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Credrails, Access Bank To Foster The Future Of Finance In Africa

TWA Admin
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Credrails, Access Bank To Foster The Future Of Finance In Africa

Credrails, a rapidly developing financial infrastructure business, has collaborated with Access Bank, a leading African bank with the largest client base, to provide the future of finance on the continent. Access Bank and Credrails will work together to create open finance rails that will vastly improve the banking experience for consumers across Africa.

Credrails is a seed-stage firm that provides the infrastructure that integrates bank, mobile money, and offline data into a single API to power the next generation of fintech solutions. Developers can use the startup’s API to create breakthrough products with open and secure access to rich data sources. Furthermore, its technologies enable cross-service interoperability, resulting in faster and cheaper money transfers across Africa and beyond.

Credrails’ cooperation with Access Bank provides secure open banking connections, eliminating the need for illegal interconnections that could put end-users in danger.

As a result of the cooperation, developers will have access to the data and support they need to build novel finance solutions for customers.

Access Bank’s technological hub, Africa Fintech Foundry, is led by Daniel Babatola Awe, who says: “Access Bank, over the years, has positioned itself as a leader in the Financial Technology space by leveraging technology to reform business operations and drive performance.

To further harness the unending opportunities in the African Fintech ecosystem, Africa Fintech Foundry (AFF) – an initiative of Access Bank – was set up in 2017 to solve industry problems, identify and accelerate innovative startups and be recognized globally as the foremost technology hub in Africa.

“We have carefully identified and selected Credrails as our open banking partner, having raised a seed round, as the appropriate company to partner with on our journey to foster the future of finance in Africa.”

“This partnership will develop game-changing, technology-driven, financial solutions that will drive prosperity and encourage inclusivity. We believe that this will provide endless business opportunities to achieve the aforestated goal.”

In January 2022, Credrails raised $2.5 million in a seed round from Softbank, Precursor Ventures, Launch Africa, and super angels like Shefali Roy and V&R. The funds will be used to develop new product suites and expand into new markets.

“Credrails is very pleased to have this partnership with a leading African bank. We are rapidly expanding as a business, and this key partnership is further evidence of our commitment to provide Africa with the infrastructure needed to evolve fintech,” comments Clara Wanjiku Odero, Credrails CEO and Co-founder.

Credrails has access to 250 million accounts in 33 countries since its start in 2020, and it is seeking to connect all of Africa, providing fintech developers with extraordinary capabilities through a single API.

Frain helps developers ship APIs more quickly, How the Nigerian Startup is doing it.

TWA Admin
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Frain helps developers ship APIs more quickly, How the Nigerian Startup is doing it.

Frain, a Nigerian startup, is developing Convoy, an open-source webhooks service that allows developers and businesses to design and distribute APIs more quickly and securely.

Developers have always had to construct and maintain these infrastructures in-house, paying for them with engineering time and money. Convoy, Frain’s service, helps enterprises to ship APIs faster and worry about one fewer infrastructure component.

Subomi Oluwalana, co-founder and CEO of Frain, abandoned his position as a backend developer at Nigerian fintech Tangerine Life in February 2021 to build APIs for fintech. For several months, the team tried to offer APIs to businesses with co-founder and COO Emmanuel Aina, but with little success.

While refining their solution to make it more economically feasible, the team discovered that webhooks were a common issue among startups looking to establish APIs. Webhooks are simply the glue that holds APIs together. They are a crucial infrastructure component for most API firms (like Stripe, Twillo, or Paystack).

“Essentially, a failed webhooks event has a direct customer impact. A failed event from Paystack means a customer won’t receive value for their purchase on Domino’s while the customer has received a debit alert,” Aina said.

Convoy, a cloud-native webhook solution that allows developers to push webhook events to their consumers in minutes, was born out of this realization. The adoption rate was extremely high.

“The reception for Convoy has been massive. It is currently being used by Termii, BuyCoins, Dojah, Getwallets and a few others. The developer community has also commented that it is indeed an essential tool,” said Aina.

Frain raised US$473,000 in pre-seed fundraising in January from Rally Cap Ventures, Musha Ventures, Future Africa, Eric Idiah, Tomiwa Lasebikan, Prosper Otemuyiwa, Odunayo Eweniyi, Timi Ajiboye, Opeyemi Awoyemi, and numerous other angel investors.

“We are currently operating in the African market with a particular focus on Nigeria. Our product is open to developers across the world. This funding will enable us to invest in our community locally and globally as well as build more products,” said Aina.

