Local digital payments startup Nala was on Wednesday, September 5 named winner of the second annual EcobankFintech Challenge, hence walking away with $10,000 (Sh22.8 million) in prize money.
Nala is a local startup company which helps mobile money users in Tanzania evolve from a text-based USSD interface to a simplified Venmo-like app.
It is building smartphone-based mobile money products that will simplify mobile money transactions for Africans everywhere, starting in Tanzania.
Nala pitched its solution alongside 10 other startups at a ceremony on August 30 at the global headquarters of Ecobank in Lomé, Togo.
The other 10 finalists were Lypa (Kenya), Wallet.ng (Nigeria), Litee (Benin), SESO Global (South Africa), InvestED (Sierra Leone), Eversend (France), Secapay (Nigeria), Virtual Identity (South Africa), MojiPay (Togo) and Awamo (Germany).
All finalists pitched and presented their business Fintech ideas to business men and women, funders, sponsors, journalists, to mention but a few at an Awards and Innovation winners and were rewarded a cash prize of $10,000, $7,000, and $5,000 to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places respectively.
Nigeria’s Wallet.ng came in second, winning $7,000, while South Africa’s Virtual Identity was third, securing $5,000.
Ecobank will enroll all 11 finalists into the EcobankFintech Fellowship. The fellowship will run for a period of six months, during which the startups will benefit from an opportunity to further explore partnerships with the Ecobank Group.
