Akiba won the 2nd Seedstars Kampala startup competition on Friday evening to book a slot to pitch for a grand prize of $1.5 million in equity funding at Seedstars World in Switzerland on 6th April 2017.
2 billion people are excluded from finance because of unrelated culture — Ivan Mworozi, while delivering the winning pitch.
Akiba is an online savings platform which allows SACCOs (circles of people) to collect and manage their finances better by use of mobile money and other means of financial inclusion.
In a tightly contested race, the 1st runner up was clinched by DusuPay, a gateway that’s streamlining how African businesses are paid online. The 2nd runner up was Panya, a chatbot that enables local companies to market and sale products and services directly within Facebook Messenger, Telegram and Whatsapp.
There was a total of 11 startups in the Seedstars Kampala event. Here is the list of other startups which participated:
- Aloyo Electronics: A phone charging device that can be powered by the use of a motorcycle or bicycle.
- Soundbooklet Ltd: Secure continuous water supply for more food production with remote data availability and smart garden control.
- MamboPay Limited: A coupon-based payment solution used by clients to send funds to their beneficiaries in form of purpose-bound digital coupons.
- DmarkMobile: Location-based marketing mobile and web platform connection people and places.
- Solar Freedom Africa Limited: A solar energy products retailer that collects payments through mobile money.
- Xeno Technologies: Online investment advisory platform to help people save for targeted financial goals.
- Kwiksy: A location-based address book search powered by a geofencing algorithm.
- Kazzi Corp Technology: A platform for small scale farmers to get access to cheap loans, manage finance and get access to Markets.
Image: Seedstars World Facebook page