Its good fortune is partly due to the Covid-19 pandemic that prompted many people to place a high demand on its e-payment solutions. Its revenue for the first nine months of 2020 surged to E£892m ($57m), a 45% jump on the same period last year. 

FarmDrive’s alternative credit risk assessment model is providing financial institutions with an agriculturally relevant and data-driven model to assess risk and develop loans that fit the needs of smallholder farmers. Not only will this solution unlock millions of dollars of previously risk-averse capital for smallholder farmers, it will improve the livelihoods of entire communities, thereby alleviating poverty, hunger, and inequalities.

Nearly 50 million smallholder farmers in Africa are struggling to support their families and communities through agri-business because less than 10% have their economic needs met by the financial sector. Without access to credit, they remain unable to purchase quality inputs, make productive investments, and improve their production and harvests.

FarmDrive’s alternative credit risk assessment model is providing financial institutions with an agriculturally relevant and data-driven model to assess risk and develop loans that fit the needs of smallholder farmers. Not only will this solution unlock millions of dollars of previously risk-averse capital for smallholder farmers, it will improve the livelihoods of entire communities, thereby alleviating poverty, hunger, and inequalities.

The fintech industry is lagging behind in cloud adoption. The industry as a whole was cautious about moving information to the cloud due to security concerns. However, the adoption of cloud technology is accelerating.Public cloud adoption has many benefits for financial businesses. The cloud provides a faster way to deliver services to consumers. Companies have to invest less capital.It streamlines operations and helps build consumer-centric processes. According to a PWC report, the public cloud will be the main infrastructure model for financial services by 2020.

UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is pleased to announce that JUMO has won their Sprint4Women Design Competition for women’s financial inclusion in Zambia. JUMO was one of three finalists competing for a grant to roll-out digital financial services (DFS) solutions for the rural women of Zambia, alongside Fenix Zambia and Hobbiton Investments.

The startup will initially offer a small range of service and products that will be expanded quickly, with the interface being developed by the Bismart team allowing the distribution of insurance products across Africa, facilitating the rapid roll-out and scaling of the business. Bismart will also use blockchain-based smart contracts in order to facilitate policy management and offer the security of decentralised databases

This is the most coveted industry and selection of service in South Africa, where the fintech has become the most profitable business and have attracted millions of investors from around the world to become a part of the tech revolution currently changing the lives of everyday people across the continent. 

Yet another African startup is raking up millions from investors around the world during its round of financing and this time around the major investor is America’s most prestigious investment bank- Goldman and Sachs. The bank is just one of the investors willing to put its assets into the South African fintech startup Jumo that just recently closed its 55$ million round.

Because robo advisors are meant to be more cost-effective, they work to cover less various target client segment. Even if your investment is under $1,000, the machine analyzes all the opportunities on the market, develops reports and provides the most efficient and profitable way to grow your ROI.