Africa has experienced rapid and almost exponential growth in the financial sector as Fintech startups emerged in various countries across the continent. The East African countries have also experienced the same.
There are up to twenty countries in the East African region, however, Kenya is considered to have a more robust Fintech ecosystem followed by the fast-rising Fintech industry in Tanzania.
Listed below are the top five fintech startups in East Africa.
PesaKit
This Fintech Startup is located in Kenya, founded by Andrew Mutua in 2018. PesaKit is said to be an app for the smart agent as it involves an AI-powered chatbot that communicates the money flow to these agents.
PesaKit also enables agents to access loans as it assesses the previous analytics of the agents and makes predictive analytics with which the agent uses to access loans.
PesaKit focuses on cash distribution channels using human agents aided by their chatbot.
These agents are situated at strategic locations within the countries where customers can access them easily and make their transactions.
PesaKit chatbot is intelligent, beautifully presented, efficient, and easily customizable. It won the DFS chatbot Africa challenge and was also selected in the recent BFA Global Catalyst Africa.
Also read, Are these the Next Three Fintech Startups to scale in Africa?
Kwara
This Fintech was founded by Cynthia Wandia in 2018, it offers a platform-as-a-service banking service and aid savings and credit cooperative organizations (SACCOs) access funds, banks, and other financial services.
SACCOs account for over thirty percent of Kenya’s savings platform, Kwara, therefore, signs up their users on any SACCO of their choice and they can track their finances and access loans easily from the Kwara platform.
In 2019, Kwara won the Global Fintech Hackcelerator in Kenya and was among the selected Fintech startups in the BFA Global Catalyst Fund recent cohort.
Nala
Nala is a Fintech startup located in Tanzania, it provides a platform that allows it conducts Peer-to-Peer transactions, make payments, pay bills, and other general financial activities without an internet connection.
Nala was founded by Benjamin Fernandes in 2017, and in 2018 it won the Ecobank Fintech
Challenge and in 2019 was accepted in the Y-Combinator.
Nala focuses on helping their users grow financially as it believes everyone can walk the path of financial excellence, therefore as well as savings users are offered investment opportunities too.
A-Trader
This is also one of the fintech startups in East Africa located in Tanzania. It is the first African trading platform powdered with AI. A-Trader was founded in 2016 by Andrew Tesha.
A-Trader’s highlighted working initiatives are centered around bridging the gap between Africa and the European financial sector. A-Trader enables everyone on its platform to trade alike on Dar Es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE).
A-Trader uses data science and AI on its platform to provide both savings and investment opportunities that can be accessed using either a smartphone or a USSD phone.
Exuus
This Fintech Startup is located in Rwanda, it was founded by Shema Steve in 2014 to digitize informal group savings by providing a decentralized group savings model.
Exuus has two product service offerings, SAVE and Cartix. SAVE is a user-friendly group saving platform that everyone, banked, underbanked, and unbanked can access for their financial transactions.
Cartix utilizes a decentralized model and credit scoring algorithm and this can be used by both individuals and groups. Exuus is designed in a way it helps everyone achieve their financial goals.
In 2018 Samurai Incubate Africa invested US$50,000 into Exuus, in 2019 Exuus won in the Seedstars Kigali pitch and was accepted into the CATAPULT cohort.
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