Global seed-stage startups competition Seedstars World visited more than 25 cities (Kampala inclusive) across all the regions of Africa for their annual global seedstar summit holding dynamic pitch events at different tech and incubation hubs. In Kampala, was held at Outbox Hub and was supported by Stanbic Bank Uganda where out of the 9 startups that were competing to represent Uganda in the global summit in Switzerland on April 12th, 2018 Numida emerged as the potential startup for their 4th Seedstar competition.
Digital loans startup; Numida will be pitching alongside other 60+ global startups at the global final in Switzerland for a chance of securing USD$500,000 equity investment.
Apart from the USD$500,000 prize to the winning startup, Seedstars World has partnered with some amazing companies to award the best startups in their respective fields. With more than USD$6 million in prizes.
“We know how hard it is for seed-stage startups in emerging markets to find sufficient funding. Thankfully there are institutions looking to provide mentoring, access and financial support to top entrepreneurial talent in emerging markets,” Seedstars World writes.
The institutions they’ve partnered with include; Enel Green Power, BBVA Open Talent, Merck, HEG Fribourg, TRECC, and Tag Heuer.
Numida who are in their ‘revenue stage’ were selected in the ‘Enterprise Services’ category.
Briefly, Numida are solving the problem of entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa who manage their business with pen and paper even though they have a computer in their pocket – with a solution; of advising these entrepreneurs to use Numida to manage their finances. In addition, they use this cash-flow data to judge their creditworthiness and issue unsecured loans.
Winners are to join the likes of South Africa’s Giraffe; an for innovative solution to reduce unemployment in the emerging markets, and Filipino startup; for their innovative solution that turns SMEs invoices into cash through discounting of their receivables, providing them with necessary working capital they are not getting from the banks – that won the awards in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
About Numida
The two year old startup (Numida) issues unsecured loans to credit-constrained Ugandan entrepreneurs, who use the startup’s app to manage their finances and charges a base rate of between five and 15% on terms of between one and three months, with loan amounts going as high as USD$1,500 (roughly 5,407,500 UGX). Users can access credit after only seven days of app use, but the longer and more often they use Numida the higher loan principals and better terms they are offered.
