Categories: Technology

Visa invests in four African fintech startups to boost financial innovation

Visa has made strategic investments in four African fintech startups—Oze, Workpay, OkHi, and ORDA—that recently graduated from the first cohort of the Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator program. These investments mark a significant step in Visa’s commitment to expanding digital financial services and fostering financial inclusion across Africa.

While Visa did not disclose the individual investment amounts, the company emphasized that these funding initiatives align with its broader strategy to support African fintech innovation. This approach is designed to propel financial growth across the continent, expanding access to digital financial tools for underserved communities.

The four startups, operating across multiple African markets, are each tackling unique challenges in digital finance and services:

Oze (Ghana): Focuses on empowering SMEs through digital record-keeping and embedded finance, offering solutions that improve transaction management and access to credit. Its loan management platform, which includes AI-driven credit scoring, aims to widen credit access for MSMEs.

Workpay (Kenya): Provides cloud-based payroll and HR management solutions for African businesses, handling payroll processing, employee benefits, and compliance across 35 countries, making it easier for companies to manage teams across borders.

OkHi (Nigeria): A smart addressing system that enables digital address verification, which enhances delivery efficiency and supports financial services access by providing accurate location data for businesses.

ORDA (Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa): A cloud-based solution supporting over 1,500 restaurants with tools for order management, inventory tracking, and financial reporting, allowing restaurants to streamline operations and scale.

These investments form part of Visa’s $1 billion pledge, announced in 2022, to drive digital transformation in Africa by 2027. Godfrey Sullivan, Visa’s Senior Vice President of Products, Partnerships, and Digital Solutions for Central Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, stated, “These investments underscore our commitment to African innovation, as we work alongside the continent’s brightest fintech minds to shape the future of digital payments.”

Visa’s Africa Fintech Accelerator program is a three-month initiative that provides startups with mentorship, training, and opportunities for funding. Graduates of the program’s second cohort will showcase their innovations at a Demo Day on December 2 in Cape Town, where they will pitch to investors and industry partners.

Supported by partners like Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provides cloud resources to the program’s participants, Visa’s accelerator aims to be a launching pad for transformative African fintech solutions.

Marx Ali

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