Two SA start-ups are finalists of Visa Everywhere Initiative

Start-ups are competing for a chance to win up to $ 50,000.

T wo South African startups have arrived at the last round of Visa's Everywhere initiative in sub-Saharan Africa

The Everywhere Initiative is a global innovation program that badigns start-ups ups to the resolution of future markets. He launched the initiative in 2015 and awarded more than $ 2 billion in mentorship to more than 130 finalists. Previous winners include IncreaseCard, QPal, EasyShare, HopOn and Losant.

According to Visa, Howler and FinChatBot are among the 12 start-ups selected from the 238 total entries in the region.

Founded in October 2016, Howler is a cashless platform powered by Glownet that uses communication cards or proximity bracelets to perform transactions during events. The start-up enables cashless transactions and end-to-end ticket management for consumers and event organizers.

FinChatBot aims to automate a portion of customer services for financial service providers via a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence. VoguePay, CredPal, Loystar and Growsel of Nigeria, M-Changa, Mookh, WayaWaya and LipaPlus of Kenya, Swipe2Pay of Uganda and Brig Africa of Zambia are in the running for the final.

Earn up to $ 50,000 and get access to Visa products and services, mentoring and support and exposure to key Visa partners and customers

"Visa Everywhere Initiative is in a unique position to help discover, support and apply emerging technologies. "Shiv Singh, Senior Vice President, Innovation and Strategic Partners at Visa, explains," To support the global trends shaping the fintech category, start-ups will answer r briefs addressing the biggest challenges facing the commercial landscape today, both globally and regionally. "

Geraldine Mitchley, Senior Director of Digital Solutions, Sub-Sahara Africa at Visa , states: "Launch of this program of innovation in the region has been an exciting period for the Visa SSA team [Sub-Saharan Africa] and the adoption demonstrates the enthusiasm of the company. ;AT to develop and propose pioneering solutions to the challenges of the continent, especially in the field of payment technologies.

The winners will be announced on July 24th.