Agriculture based fintech, Emata emerges the top winner of Catapult Inclusion Africa among the 14 startups all over Africa that were selected to take part in the accelerator program on May 14 2021. Developed by the LHoFT Foundation, Catapult Inclusion Africa hosted its third edition of the unique program of fintech startup development this year.
The pitching event was held on May 27th 2021 in a virtual session where the 14 teams had to showcase their ideas to the jury with special guests like representatives from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Applications for the program were open this month targeting companies that are focused on financial inclusion in Africa, aiming to build bridges between Africa and Europe, highlighting their initiatives and very much aligned with the sustainability goals of Luxembourg’s finance centre.
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The thriving fintech ecosystem has made a number of initiatives to promote financial inclusion by providing ways for the underbanked and unbanked in hard-to-reach places to obtain banking services. Individuals are frequently refused access to these services due to stringent conditions that are out of reach for most people, resulting in a lack of access to items such as loans.
Catapult Inclusion Africa focuses on companies that are trying to make a difference in such situations and empower groups that have been left behind by the traditional financial system.
Emata emerges the top winner of Catapult Inclusion Africa program which includes investors like; Bamboo Partners, TLG Capital, ZedCrest Capital, Rising Tide Africa, Outlierz, Angaza Capital, Anza Capital, Baobab Group, Beyond Capital, Advans, CRE VC, DRK Foundation, AfricInvest, Triodos Capital, Sherpa Africa Partners to mention a few.
A spin-off of Laboremus Uganda, Emata emerges the top winner of Catapult Inclusion Africa
Emata is a fintech startup that targets the underbanked in Uganda with the main focus on farmers’ cooperatives. It provides them with access to crucial banking services that they might need. By interacting with Emata’s digital platform, cooperatives can register farmer deliveries, update prices, create payment schedules and share daily SMS updates with farmers.
Through automating most manual processes, it offers instant and affordable loans to farmers with advanced credit scoring tools that allow them to invest in the productivity of their farms.
A product of Laboremus Uganda, Emata’s story begins in 2017 as it was formed with a goal to solve some of the main challenges that hold back the flow of agricultural financing in Africa today. The company has continued to hit milestones thereafter as it has partnered with various funding partners like UNCDF, Rabobank Foundation, NORAD and FSDU.
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Emata emerges the top winner of the Catapult Inclusion Africa 2021 program where it beat 13 other startups from different parts of the continent like Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana to mention but a few. Moja bank of Ivory Cost and Nokwary technologies from Ghana were the runners up of this program.
As winners of the third edition of this fintech development program, Emata will be trained for investment readiness, undergo one-on-one mentorship, and stand a chance to participate in the World Expo in Dubai.
Emata now joins Ugandan startup, Mazima Retirement Plan as part of the alumni. This startup emerged as the winner of the Catapult: Inclusion Program in 2018. Mazima Retirement Plan offers a Retirement Saving Plan suitable for the informal sector that makes 85% of Uganda‘s workforce with flexible entry, contributions and exits.
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