The demo day was hosted by the Central Bank of Egypt in collaboration with the Financial Regulatory Authority, supported by FSD Africa, through UK aid from the UK government.
Key Facts
–11 FinTech companies were selected from a competitive pool of applicants to build solutions for participating Egyptian banks and financial institutions to address COVID-19 related challenges
-The FinTechs were paired with a bank or financial institution for an innovation sprint to rapidly develop products and services to address specific challenges brought on by COVID-19
-Participating banks and financial institutions have an opportunity to move forward with potential solutions as a result of the demo day
Eleven FinTech companies showcased innovative solutions at a virtual demo day that addressed challenges for Egyptian banks and financial institutions due to the pandemic. The eleven companies spent three days working closely with participating banks and financial institutions in a virtual innovation sprint which culminated in the demo day, facilitated by DFS Lab, a digital commerce investor and accelerator. Under the host of the Central bank of Egypt and in collaboration with the Financial Regulatory Authority, banks and financial institutions participated in the innovation sprint and demo day to identify potential products and services they could bring to market. The innovation sprint and demo day were supported by FSD Africa, through UK aid from the UK government.
COVID-19 has made the need for alternative financing and credit solutions more urgent, and more vital. It is fantastic to see the success of this UK-supported virtual innovation sprint, and the creative solutions developed. From digital payment systems to flexible finance, these solutions will help businesses to bounce back stronger.
James Cleverly, UK Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa
Stephen Deng, Partner at DFS Lab said:
“Our aim with the COVID-19 Innovation Sprint in Egypt and the resulting demo day was to positively impact end users by connecting banks and financial institutions with companies who can move quickly to solve COVID-19-related challenges and bring these products and services to market. Some of the challenges companies worked to solve include making it easier for people in rural areas to sign up for bank accounts or other financial services, or easing the process of data access for regulators so they can make timely decisions.”
Mark Napier; CEO of FSD Africa said”This year fintech has been able to show its value in the financial sector’s fight against COVID-19. FSD Africa is proud to support the COVID-19 Innovation Sprint and the eleven FinTech organisations that were selected from across the world to build solutions in collaboration with key actors in Egypt’s financial market. These solutions will have a direct and positive impact on people’s lives – from providing digital solutions to the need for cashless payments to creating new ways for businesses to access credit in order to survive the pandemic. We wish them wel”
The participating FinTech companies are:
- Flutterwave: a global digital payment platform with expertise in providing access to payment schemes across Africa, Europe and North America via a single integration process for acceptance and disbursements of digital payments.
- CreditFins: building MENA’s first Credit Card management app that helps customers analyze their spending, get access to educational content and settle their debt faster and cheaper.
- TurnKey Lender: provides a loan management solution to automate the application processing, credit scoring, decision making and underwriting processes to manage different types of lending.
- Finllect: a financial wellness app for Gen Z to build credit, prequalify for financial services and automate their finances, enabling underserved, low-income, and unbanked consumers to build a free credit score in minutes.
- Valify: building foundations and guiding legislation towards the implementation of electronic KYC as a standard practice for remote customer on-boarding.
- Dor-e: a customer experience platform that allows customers to book and track their place in line remotely while giving banks and businesses a real-time view of branch performance
- Digify: provides Digital Identity Verification Solutions, end to end e-KYC management systems.
- Elucidate: an independent RegTech for financial crime risk assessment.
- Enterprise Tiger: a digital omni-channel suite of software products for banking and financial services institutions including an omni-channel digital contact to customer software and an omni-channel digital end to end delinquency management software.
- Dayra: a fintech company empowering businesses to offer financial services such as pre-paid cards, micro-loans and micro-insurance to their unbanked gig workers and customers.
- NEC Payments: a licensed and regulated payment services provider and card processor that provides vertically-integrated Banking-as-a-Service and offers digital banking, transaction processing, financial control and compliance technology solutions under licensed and SaaS distribution models.
Participating banks and financial institutions have an opportunity to move forward with potential solutions developed by the eleven FinTech companies as a result of the demo da