Frain generates money by selling its Cloud Platform to businesses that don’t want to manage Convoy infrastructure in-house.

“With this, they can offload all their webhooks infrastructure burden on us to provide reliability and security out-of-the box,” said Aina.

“For the most part, most companies have an implementation of webhooks in-house. So for many, they wonder why they needed to swap out what they currently have to usher in Convoy. But we’re confident we’ve built a product that is 10 times better than most in-house implementations and we’re still in the very early stages of fulfilling our mission. We think with time, the difference will be clear and more people will be willing to switch their current implementations as our current customers did.”

Nigerian Tech Startups Need To Focus More On Research

Ruth Torty
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Nigerian Tech Startups Need To Focus More On Research

Nigerian tech startups are increasing and growing at a fast rate. The Nigerian fintech startup, Flutterwave recently raised $250 million in its Series D round, pushing its valuation to $3 billion. For startups to create sustainable change in Nigeria and Africa by large, they will need more than investments.

As it stands, artificial intelligence and technology are the top trends and, in a few years, may become the regular trademark. And as this happens, Nigerian startups should build their products towards this innovation—not to be left behind in this new wave. Startups need to invest in science and technology research to achieve a much-needed edge in the coming years.

As science and technology research spans various disciplines, Nigerian tech startups must focus on data, emerging technologies, and health science research as these drive faster innovations.

Below are the deep dives on specifics to focus on during research.

1. Science Research and HealthTechs

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed Nigeria’s need for a strong science research system. Despite our unpreparedness, the timely sequencing of the coronavirus by the African Centre of Excellence For Genomics of Infectious Disease (ACEGID) facilitated testing and detection of Covid-19 cases.

However, Nigeria still felt the impact of having a weak science research system. We have had to rely on other countries for ventilators, testing kits, and vaccines.

HealthTechs have to collaborate with researchers to build the research system. 54gene, a health-tech company located in Lagos, recently launched the African Centre For Translational Genomics (ACTG) initiative.

This non-profit will fund and support training and internships for scientists and research on translational genomics and precision medicine. Furthermore, investing in research provides better solutions, innovations, and, most importantly, a high return on investment. An example is BioNTech. The German-based biotech startup invested in mRNA technology, a product that has made millions of euros for the company. The mRNA technology was also instrumental in creating the Covid-19 vaccine.

Moreso, collaboration can occur in specific science fields central to the HealthTechs focus. For example, Maternal care based HealthTechs can work with researchers on drug production, pre-eclampsia, and even chronic diseases.

Geriatrics (older population) based HealthTechs can also invest in chronic and neurodegenerative diseases research. The prospect of an improved healthcare and research system in Nigeria and Africa is too promising to overlook. However, if another pandemic occurs, will HealthTechs be able to change the narrative? Yes, if they invest in research.

2. Data is Key

Nigeria has one major problem: data. We either have insufficient data or underutilized data. The popular method to cover up this data gap is the use of estimates. Sadly, even the country’s current population is merely an estimate, based on the 2006 census—numbers that were heavily contested for their validity and authenticity.

Moreover, data collection in Nigeria is entrenched in politics and corruption, which throws a shadow of doubt on each publication. The country also lacks good equipment and resources to collect, clean, and analyze data. Unfortunately, most of the data we have about Nigeria is sourced from outside it.

For example, most of the data on maternal mortality in Nigeria is sourced from the World Health Organization and other foreign bodies. Despite the information being over three years old, several publications still reference it—since it is one of the few credible sources they know.

On the flip side, Nigeria also has sufficient data, as in the case of traditional banks. These banks have gathered years and years of customers’ personal data and demographics—all of which are unused. These data could change fintech operations overnight. Fortunately, the Open banking system in Nigeria is building a set of open APIs standards. These Application Programming Interfaces, known as APIs, will allow banks to share customer transaction history with third parties like Fintechs.

In turn, this allows these startups to design their products to meet customers’ needs and assist those working to improve data collection and analytics in Nigeria. AirSmat is a tech startup that helps farmers make data-driven decisions. This startup provides and analyzes data on weather trends, crops, and soil conditions using drones, satellite, soil-level, and IoT sensors.

The value of data to every organization can not be overemphasized. It reduces the risk of making errors and also helps startups save time and money. Moreover, Nigeria turns out many statisticians every year (unfortunately, there is no verifiable data on their number). Startups can invest in data resources and training for statisticians and data scientists to build a better structure.

