Nigerian fintech startup
Advancio Interactive saw off competition from over 100 other ventures to emerge winner at this year’s edition of
Startup Istanbul, which took place in the Turkish city of Istanbul over the weekend.
Startup Istanbul is styled by its organizers, Etohum (a startup accelerator and investor), as the premier startup event catering to exciting new tech-driven ventures from Europe, Asia and Africa. Startups pitching at the event this year were drawn from these three continents, as well as the United States. This annual showcase of modern enterprise from the ‘old world’ (Africa and Eurasia) provides a platform for budding techpreneurs to connect with established tech companies, investors and world class mentors from across the globe, including from Silicon Valley. The event’s supporters enthusiastically tout it as an intercontinental meetup; they say that this assertion is backed up by Istanbul’s geographical status as a cosmopolitan bridge linking the East (Asia) and West (Europe).
Advancio Interactive is ploughing through Nigeria’s increasingly competitive fintech space at steady pace. Founded in July 2016, it has the stated aim of creating and deploying software that improves the delivery of financial services and the automation of business processes in the country. Its founders say that they have “built the best Branchless/Agency banking solution in Nigeria”- referring to their flagship product, the Covr Branchless suite. This software service is currently being used by three financial institutions in Nigeria; agents working on the field (outside physical bank branches) on behalf of banks utilize it to automate such financial operations as opening bank accounts, cash withdrawals, agent based deposits, fund transfers and bill payments.
Startup Istanbul lasted four days, and incorporated mentorships, workshops, a demo day and meetups. It ended on Monday, after the announcement of this year’s top three startups. Following first placed Advancio were Momy Helper, a Palestinian maternal assistant app startup based in Gaza (first runner up), and Homade, an Indonesian home made food ordering platform. Another Nigerian startup, edu-tech innovator
FlexiSAF, made it into the top 15. Winning ventures will receive financial support and mentorship from investors (which in previous years included some big hitters- YCombinator, 500 Startups, Microsoft and Naspers).
Nigerian startups are capturing the world’s attention
The overall performance of Nigerian startups at international pitch contests has been impressive. Earlier this year,
we reported that Nigeria’s
Printivo was among 44 startups selected from various countries by Silicon Valley venture capital firm 500 Startups to receive funding and undergo an incubation program. In August, three more startups from Nigeria were admitted into 500 Startup’s accelerator program (Nigeria was the only African country represented in this batch, which included startups from 14 other countries as well). Social enterprise startup
RecyclePoints also won big this year, placing finishing second at the Chivas Venture competition held in Los Angeles in July, and racking up $200,000 in prize money.
Advancio’s triumph at Istanbul is just the latest instalment in a series of Nigerian victories on the world stage. And it’s certainly not going to be the last one.
