Ugandan Fintech Startup Wins $100,000 Investment in Rwanda
Ugandan Fintech startup, Smart Credit has won capital investment worth USD 100,000 (Approx. Shs362 Million) from a group of investors.
Smart Credit, a solution to solving barriers to small businesses and credit access stood out during the pitching sessions dubbed “Face the Gorillas” at the Transform Africa Summit 2017 in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali.
Developed by Killer Analytics, a group of Ugandan innovators, the startup is a business intelligent engine that processes Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) transactional data to individualized credit data and financial statements.
“It started with the aim of helping small businesses access credit,” Peter Muzoora, the Project Manager at Smart Business Intelligence reportedly told journalists at the sidelines of the summit.
Uganda ranks among the top five enterprising countries, with 90 percent of Uganda’s private sector composed of SMEs.
Despite introduction of mobile financial services like mobile money and mobile credit services like MoKash, access to credit remains a big barrier to the progress and development of small businesses in the country.
Smart Credit, according Killer Analytics team, seeks to solve and remove the barriers to foster development and growth of SME’s in the country.
It started off as a hackathon in Uganda, pitting 16 other teams although the contest was also taking place in other African countries.
The criteria for the contest in was being able to provide an ICT solution that can solve a problem for SME’s. Killer Analytics emerged the first.[related-posts]
They later moved on to battle startups from six other African countries and were placed second; although that was good enough to steer them to face the investors.
During the summit in Rwanda, each team was allowed 5 minutes to make a pitch to investors before moving on to enter negotiations with investors until a deal was reached.
The Transform Africa Summit 2017 concluded on Friday.
One of the key points of discussions was how to ensure that technology does not create a wide divide but instead work towards enhancing finding solutions that are inclusive.
