What is the name of your solution?
Fingo
Provide a one-line summary of your solution.
Fingo is an inclusive neobank for Africa's 500m youth
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
There are hundreds of millions of youth excluded from the global financial system in Africa.
Specifically, banking for young Africans is painful and broken:
2-7 days to open an account
Sending money is expensive: average 9.6% transaction fees across East Africa
Bank apps are clunky, with low uptake
Existing Digital banking is predominantly USSD/text based
What is your solution?
A Pan African Neobank designed for young Africans, by young Africans:
In 240 seconds, any young person will be able to access a full suite of financial services including personal, business, investment and savings accounts
With Fingo, transaction fees are 90% cheaper
Intuitive mobile application designed around social interaction, with the ability to set user names, send GIFs and request money
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Fingo serves African youth. Providing them with the opportunity to generate wealth for the first time.
By 2050, a quarter of the world’s people will be African and half of the world’s youth will be in Africa.
Today, Africa, has the youngest population in the world, with 70% of sub-Saharan Africa under the age of 30.
Young African families earn around $3000 USD per year and pay up to 10% of this in fees. They are enrolled in a mix of formal and informal employment, and they are inherently entrepreneurial. Fingo will immediately reduces income lost on transaction fees and provides a safe heaven to store income for young people, backed by the largest footprint bank in Africa. We provide financial education encouraging young people to save and invest, ensuring they have money for a rainy day tomorrow and they build their wealth over their lifetime.
How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
Fingo is built by young Africans for young Africans. Our team of 15 engineers, designers and creatives are based in Nairobi with our target users.
We spent 2 years piloting our application with 1000 customers in Beta, pending regulation from the central bank of Kenya. As such, we hyper understand the core needs of our target population - young professionals, students and first time account openers in Kenya.
We meet our users in person every week and get instant feedback over our application.
Finally, after launching in May with the President Ruto of Kenya we have scaled to 20,000 users already and we are carefully collecting their feedback in an open and collaborative way.
We live in and we are the community we serve.
Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
Make it easier and more affordable for individuals and MSMEs to make investments and transfer payments, across geographies and across different types of platforms
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Nairobi
What is your solution’s stage of development?
Growth: An organization with an established product, service, or business model that is rolled out in one or more communities
How many people does your solution currently serve?
20,000 with a waitlist of 100,000
Why are you applying to Solve?
We hope solve will help us refine our theory of change as we scale across the African continent
In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
Who is the Team Lead for your solution?
James da Costa
What makes your solution innovative?
We are the first digital only bank in Kenya, we offer 5 minute onboarding and we have partnered with Ecobank to scale across 35 countries in Africa.
What are your impact goals for the next year and the next five years, and how will you achieve them?
Open bank accounts for 5m young people and generate wealth for them.
Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?
How are you measuring your progress toward your impact goals?
- Accounts opened
- Transaction volume
- Savings from cheaper fees
- Wealth generated (savings interest and investments)
What is your theory of change?
By providing young people with affordable banking services and value-add financial products they will be able to generate wealth and find meaningful wealth over their life times, tackling generational inequality.
Describe the core technology that powers your solution.
- Core banking
- Fingo Atlas api architecture
- Best-in-class mobile android and ios application
- AI powered KYC and transaction monitoring
Which of the following categories best describes your solution?
A new business model or process that relies on technology to be successful
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
If your solution has a website or an app, provide the links here:
https://fingo.africa/
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
How many people work on your solution team?
15
How long have you been working on your solution?
2.t years
What is your approach to incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusivity into your work?
D&I is embedded in everything we do. We are a team that is 90% Black and African, with women in the most senior roles in our company
What is your business model?
Fingo makes money from transaction fees - we make $1 USD per month on an average user transacting $250 USD per month. Fees on the Fingo app are 90% cheaper than mobile money and banking alternatives - users can also send money peer to peer for free.
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, to other organizations, or to the government?
Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)What is your plan for becoming financially sustainable?
Over time we plan to scale our ARPU by adding additional value add financial products including interest earning savings, investments and remittance.
Solution Team
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Our Organization
Fingo Africa