3. Technology

Technology is beyond virtual realities like Metaverse. It also includes the fields of robotics and machines. Startups, particularly Agritechs, need more than optimized software to improve agriculture in Nigeria. Advanced equipment and infrastructure can drive agricultural innovation forward and increase food production. Releaf, an Agritech startup based in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom, is using its proprietary patent-pending machinery, Kraken, to revolutionize oil palm production in Nigeria.

The Kraken technology is used to crack palm kernel nuts, which are then supplied on a large scale to food production companies. This equipment helps to provide an easy market for both smallholder farmers and companies. The Kraken technology is to operate at 100 tonnes per day, 200 times faster than a smallholder farmer with a rock.

In Owerri, capital of Imo State, Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu established ColdHubs to help farmers avoid post-harvest losses. To give some context, Nigeria has an unstable power supply, which means smallholder farmers have no storage for their produce.

ColdHubs is a solar-powered walk-in cold room for smallholder farmers to store and preserve fresh produce. This equipment can extend the product’s shelf life from two days to more than 21 days. More inventions are needed to drive and push Nigeria to the next level. Startups need to invest in the infrastructure and manufacturing of their own equipment. Moreso, we can build a technology hub for Africa and the world.

Nigerian tech startups have a lot to offer in pushing the country towards growth. However, to achieve this, tech startups need to explore and maximize the power of science and technology research.

VivaTech AfricaTech Awards 2022 For African Startups

Hafiz Akinde
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VivaTech AfricaTech Awards 2022 For African Startups

VivaTech, with support from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), launched the first edition of the AfricaTech Awards, a pan-African initiative developed to recognize and support the most innovative and impactful African startups across three key sectors – Climate Tech, Health Tech, and FinTech.

Tech startups can provide much-needed solutions to pressing global challenges, promote inclusion, and foster sustainable development. However, despite increasing interest from investors, startups across the continent too often struggle to find the capital they need to scale their innovations. The VivaTech AfricaTech Awards aim to help create new market opportunities for emerging African startups, catalyzing support and inspiring action from investors, policymakers, fellow entrepreneurs, and leading institutions in the tech space.

Eligibility Criteria for the VivaTech AfricaTech Awards

  • Startup based in Africa
  • Having a product/solution addressed to the African market
  • Having a scalable product/solution
  • Must have raised a minimum of $200K in capital but not more than $6M
  • Must address one of the following themes: Climate Tech, Health Tech or FinTech

The Challenges

Climate Tech Challenge: Solutions that can reduce emissions, protect the environment, and help communities become more climate-resilient.

Health Tech Challenge: Solutions that can expand access to healthcare among underserved communities, reduce the cost of services, and boost innovation in the healthcare sector.

FinTech Challenge: Solutions that can expand access to financial services among underserved communities, promote financial inclusion and financial literacy, and improve the efficiency of the banking infrastructure.

Rewards for the Finalists

The top 9 startups (3 in each category) will receive:

  • Take part in VivaTech
  • Meet key players to scale your business
  • Benefit from a strong visibility
  • Get highlighted in the VivaTech program
  • Get featured on social media and different media outlets

Rewards for Winners

The category winners will receive:

Climate Tech Winner

Introduction to the IFC Climate Tech Specialist and key industry players
Access to New Energy Nexus’ global clean energy ecosystem network and its local networks in Uganda and Nigeria.
Health Tech Winner
Introduction to the IFC Health Tech specialist and key industry players.
FinTech Winner
Introduction to IFC FinTech investment team and IFC partner VC funds.

Selection Criteria for the VivaTech AfricaTech Awards

Impact: Product/solution with proven results in addressing pressing issues affecting society and/or the environment

Innovation: Originality and innovation level of the tech solution compared to existing alternatives (problem-solving approach, characteristics of the technology used, patented processes or components, etc.)

Scalability: Market size and scalability potential of the startup (total addressable market, potential to expand to other markets, etc.)

Team profile: Level of experience and size of the team (number of employees, level and diversity of expertise, entrepreneurship and/or academic background, etc.)

Business model: Demonstrated traction and product-market fit (maturity of the startup, commercial traction, number of clients, annual global turnover growth, etc.)

Timeline

  • 7th March: Challenges Opening
  • 25th March: End of the challenge
  • 2nd May: Announcement of the Top 45 startups (15 per category)
  • 6th May: Announcement of the 9 finalists (3 in each category)
  • 15th-18th June: VivaTech Event AfricaTech Awards Ceremony

About VivaTech

Viva Technology is Europe’s biggest startup and tech event.

