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Rwanda is fast becoming a hub of technology innovation in Eastern and Central Africa, with the horror of the civil war in its rearview mirror. Nevertheless, it has gone ahead to earn the nicknames the ‘Singapore of Africa’ and the ‘Switzerland of Africa.‘
Known as Rwanda Vision 2050, the economic development strategy shares similar foundations as others in MEA, such as improving the standard of living for its citizens, digital
transformation, and a wider diverse and innovative economy.
Related: Top FinTech Companies In Cameroon
Under the umbrella of Rwanda FinTech, they are an association trying to unite the leading fintech companies in Rwanda and aims at becoming the face of the Fintech in Rwanda and to represent the shared values of its members who are regulators, investors, financial institutions, foreign associations, partners and other industry stakeholders. The association gathers experienced professionals from finance, investment, law, technology, professional and financial services.
According to BizCommunity, 90 percent of the East African population owned a mobile phone at the beginning of 2013, signifying an 87 percent increase since 1999.
Top Fintech companies in Rwanda
1. ADFinance
ADFinance, a leader of fintech in Rwanda, is an integrated information system that specializes in customer & loans management, savings, and accounting core module services.
ADFinance is an African ICT company created in 2007 with Head Quarters in Kigali, Rwanda. We provide a broad technical scope of solutions to microfinance institutions & support around 300 branches of SACCOs across over seven countries in Africa. In addition, they offer ITES/BPO to small MFIs to have access to our latest technology with fewer investments.
Their team has various competencies ranging from software engineering, banking, accounting, information systems, and microfinance practices. This allows ADFinance to provide holistic solutions to our clients in the microfinance and banking industry. Leader in Business Intelligence and Customer Relationship Management, and a major player in e-Business, they pride in leveraging a unique combination of technical, functional, and industry specialization, as well as partnerships with all of the key software vendors. This is done to deliver maximum value projects and help clients break through barriers to innovation such as Big Data, Digital Transformation & Cloud Computing.
2. Comza Africa
Comza Africa is an institution that believes Africa can play a leading role in mobile innovation despite the progress the continent still has to make in the field.
Comza is evolving the way people communicate. By creating innovative loyalty solutions for mobile networks in Africa, Asia, and other frontier markets.
As the only widespread electronic communication platform, mobile technology has revolutionized the way we communicate. Radically connecting and empowering customers like never before.
But the context comes with its challenges. Dynamics specific to many frontier market regions include; resource-poor settings, lack of retail access, insufficient infrastructure, and poor product design.
At the heart of Comza's innovative solutions is a vision to adapt mobile communication as a means of overcoming these barriers.
The aim is to provide a range of affordable, convenient, and secure services. Reaching more people in more regions and empowering them through communication, finance, internet, entertainment, education, agriculture, and health. Adding value through relevance in their day-to-day lives.
The success of the Airtime Credit Service (ACS) product has confidently established Comza as the biggest micro-lender in Africa. Advanced airtime accounts for over 20% of airtime distributed. ACS lives in 19 markets across 16 countries and still growing.
3. AC Group
AC Group Ltd is a Hi-tech & ICT company registered under the Rwandan registrar of companies.
AC is changing the game of fintech in Rwanda. In December 2015, AC Group became a leading provider of smart and interactive IT solutions in Rwanda and Africa. In partnership with the government of Rwanda and bus operators, Tap&Go was put in place to enhance the smart cities agenda in Rwanda and Africa. With the introduction of Tap&Go, Kigali has seen tremendous growth of a safer, clean and accountable public transport system hence attracting more African cities like Yaoundé in Cameroon.
The platform has also allowed for data collection, enabling bus companies to make data-driven decisions, inform government policies and pricing around public transport, and optimize fleets according to traffic.
The system has also enabled and aided contact tracing through our channels in city transport, intercity and will also be possible on the moto.
AC Group’s mission is to make public commuting more efficient, connected, and safer for passengers within their desired mode of transportation. To achieve this, it calls for innovation and continuous growth within the public transport sector and creating additional value for the customer.
For instance, Soon, passengers will be able to book a trip from Huye (as well as any other district in Rwanda), board a bus to Kigali paying with our Tap & Go app, get to Nyabugogo and get on a bus to a neighborhood in Kigali paying with their Tap&Go and board a moto with Tap&Go for their final mile. All booked at once and at the start of the journey.
AC Group is expected to invest Rwf3 billion into the new Tap&Go ride subsidiary and recently recruited the former Head of Operations Officer at Andela, Malik Shaffy, to run it.
4. DPO Group
DPO Group is a leading African payment service provider (PSP) that has developed the technology to enable businesses and individuals across the continent to make payments online and offline with all currencies and payment methods, including major cards, mobile money, etc. e-wallets. DPO Group currently works with over 100,000 merchants, including 50+ airlines, hotels, restaurants, and travel agents all over Africa. The company was founded in 2006, and since then, it has grown to be a pan-African PSP with more than 300 employees and a presence in 19 African countries.
DPO's mission is to bring African businesses the most advanced online and offline payment processing technologies while supporting growth and financial inclusion. The DPO Group payment processing solution allows merchants to accept payments online & offline, settle payments, receive cash advances and enjoy seamless payment processing.
