Asilimia, a Kenyan fintech, has been selected alongside 14 Fintech start-ups to take part in the 2021 edition of Catapult: Inclusion Africa fintech bootcamp. Asilimia is an app that digitizes payments, enabling 90% savings on mobile money transactions fees for its users.
Through the bootcamp, the selected companies will benefit from mentoring, coaching, peer to peer learning and dedicated workshops. The workshops will be through various sessions including business model mapping, investment readiness, funding, and capital raising, social impact, scaling strategy, building teams and operational management.
This year’s bootcamp is the third edition, and is targeting companies focusing on financial inclusion in Africa. The program was developed by the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (LHoFT) to highlight their initiatives that are aligned with the sustainability goals of the centre.
Asilimia’s proposition is to cut down mobile money transaction costs for Kenya MSMEs (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises) and especially for low-value, high-frequency transactions. The app also pioneered the ‘send to many’ function which other industry players have previously overlooked. Through Asilimia, MSMEs are also able to channel their savings to access insurance and high-value loans.
Sponsors for the program include the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Directorate for Development and Humanitarian Affairs, and supported by the Alliance for Financial Inclusion as well as key strategic partners. These partners include ADA, InFine, University of Luxembourg, LuxFlag, Innpact, LuxAfrica, ACRC, MicroInsurance Network, CGAP, LMDF, SPTF, UABA, the European Investment Bank and Compellio.
The 2021 program will end on Thursday, May 27 with a digital pitching event open to the public, where the participating companies will showcase their innovations.