The programme provides a platform for 14 fintech companies, whose projects empower groups that have been “left behind by the traditional financial system”.
On its website, Lhoft writes the projects could be financing rural farmers, offer point of sale technology for underbanked merchants or specialised insurance products, the point is that it should have the potential to improve lives around the world.
From 5-9 November, Lhoft will organise a one-week training and networking bootcamp in Luxembourg with the firms to help support and develop the businesses.
The 14 companies were selected after a month-long application process.
They are:
Akaboxi Limited-Uganda: providing rural communities with more secure ways of keeping smallholder farmers’ savings managed and monitored through an inclusive digital system, replacing the need to store money at home.
Akiba Digital-South Africa: A mobile savings app for tech savvy millennials using alternative and behavioral data. The gamification element provides financial education and advice to help saves realise their goals.
Bitvalley-Luxembourg: Ibisa is a risk-sharing microinsurance alternative targeting small farmers. Based on a peer-to-peer architecture supported by blockchain and earth observation technology.
Four One Financial Services-Uganda: A micro-pension scheme using the Mayicard Platform, making access to healthcare insurance and/or prepayments and access to assets like land and housing possible.
Inclusivity Solutions-South Africa: Designs, builds and operates digital insurance solutions for emerging markets.
Koosmik Corp-Luxembourg: A mobile banking application for the young and unbanked population in Western Africa. Users receive a free mobile wallet as a hub of services.
Matontine Senegal-Senegal: Provides access to small loans and a range of financial services like micro-insurance for the financially excluded in francophone Africa.
Nala-Tanazania: A mobile money application offering a single, unified wallet for transactions that functions without a data connection over 2G signal and provides users with an accurate breakdown of their spending habits.
Oko-Israel: Creates and distributes affordable crop insurance products for smallholder farmers in emerging markets using satellite imagery and localized weather information to automatically compensate insured farmers when they identified a production loss.
Ovamba Solutions-US: Provides short-term capital to micro and SMEs in Africa, emerging markets and the GCC for trade, inventory purchase and growth. The capital is provided by international investors from the US, UK and Japan.
Refugee Network-Malta: Multidimensional financial eco-system built on blockchain that uses proven business models of e-commerce and investments to connect displaced and marginalized communities to the global economy.
Smartteller-Nigeria: A digital banking platform for financial cooperatives, bringing access to digital financial services for the unbanked and underbanked through cooperatives and microfinance institutions.
Vouch Digital Unlimited-Uganda: An online verified digital supply chain platform that helps simplify the distribution of cash in the form of digital vouchers meant for purchasing goods or services such as seeds, fertilisers and medical equipment.
Wecashup-Cameroon/France: Enables merchants to accept and disburse payments in cash, mobile money, bank mobile wallets, bank cards and crypto-currencies on their web or mobile apps in 54 African countries via a single API integration.