Fintech Startup Accelerator celebrated its first phase of developing 100 iconic fintech startup in Africa with a bootcamp graduation, which was held at the Mills Newtown in Johannesburg CBD on the 31 st of January 2023. The entrepreneurs pitched their businesses, in front of a panel of well experience judges. The program seeks to achieve its 100 iconic fintech startups in the next 5 years.

The bootcamp started on the 9 th of January, to the 27 th January, where 16 fintech startups were taken through the process of learning how to build business models, access to markets, outlining the opportunities and challenges for startups. One of the important factors about the program is the ecosystem that was designed to back up entrepreneurs to succeed.

Lucky Litelu a strategist, investor and an ecosystem builder says “that through this program they want to scale iconic business that address fundamental challenges that people face, especially at the base of the pyramid in our townships our rural towns and the continent”.

Mr Litelu continues to cite that “the next phase is investor readiness program part of the program is to get entrepreneurs to have all the requirements that they will need to stand in front of the investors”.

Mamello Mofokeng and Nkululeko Nkosi from Asiyesonke, pitched their business to three judges the entrepreneurs said “the program changed the game, it gave us the opportunity to take a deep dive into our business, it changed our thought process as entrepreneurs, before the program we lacked the structure and understanding of what we were doing and the program changed that for us”.

One of the judges Andisa Liba CPO (Chief People Officer) at Floatpays said “The future of entrepreneurs in the program is looking bright, the quality and richness of ideas you get a solid sense that these are thought through ideas that are tackling real life problems, and they are tangible solutions”.

The grand finale of the program will be in March this year, where the program itself will invest in entrepreneurs.