 
We act as a powerful global catalyst for digital transformation and startup growth. Every year, VivaTech brings together in Paris and online the greatest business leaders, startups, investors, researchers and innovators to ignite positive change in business and for society. The 6th edition of VivaTech AfricaTech Awards Ceremony is taking place 15-18 June 2022.

For more information about the event, check this link.

To read the rules and regulations, check this link.

Moove Secures $105M, to Scale Across Asia, Europe and MENA

Hassan Barakat
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Moove Secures $105M, to Scale Across Asia, Europe and MENA

Moove secures $105M. The African mobility fintech provides vehicle finance to Uber and other gig network drivers, and it has raised a new Series A2 round of funding.

Existing investors Speedinvest, who were lead investors in the company’s Series A, are among the new round’s investors.

This round consisted of a $65 million equity investment and a $40 million debt investment.

New investors such as AfricInvest, MUFG Innovation Partners, Latitude, and Kreos Capital also took part.

This announcement is coming almost seven months after the fintech closed its $23 million Series A round and just a month after the Moove closed $10 million in debt financing.

Since its inception in 2020, the firm has expanded to six African cities: Lagos, Accra, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Nairobi, and Ibadan.

Moove is a flexible solution for drivers who wish to enter into the ride-hailing business without having to borrow from car owners or take out bank loans to finance automobiles purchased from dealerships.

The following is how it works: Drivers register on the platform, are validated, and then trained and sign contracts with Moove in order to obtain loans to purchase or rent automobiles.

The company enrolls these drivers on Uber’s platform—the company’s only partner in Africa—and deducts weekly rental fees from their profits before distributing the balance to their accounts.

The loans are for 12 to 48 months, and when drivers repay them (at an annual interest rate of 8 to 13 percent), they own the automobiles, according to the firm.

The revenue-based car finance platform claims it will expand this approach to other vehicle classes, such as three-wheelers and buses.

While the new Series A2 round will help Moove scale across its current territories, it will also aid the company’s expansion into new countries outside of Africa.

Over the next six months, Moove will focus on seven additional markets in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.

The total funding raised by Moove is $174.5 million in debt and equity. In its newer markets, Moove will encounter new competition from Carro in Southeast Asia, Drover in the United Kingdom, and Virtuo in France.

Akon’s Cryptocurrency, Akoin, Hits $5M Volume in Kenya

Hafiz Akinde
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Akon’s Cryptocurrency, Akoin, Hits $5M Volume in Kenya

Akon’s cryptocurrency, Akoin, has reached $5 million in total transaction volume in Kenya. Akoin, which is based on the Stellar blockchain, was launched in November 2020 and began trading against bitcoin (BTC) and USDT on the Bittrex Global crypto exchange on November 11th of that year.

From all indications, the Akoin token is gaining wide acceptance as major brands are adopting it as their cryptocurrency payments. For example, Mwale Medical and Technology City (MMTC), a $2 billion metropolis centered on a 5,000-bed medical and technology complex, has accepted the digital asset as payment since February 2021.

According to David Gitonga, founder and CEO of BitcoinKE, who spoke to BeInCrypto, Akoin was being used at the facility to pay for various services, including treatment. Gitonga says… “Akoin is being used to pay for services at the hospital and this is expected to be extended to other services within the city. In addition, Akoin is expected to be used to pay for services in the region (western Kenya), which is popular for sugarcane farming, one of the expected use cases for the digital currency.”

Over the past year, AKN has hit more than $5 million in transaction volume, according to Akoin co-founder John Karas. Around 35,000 users from western Kenya, a region of 17 million people, have been on-boarded, BitcoinKE, a local online media outlet, reported.

“Our biggest mission is that Akoin ends in the hands of users, not people that are speculating on exchanges,” said Karas. “We really want this to be a tool that empowers financial inclusion.”

The token which began as a pilot for payments at a high-tech smart city in the East African country last year, is at the heart of the $6 billion Akon City in Senegal.

The project seeks to address the need for vibrant new community development, with a vision to create Business districts, residential districts (high-rise) education districts, healthcare districts, technology districts, Media districts, entertainment districts, and sports facilities with a recreational enclave for the surrounding area to address the market need for the development in Senegal.

Bloom, Sudan’s First YC-Backed Startup Sets to Protect Sudanese People from Currency Depreciation

Hassan Barakat
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Bloom, Sudan’s First YC-Backed Startup Sets to Protect Sudanese People from Currency Depreciation

Bloom is Sudan’s first YC-Backed startup that aims to help Sudanese people protect themselves from currency depreciation.

