The growth in technological innovation and the easy availability of cheap internet has made it possible for Fintech to grow at a breakneck pace over the past few years. The Fintech industry has become one of the biggest disruptors in the financial sector over the past half a decade and it is expected to continue to do so. While it is true that the United States, United Kingdom, and China are the leading lights when it comes to the Fintech sector, many other countries have got into it in a big way as well. One of the countries that have made big progress in this regard is South Africa, and within a short span of time, a healthy Fintech ecosystem has grown in the country.
However, the continued growth of the sector depends heavily on investment, and hence, the news of AlphaCode investing in three separate startups is such an important piece of news. AlphaCode is the incubation and investment arm of Rand Merchant Investment Holdings, and in a new development, the company has decided to invest a combined $1.5 million in three separate Fintech startups in South Africa. The companies in question are Zande Africa, which is a platform meant for merchant finance, while the others are Bright On Capital, a peer to peer lending firm and Livestock Wealth, an agricultural investment startup. AlphaCode invested $655,000 each on Bright On Capital and Zande Africa, while Livestock Wealth got an injection of $131, 000.
These are significant investments in a space which are all set to grow but are yet to truly explode in South Africa. That being said, these three startups in question have recorded highly impressive growth. The head of AlphaCode, Dominique Collett stated that such investments are necessary in order to make them grow. She said,
Businesses like these don’t always get the funding they require to grow from commercial funders but as part of our commitment to partner and grow financial services startups, we’ve leveraged our supplier development spending to support them.
These are highly important developments for the tech as well as the Fintech industries in South Africa and it should encourage other innovators to start working on their own products. As long as the investment is available it is certain that innovators are going to keep working at the next big thing.
