Demo Africa Alumni: Demo Africa
DEMO Africa will host 30 tech startups in Nigeria for the next two days. Entrepreneurs from Egypt, Ghana, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa Ivory Coast and Kenya, will have an opportunity to pitch their ideas and businesses to investors. The Finance and Banking category has dominated Demo Africa 2015 with 8 products showcasing. Other categories include retail, communication, media, logistics, transport and education. We look at the startups from Kenya that are pitching at Demo Africa.
InsureAfrika – Finance & Banking
InsureAfrika is an insurance comparison website that gives consumers information on the best possible insurance policies ranging from car, health and travel. Gagandeep Hayer, the founder of InsureAfrika, says the website allows consumers to quickly compare the products and make informed decisions and has immediate plans to give clients the option of buying policies directly from the website. With Kenya’s insurance penetration standing at a measly 3 to 5 percent, the online platform is poised to deepen the uptake of policies in the country. So far, InsureAfrika has partnered with over 40 insurance companies and is expanding its product offering. w
Abacus – Finance & Banking
Abacus is an online provider of financial data specifically capital markets in Kenya founded by Joel Macharia. After winding up the 88Mph-backed PesaTalk, Macharia went back to the drawing board after one year hiatus. With a vision to one day operate a fully fledged stock brokerage, Macharia created a portal that provides real time data, analytics, comprehensive company profiles on firms listed in the Nairobi Stock Exchange with a view of providing a buying and selling online platform. Abacus is backed by local angel investors and is looking to expand with more capital injection.
SimbaPay – Finance & Banking
In 2013, remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa grew to reach $32 billion essentially outweighing Western aid. However, the cost of remittance remains high (12 percent according to the World Bank) and that’s where SimbaPay saw an opportunity to offer a more affordable, fast and reliable remittance service from UK to Africa. SimbaPay built a proprietary cloud-based method of transferring money, which lowers the cost of transaction via web or a mobile app. SimbaPay is headquartered in the UK but has operations in Kenya and opened a Nigeria office back in May. According to CEO Nyasinga Onyancha, Nigeria was an obvious choice due to the volume of flows to the country hitting $21 billion in 2013.
ENT Mobile – Communication
ENT Mobile has created a friendly and more social solution for banks which they call Pythias. Pythias has designed a mobile banking solution that is intuitive and accessible to bank customers making communication with retail banks personal and effective. Andrew Kamau and the team at ENT Mobile has also created analytics tools to help financial institutions interact better with customers.
Bitsoko – Finance & Banking
Bitsoko is on a mission to establish a widely-used digital currency wallet or what is known as Bitcoin. Bitsoko seeks to include the blockchain technology to the mobile payment market in Africa. According to coinfox, the startup wants to bridge unnecessary fees in the developed world with digital money, starting with Kenya and Ghana. The start-up is currently trying to create more services within the wallet to increase the use of bitcoin in Kenya. Bitsoko won $100,000 in a Grand Challenges Exploration research grant backed by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
BambaPOS – Finance & Banking
Karogi Kamau and team have found a way around expensive and complex point of sale systems. By using an android app, SMEs can now automate their operations and inventory. BambaPOS allows multiple payment channels through a simple interface accessible in real time, anywhere.
Shield Finance – Finance & Banking
Getting an advance salary has never been so easy. This is what Shield Finance promises. Users can access soft quick loans by either sending a text, using an android app or through their website. Shield Finance allows customers to start and finish the loan process all in a matter of minutes, dependant on approval. Shield boosts of competitive interest rates and less red tape.
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