Milken and Motsepe Prize in FinTech Announces 10 Semifinalists

Milken Institute and the Motsepe Foundation announced the 10 teams advancing to the Semifinalist Round of the MilkenMotsepe Prize in FinTech, with each team receiving $100,000 in funding. Responding to a global call for applications, this prize supports innovative solutions to expand access to tools necessary for financial inclusion across emerging and frontier markets.

The Semifinalists will participate in an Innovation Showcase at the Milken Institute’s Middle East and Africa Summit on December 5-6, 2024, in Abu Dhabi, UAE. During this event, the 10 teams will pitch their innovations to a panel of expert judges and investors, and three teams will be selected to move on to the final round of the prize. The judges will evaluate the pitches based on the teams’ ability to deliver solutions that improve financial inclusion for under-resourced groups in emerging and frontier markets.

The prize will ultimately award $2 million in total prizes, including a $1 million Grand Prize. Following the December showcase, the Grand Prize will be awarded at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference in Los Angeles, in May. “By supporting these pioneering teams, we aim to foster financial inclusion and empower entrepreneurs who drive economic growth and opportunities in their communities,” said Emily

Musil, senior director, Milken Institute. “Our prizes help identify, support, and celebrate talent to ignite the entrepreneurial spirit and empower visionaries to turn their ideas for a better future into reality.” These teams operate in nearly 30 countries across three continents, and their innovations hold the potential for significant breakthroughs in financial inclusion for underserved communities on a global scale. Over the next four months, the Semifinalist teams will test and scale their solutions, which will be evaluated for impact, scalability, and sustainability.

The 10 Semifinalists:

1. AZA Finance, Kenya
   Team lead: Caroline Shiku Njathi
   AZA Finance is a B2B FinTech company offering businesses low-cost, efficient, and secure financial services, including payments, currency exchange, and treasury, across all major currencies.
2. Chapa, Ethiopia
   Team lead: Nael Teklehaimanot
   Chapa is an online payment gateway company with a developer-friendly API that simplifies integrating payment processing into websites and applications for Ethiopian businesses.
3. Chumz Kenya
   Team lead: Sam Njuguna
   Chumz is a gamified savings product that leverages behavioral psychology to help individuals save at low cost.
4. Farmpawa, Uganda
   Team lead: Moses Eteku
   Farmpawa is a crowd farming platform that connects investors with real farming assets, empowering farmers and driving sustainable agricultural growth.
5. Flow Global, United Kingdom
   Team lead: Michael Rothe
   Flow Global is a liquidity engine that helps retail merchants grow in the digital economy by addressing all of their working capital needs.
6. Paycloud by Lipa Later, Kenya
   Team lead: Eric Muli
   Paycloud is a digital banking platform that addresses late payments in Africa by offering seamless payment processing, payment splitting, automated invoicing, and financial tools.
7. Nyla Bank, Ghana
   Team lead: Mubarak Sumaila
   Nyla Bank is building Africa’s first digital Islamic bank with a goal of empowering 1 billion people with innovative, Shariah-compliant products and services that align with ethical principles.
8. Oze, Ghana
   Team lead: Meghan McCormick
   Oze is a digital lending platform that bridges Africa’s credit gap by providing banks with a small and medium-sized enterprise- (SME) focused app that digitizes financial data, enabling risk assessment and lending to small businesses.
9. Trade Lenda, Nigeria
   Team lead: Adeshina Adewumi
   Trade Lenda is a banking platform tailored to SMEs, where loans can be accessed within one to six hours, and micro-savings can be achieved for business goals.
10. Verto, United Kingdom
    Team lead: Rachel Coombs
    Verto is a business-to-business cross-border payments platform for businesses in emerging markets, powered by a unified network that eliminates intermediary fees, handles 49 currencies, and settles transactions faster.