Hello Tractor Wins 5th CATAPULT: Inclusion Africa; SE Asia Programme Announced

Hello Tractor, an agricultural technology (AgTech) company that promotes tractor co-sharing throughout Africa, has won the fifth edition of CATAPULT: Inclusion Africa.

From 24 to 28 October 2022, representatives of twelve out of the selected fifteen fintechs travelled to the Grand Duchy to take part in the latest edition of CATAPULT: Inclusion Africa, an accelerator programme focused on financial inclusion, developed by the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (LHoFT).

On the final evening, the participants each had to deliver a three-minute pitch, which was followed by a two-minute question and answer session with the jury, at the LHoFT in Luxembourg-Bonnevoie. The jury was composed of Nasir Zubairi, CEO of the LHoFT, Patrick Losch, Chairman of ADA (Appui au développement autonome), Geneviève Hengen, Deputy Director at the Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs of Luxembourg's Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Winnie Mwangi, Fund Manager and Investment Director at Bamboo Capital Partners, Anne Bastin, Executive Director at Inclusive Finance Network Luxembourg (InFiNe), and Neil Cocker, Director and Senior Partner at Tomorrow Street.

Alex Panican, Deputy CEO of the LHoFT, introduced the pitching session. He recalled that CATAPULT: Inclusion Africa has accelerated more than 60 companies from over a dozen countries since its launch. This year, there was a total of 425 applications from which fifteen fintechs from ten countries were selected for the one-week programme. This edition featured 24 sessions and the involvement of 22 experts and 27 mentors.

Out of the fifteen selected fintechs, the following twelve travelled to Luxembourg for the programme and final pitching session: Africred; Agrix Tech Inc; ChapChap; ComGrow; DanAid; Hello Tractor; Kayko; ProXalys; Radava Mercantile; Servichain; Yalla; Nkwa.

Ahead of the winners announcement, Luxembourg's Minister of the Economy and patron of the programme, Franz Fayot, delivered a speech via video message during which he thanked the LHoFT for having set up and developed CATAPULT: Inclusion Africa and congratulated this edition's participants. Minister Fayot highlighted the value of the programme in helping the selected fintechs to "increase their impact [...] through tailored training with key stakeholders from [Luxembourg's] ecosystem". He added that the selected fintechs "illustrate how the financial inclusion sector has managed to deploy technology in an extraordinary way, often promoting financial services relevant to local needs". He also stressed that "it is crucial that fintech innovation acts in a responsible way".

Minister Fayot also took this opportunity to announce the decision to expand the CATAPULT: Inclusion programme to South East Asia next year. This second programme will consist of a two-week bootcamp that will "leverage Luxembourg's expertise and ecosystem once again to help selected fintechs to develop their businesses and achieve their financial inclusion goals".

Whilst the jury found all of the pitches to be of excellent quality, they ultimately chose Hello Tractor as the first prize winner. James Goode, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of Hello Tractor, accepted the prize (including a cheque for €5,000) on behalf of the winning fintech. Speaking to Chronicle.lu, he explained that Hello Tractor would use the prize money and the knowledge and tools gained from CATAPULT: Inclusion Africa to buy more tractors and increase agricultural productivity in Africa. "I think we can do wonderful things", he said.

During his pitch earlier in the evening, James had described Hello Tractor as "Uber for tractors": the company helps give African smallholder farmers access to tractors (and thus mechanisation) with the aim of improving agricultural productivity and profitability.

The jury found it difficult to choose just one second and one third prize winner and so opted instead to award three second prizes: Yalla with its prepaid card and "super" app (currently available in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates), ComGrow, a Zambian tech startup whose mission is to empower village banks by digitising their financial activities (via an app), and ChapChap, a Ugantan fintech offering a digital payments solution to centralise mobile money transactions. The winners will each receive an invitation to the African Microfinance Week (Semaine africaine de la microfinance - SAM). In addition, Nasir Zubairi confirmed that all twelve fintechs would receive one-year free LHoFT membership.

The winners announcement was followed by the LHoFT's Fintech Friday networking event.