Kenyan startups can pitch their innovative solutions to future payment and commerce challenges.
This is after Visa opened the 2023 edition of the Visa Everywhere Initiative (VEI), a global open innovation competition for Kenyan Fintechs.
The VEI Kenya edition is seeking innovative and ambitious entrepreneurs who are uplifting communities by solving payment and commerce challenges faced by businesses of all sizes and sectors.
These include agriculture, logistics, healthcare, education, urban mobility, and insurance.
The pitches should provide solutions for either access to finance, access to new customers and markets, and MSME business services.
However, it's not limited to inventory management, payroll processing, and customer relationship management.
This follows Visa’s recent commitment made during last year’s Jamhuri Day Tech Innovation Summit attended by President William Ruto, where the organisation outlined a five-year plan to digitally enable small businesses in Kenya.
“The VEI is a platform that empowers fintech and entrepreneurs to showcase the most ground-breaking, impactful solutions in the world of payments and commerce,” Visa Country Manager for Kenya Eva Ngigi said.
“Through their technology-driven, innovative solutions, fintech have the potential to offer broad social benefits particularly when it comes to providing financial services to those who have traditionally been underserved.”
This year’s VEI in Kenya will see an in-person competition on July 6, the winner of which will progress to the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) finals, which will be live streamed on July 27 on TechCrunch.
The winner of the CEMEA regional final will proceed to the global finale, to be held on September 19 at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco.
According to Ngigi, access to the digital economy drives equitable, inclusive growth, and VEI is an important means of supporting the innovators playing a leading role in this space.
She said the organisation will work closely with the Ministry of ICT and the Central Bank of Kenya during the VEI edition to support the innovation ecosystem in Kenya.
The VEI Kenya edition will see more than Sh5.4 million in prize money distributed among the different categories.
This includes Sh2.7 million for the overall winner, Sh1.3 million for the audience favorite and a newly introduced Sh1.3 million impact prize which goes to the organisation whose solution has a positive social impact on the communities it operates in.
Examples of social impact include initiatives that boost financial inclusion, promote sustainability, or safeguard the environment.
In addition to monetary prizes, VEI winners gain access and exposure to Visa’s vast network of partners in the banking, merchant, VC, and government sectors.
The winners also benefit from receiving recognition from one of the world’s most trusted and valuable brands.