Fintech Startups, Apply For Catapult: Inclusion Africa Competition

[Image Source: Luxembourg House of Financial Technology Facebook]

CATAPULT: Inclusion Africa 2020 Bootcamp follows on from the success of the first Catapult Inclusion Africa Bootcamp, organised in November 2018, where 11 selected African Fintechs benefited from a tailor-made programme aligned with the sustainability goals of Luxembourg’s financial centre with the aim for the Fintechs to develop their businesses and achieve their inclusion goals.

CATAPULT: Inclusion Africa 2020 is a 1-week training and networking Bootcamp, hosted in Luxembourg between 1st and 8th March 2020, for 12 Fintech firms working to improve financial inclusion in Africa. The program is run in English. Travel and accommodation costs for the participating Fintech companies will be covered.

The principle aim of CATAPULT Africa is to provide support to promising Fintechs for Financial Inclusion startups and help them move to the next stage of their development in Africa and in Europe.

Parallel to the focus on startups, the bootcamp will support the promotion of Fintech for Financial Inclusion topic to the broader Responsible Finance sector in Luxembourg and beyond, to include PFIs, MFIs, Fund Managers,
Philanthropists, Advisory and Support firms. The goal is to highlight and promote synergies, collaboration and potential partnerships between the participating Fintechs and these institutions.

Finally, the bootcamp aims to promote and draw attention to the importance and value of Fintech for Financial Inclusion, through local and international media exposure, with the goal of focusing broad attention to the initiatives that are driving positive change in Africa. 7 of the 12 startups from last year’s cohort were from Africa.

Requirements

Be a fintech company with a clear focus on financial inclusion
Ideally have a solution that can benefit by partnering with a traditional financial institution or private finance initiatives and microfinance institution
Be delivering a solution directly applicable to Africa
Already have a minimum viable product (MVP) that it would be capable to implement in a pilot project
Have meaningful customer or business validation. However, this is not limited to revenue and can also include successful pilot studies, number of users or strategic partnerships.
Have a strong and well-balanced team that internally covers key areas such as sales, technology development and operations