AFIIP 2021 Winners

1st prize: Stryve, Egypt

Stryve provides unbanked SMEs in Egypt with digital banking products, with a focus on invoice financing. Stryve plans to use its innovative model to bring a buy-now-pay-later solution to small businesses, through strong partnerships with both suppliers and buyers. In such a way, Stryve will address the country’s sizeable SME finance gap and improve the efficiency of B2B purchases.

2nd prize: Ahmini, Tunisia

Ahmini is tackling the critical issue of social protection and insurance by acting as an intermediary for rural women in Tunisia to seamlessly and remotely onboard them onto the national social security system (CNSS). In addition to the onboarding process, Ahmini links women to mobile payment providers and allows them to break up their premiums into instalments. 80% of rural women in Tunisia lack access to health insurance and the CNSS, drastically reducing their ability to recover from unanticipated shocks. Ahmini’s offering addresses this shortfall, which is a barrier to economic stability not just in Tunisia but across the Arab world and beyond. 

3rd prize: Syndo, Egypt

Syndo is a crowdfunding platform that provides SMEs in Egypt with access to finance through a peer-to-peer solution. It allows SMEs to get loans while allowing individuals to invest their money in an alternative way. If successfully implemented, the solution will empower savers in the Egyptian market to get directly engaged in SME financing. SMEs can also use the platform to market their services and products.

"It's an honor to be recognized in the Arab world among the impressive competition of AFIIP. We are eager to work with AFIIP's team in our journey to bring an innovative financial marketplace to the region." - Mohamed Aziz, Syndo co-founder

Mozare3, Egypt

Mozare3 is a solution that digitises the agricultural value chain in Egypt, working with smallholder farmers to provide access to finance, access to market and technical assistance, three of the main challenges that smallholder farmers face. Along the way, they encourage sustainable and carbon-efficient farming practices.

Plastic E-Wallet, Egypt

Plastic e-wallet is an initiative of VeryNile, which is building trust in financial services through cleaning up the Nile. The Plastic E-wallet team work directly with unbanked fishermen, providing them with income based on the amount of plastic they remove from the Nile. Their solution customizes already existing cashless payment systems to the fishermen’s context, thereby providing a cashless payment system to previously unbanked informal micro-entrepreneurs.