The company was founded by Ahmed Ismail, Youcef Oudjidane, Khalid Keenan, and Abdigani Diriye in late 2021.

It provides a “high-yield” savings account, free FX, and related digital banking services so that customers can save in a stable currency, the dollar, and spend locally.

After researching several models pioneered by digital-first banks such as TymeBank, Kuda, and FairMoney, the founders saw a significant need for developing a savings product that addresses what they believe is the most pressing problem facing African consumers: inflation and currency depreciation.

“We believe the most common problem is the inability of customers to protect the value of their assets. So we decided to establish a company that does just that, that enables individuals to save money in a stable currency and spend it in local currencies as they go,” Ismail, the company’s CEO, told TechCrunch.

“We chose Sudan as our first market because we believe that the best approach to start a business is to go after the biggest opportunity initially, ” Ismail remarked.

Bloom collaborates with the Export Development Bank, a deposit-taking partner bank. Bloom is best thought of as the bank’s technology, customer acquisition, user experience, and marketing partner.

Users can save in dollars and buy and spend in Sudanese pounds with no fees, according to the business.

It also offers local and dollar cards, as well as a function that allows them to receive free remittances from a number of nations across the world, primarily from the Sudanese diaspora.

The Sudanese and Dubai-based firm wants to expand across the Anglo East African region, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia, with funding from an upcoming seed round.

“We’re from the region.” We are familiar with the intricacies of our markets and can navigate what may appear to be a perplexing world. Working in unpredictable markets is also something we’re used to – and possibly even enjoy. “We are laying the foundation for Africa’s next decade of growth,” Diriye said of the investment.

Ghanaian Fintech Dash Raises 32.8M Seed, Led by Insight Partners

Hassan Barakat
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Ghanaian Fintech Dash Raises 32.8M Seed, Led by Insight Partners

Ghanaian fintech Dash is announcing that it has raised $32.8 million in an oversubscribed seed round.

Founder and CEO Prince Boakye Boampong started the company in 2019. Before Dash, Boampong was the co-founder of OMG Digital, a YC-backed Ghanaian media startup he started alongside Jesse Ghansah — the current CEO of Float— in 2016.

Dash’s alternative payment network connects mobile money and traditional banks, making it easier for individuals and businesses to transact.

It is not intended to take the role of mobile money or banks. Instead, its wallet gives consumers access to a variety of services that aren’t available through their usual supplier.

“We’re working on interoperability so that a Kenyan flying to Ghana or a Ghanaian traveling to Kenya can pay for things without having to change currencies or open accounts when they land,” Boampong explained.

“We’re taking a page from AliPay and PayTm by developing services that will make our users’ lives easier without requiring them to switch providers.”

Dash’s strategy is similar to that of Visa or Mastercard in that it routes payments through banks and telcos regardless of who issued the card.

As a result, users from various countries — for the time being, Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya — can connect their bank or mobile money accounts to Dash, pay bills, and send and receive money from other users, while the platform handles currency conversions.

Processing fees, interest generated when users save, FX expenses when Dash is used cross-border, bill payments (commission earned when users pay bills on Dash), and membership (for Dash+, the company’s premium service) are all revenue sources for Dash.

Dash’s seed round, headed by Insight Partners, a New York-based private equity and venture capital firm, is one of the largest of its kind in Africa; only PalmPay’s $40 million now beats it.

The transaction, which follows a $500,000 pre-seed round, adds to a growing list of fintech deals in the sector, which accounted for up to 60% of Africa’s overall venture capital funding last year.

This purchase is particularly notable because it shifts emphasis away from Nigeria, Africa’s hottest fintech industry, to Ghana, where entrepreneurs raised only $167 million in venture capital last year.

Global Founders Capital and 4DX Ventures are among the other investors in the round.

ASK Capital, Techstars, Guillaume Pousaz’s Zinal Growth Partners, Jitendra Gupta of Jupiter Money, Amrish Rau of Pine Labs, the founders of Moss, ProcessOut executives,, and the founders of PennyLane were among those that took part.

The funds will be used to assist the Techstars-backed startup expand to other regions including Tanzania and South Africa, obtain the necessary licenses, increase its team, invest in technology, and introduce new services.

