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Visa invests in four African fintechs
Visa has announced strategic investments in four African startups - Oze, Workpay, OkHi, and ORDA – all graduates of its Africa Fintech Accelerator program.
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.jpg?width=1280&auto=webp&quality=95&format=jpg&disable=upscale "Group photo of Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator participants smiling and cheering")
Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator participants.(Source: Visa)
Payments giant Visa has announced strategic investments in four African startups that graduated from the inaugural cohort of its Africa Fintech Accelerator program.
The company did not disclose the size of each investment but said it was part of its ongoing strategy to support digital innovation in Africa, helping drive fintech growth across the continent while bolstering financial inclusion and access.
The four startups, operating across multiple African countries are:
Oze - based in Ghana. The company provides digital record-keeping tools and embedded finance products to SMEs, helping them manage transactions, access affordable capital and grow their businesses. Additionally, the startup offers a loan management system for financial institutions, featuring machine learning-based credit scoring to enhance lending decisions and expand access to credit for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
Workpay - an HR tech firm headquartered in Kenya. The company offers a comprehensive cloud-based payroll and HR platform that manages the entire employee lifecycle, enabling payroll processing, time tracking, employee benefits administration, performance management and "employer of record" services in more than 35 countries across Africa.
OkHi - based in Nigeria. OkHi is a smart addressing system that provides digital address verification, enabling businesses to collect, verify and navigate to accurate addresses, thereby improving delivery efficiency and access to financial services.
ORDA - a cloud-based restaurant software company digitizing over 1,500 restaurants across Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa with tools for order processing, inventory management, and financial services to optimize operations and fuel growth.
Next cohort to pitch for investment
Visa said that graduates of the second cohort of the program will have the opportunity to present their innovative capabilities during a "Demo Day" set to take place on December 2, 2024, in Cape Town, South Africa, to an audience of venture capitalists, angel investors, ecosystem enablers and business partners.
The Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator program is a three-month intensive program that supports Seed to Series A start-ups by offering one-on-one mentorship, training, and exclusive opportunities for funding and partnership.
Launched in 2023, the program aligns with Visa's 2022 pledge to invest $1 billion into the continent by 2027, with the aim to uplift and bolster digital transformation.
.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale "Visa's Innovation Studio in Nairobi, Kenya")
In December 2022, Visa pledged to invest $1 billion in Africa by 2027 to scale operations, deploy new technologies and deepen collaboration with African partners. (Source: Visa)
Godfrey Sullivan, senior VP of products, partnerships and digital solutions for Visa CEMEA, said Visa sees each investment as a unique opportunity to drive financial access and inclusion.
"These investments mark a substantial step for Visa - we are once again standing behind our commitment to innovation in Africa, helping to shape the future of digital payments alongside some of the brightest fintech minds that the continent has to offer," Sullivan said in a statement.
Visa said that additional investments and commercial partnerships with the program's graduates are being finalized and will be announced soon.
The Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator program is also supported by Amazon Web Services (AWS), which offers free cloud services to cohort participants.
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