In 2020, Network International, a Dubai-headquartered payments giant, acquired DPO Group in a $288 million deal. The acquisition will see DPO Group continue to operate under the same brand while being wholly owned by Network International. In addition, DPO Group’s executives will own stock in Network International as part of the transaction.
Related: Top FinTech Companies In Cameroon
5. BK Tech House
Founded in 2016, BK TecHouse is an Innovative Technology Company dedicated to delighting our customers, employees, and shareholders by providing high-quality Innovative Technology products and services that empower our customers to strive in a fast-changing market. BK TecHouse is the perfect partner in the digital age when Big no longer beats Small, and it is the Fast beating the Slow!
They launched a 3-year strategy (2021-2023) to scale up the platform towards a full-fledged Integrated Agriculture Platform with grant support from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
In 2020, the Gates foundation and BK TechHouse evaluated the digital agriculture landscape in Rwanda to expand the SNS ecosystem to serve the small-scale farmers better. As a roadmap for the new three years, the consultant team showed that the program is ripe and needs to be scaled up to reach more farmers and increase agriculture sector performance, contributing to 30% of the Gross Domestic Products.
For instance, the consultancy report showed a need for more investors in microdata systems linked to the government data in providing the agriculture insurance sector, which currently has the lowest number of investors compared to access to credit and data-driven access to credit decision making.
6. Exuus
Exuus is a part of FinTech in Rwanda. Exuus inspires resilience and enables communities to achieve their optimal satisfaction by positively impacting the future.
Formed in 2016, Exuus has built SAVE, a digital platform that financially empowers saving groups – known as Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) – sustainably via a collective and decentralized ledger.
They are a provider of a financial platform intended to enable communities to achieve their optimal satisfaction by positively impacting the future. The company's offerings include credit infrastructure for unbanked people and financially empowers savings groups sustainably through comprehensive, adequate, open, and user-friendly saving groups ledger handling, providing customers with credit solutions.
Exuus, one of the 10 startups selected to pitch at the Africa Startup Summit in Kigali back in February 2019, developed SAVE to make this process smoother and more efficient. Members of savings groups signed up to the service can make cashless transactions via USSD, debiting and crediting the group’s digital wallet from their individual wallets seamlessly.
It also allows village agents to go paperless, using the SAVE Collector platform to create saving groups, set them up, and add members on the go. On another level, NGOs and other practitioners can create a project, assign agents to specific areas of intervention, and receive real-time data from all their agents. SAVE, then, assists with all levels of management of these vital savings groups.
7. Irembo
Irembo is a Rwandan fintech company that helps organizations deliver online services and create world-class customer experiences. The company has a profound understanding of the local needs and capabilities of the community to access services. Irembo strives to keep the momentum in automating services, availing more solutions needed by people, and innovating as needed.
Irembo is an eGovernment platform that enables the access and provision of government services in Rwanda, built within a PPP framework. In less than 2 years since its launch (Service Go Live), today, Irembo hosts over 40 e-services deriving from 6 different government agencies with more than 90,000 users a month.
The services are available Online, On USSD, and through a network of support agents. With the awareness-building each day, Irembo has also set out to harness the existing ecosystem (Telcos, Infrastructure, Human resources, payment gateways, etc...) by increasing its number of payment channels, access points & field agents as well as its overall user rate. The service is designed to improve citizens' way of life by making government services easier, faster, and less costly to access. Irembo plans to increase the number of eServices accessible to citizens to over 100 services by the end of 2017 and increase our nationwide access points to get even closer to each citizen in the country. To re-engineer government services to compliment the paperless and cashless economy that our country is striving towards. Expand from product to platform, enabling an innovation ecosystem where Rwanda’s youth can play a big part in this country's digital transformation. The future is digital, and Irembo plans to continue its journey on this path.
8. MobiCash
MobiCash is a financial transaction platform (banking and payment). Around it, there are many opportunities to define and integrate value-added services (VAS) like agent banking, money-remittance, merchant payment, social grants, salary bulk payment, e-commerce, lottery, micro-insurance, e-tickets, airtime, tax collection, etc.
MobiCash is establishing a one-stop-shop network for citizens in partnership with RTN to facilitate payment of Irembo services, collect non-fiscal revenues, and pay health insurance scheme / mutuelle de santé. Partnership with Mobicash allows citizens to access several services and make payments in one place.
9. MVend
MVend is a financial technology solutions provider and software applications development company with a strong emphasis on e-commerce and e-payment solutions. They help growing startups and agile enterprises enhance their customer experience and realize new business outcomes at scale. With the easy-to-use APIs, Payment Aggregation, Merchant Aggregation, USSD, SMS, and expert support, you can abstract the complexity of communications, innovate faster and launch in minutes.
10. Benefactor Limited
BeneFactors Ltd. is a Rwandan factoring company providing tailored working capital solutions to firms. Factoring is a financial service where future payments from your buyers are sold to a third party, the factor for cash. They can work with pending invoices or purchase orders for delivery. This means that you can continue working even if your buyers take a long time to pay or take on more clients at the same time - allowing you peace of mind as you grow your business.
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