Digital Identity Infrastructure Critical to Deepening Open Finance in Africa, says Esigie Aguele, VerifyMe CEO

Hassan Barakat
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Digital Identity Infrastructure Critical to Deepening Open Finance in Africa, says Esigie Aguele, VerifyMe CEO

Esigie Aguele, Co-founder and CEO of VerifyMe Nigeria, a digital identity and KYC technology company, stated in his keynote speech at the recently concluded 5th Edition of the Africa Tech Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, that stakeholders in the digital identity and finance space have been charged to work together to establish a holistic framework for open finance in Africa.

During the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) session of the summit, Aguele stated that open finance, backed by a strong digital identity infrastructure, was critical in bridging the gap between identification and financial inclusion in order to achieve results at scale for Africa’s over 500 million people without a recognized form of identification.

“Facilitating openness, transparency, and lower costs is crucial in a more interconnected world and with the development in peer-to-peer transactions,” he said.

This will rely heavily on digital identity. Thankfully, open finance initiatives like mobile payments are already making an impact for many of Sub-Saharan Africa’s 85 percent unbanked individuals. However, if we are to accomplish results at scale, we must act quickly.

“In Nigeria, for example, digital identity has the potential to unlock opportunities from open finance initiatives to address the 16 million home mortgage shortfall, as well as the insurance and auto-loan markets, which are currently under-scaled at 0.3 to 0.5 penetration on maturity and have the potential to grow to $800-$1 billion industries.”

“Undoubtedly, the regulatory systems of Web2 have proven insufficient for the expanding pivot to Web3,” Aguele said, elaborating on how digital identification will effect open banking. As operators develop standards to give comprehensive digital identity solutions, we’re seeing regulators push back against entirely decentralized privacy methods, particularly if it limits them access to security, control, and governance.

“As a result, while effective regulation is required to standardize and grow the ecosystem, it is vital to strike a balance such that legislation enables rather than suffocates innovation.”

“I envisage a future where entrepreneurs and regulators increasingly collaborate to discover solutions that benefit all stakeholders while maintaining standards, quality, identity privacy, and ownership,” the VerifyMe founder stated.

VerifyMe Nigeria is a leading digital identification and Know-Your-Customer (KYC) technology company that supports open finance in Africa. The company offers a variety of trust-based digital identification solutions to assist businesses in onboarding customers and scaling their operations.

The Africa Tech Summit brings together African and international tech experts to help move business and investment ahead on the continent.

The event also brings together a diverse group of stakeholders, including technology companies, mobile operators, FinTech, DeFi, and crypto initiatives, investors, top startups, and regulators.

DFS Labs Blockchain Bootcamp 2022

Hassan Barakat
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DFS Labs Blockchain Bootcamp 2022

DFS Labs is an early-stage investor assisting founders in the development of Africa’s digital commerce future.

Our Blockchain Bootcamp, in conjunction with the Stellar Development Foundation, is now accepting applications.

Apply by March 18, 2022

About The Bootcamp

Our second Blockchain Bootcamp aims to provide early-stage and mid-stage African companies with the opportunity to build on Stellar, an open-source blockchain network for financial services and goods.

The Bootcamp will culminate in a demo day, during which organizations with the most interesting Stellar-based solutions will be granted awards ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 in Stellar’s native currency, XLM.

There will be options for extra grant financing, as well as possible investment from SDF’s Matching Fund and other investors in attendance at the demo day.

Eligible Companies

Fintech, blockchain-native, and crypto-curious companies operating in Africa who want to improve their current services or integrate digital asset solutions into their business models for the first time are all encouraged to apply.

Apply Here

Use cases

Viable use cases that could be explored are:

  1. Cross-border or multi-currency payments
    • Business payments for high-cost corridors
    • Reimagining remittances and reducing friction

2. Access to financial services

    • Safeguarding value
    • Multi-currency savings and yield-earning accounts
    • Tokenized assets
    • Investing in securities

3. Other use cases

    • Financial inclusion in emerging markets
    • Banking
    • Payment processing
    • Lending
    • Payroll
    • Treasury management
    • NFTs

Asset management, compliance, defi, gaming, charity donations, trade finance, liquidity, and other areas could all benefit from new models.

The Bootcamp

The Bootcamp is a three-day virtual design sprint that allows participants to answer crucial business challenges with hands-on technical assistance and mentoring from DFS Lab and SDF members.

Companies that participate in the sprint will define an issue, design a storyboard for a solution, and build a quick prototype of their innovation.

We’ll be working from East Africa Time for the design sprint, which will be conducted electronically.

For more information, visit the official page of the DFS Labs Blockchain Bootcamp 2022

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