NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 17 – Three Kenyan entrepreneurial teams are among the 10 teams across 30 countries that have advanced to the Semifinalist Round of the Milken-Motsepe Prize in FinTech.
The Kenyan teams include AZA Finance, Chumz, and Pay Cloud by Lipa Later.
Other teams from other countries include Chapa from Ethiopia, Farmpawa from Uganda, Flow Global from the United Kingdom, Nyla Bank from Ghana, Oze from Ghana, Trade Lenda from Nigeria, and Verto from the United Kingdom.
Milken Institute and the Motsepe Foundation announced that each of the ten teams will receive $100,000 (Sh13 million) in funding.
The 10 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.
There, they 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 prize will award $2 million in total prizes, including a $1 million Grand Prize, which will be awarded at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference in Los Angeles in May 2025.
“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 two institutions said in a statement.
According to Emily Musil, senior director of the Milken Institute, supporting these teams through the prize will be focused on fostering financial inclusion and empowering entrepreneurs to peddle economic metamorphosis.
“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,” she stated.
