Fintech Innovation Challenge open for fintechs to apply
Women’s World Banking is running its 2023 Fintech Innovation Challenge, a global competition to highlight and promote solutions to close the gender gap through digital financial services.
Click on the image for more info and to apply for the Fintech Innovation Challenge
New York-based Women’s World Banking is a non-profit organization that provides strategic support, technical assistance and information to a network of 62 financial service providers in 35 countries that offer credit and other financial services to low-income entrepreneurs in developing countries, with a particular focus on women. In total, the network serves more than 138 million female clients.
Now in its fourth year, “the only women-centric competition for fintechs,” according to organizers, will provide a platform for later-stage fintechs working to address the challenges of serving the low-income female market.
According to the latest Global Findex report, there are still 742 million women worldwide who are excluded from the formal financial sector.
Women’s World Banking believes low-income women represent “a huge, untapped market opportunity” for providers of digital financial services.
“Fintechs are uniquely positioned to help close the digital financial services gap because they have the ability to offer products and services differently and can effectively meet the needs of low-income women in ways that traditional financial service providers cannot or will not, ” comments Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO of Women’s World Banking.
Applications for the Fintech Innovation Challenge are open until 15 September 2022. Entry categories include, but are not limited to:
- Send and receive money
- Credit for women-led micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs)
- Safety net products (insurance, savings and pension)
- Beyond money (financial and digital capabilities and other business support services)
The top four finalists will participate in an in-person pitch competition next February in Dubai, and be tracked for participation in the Women’s Economic Empowerment Accelerator, run by the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University.
They will also receive pitch advice and a UX design consultation.
The Grand Prize winner will receive access to fintech events such as Point Zero, Elevandi Connects and the Singapore Fintech Festival, as well as a speaker invitation at a Women’s World Banking Making Finance Work for Women event.
All female fintechs that make it to the top 12 in the competition will be selected for the first ever Female Founders Circle network. These will be announced on 26 October, with the top four finalists announced on 9 January 2023.
The Grand Prize winner of the Fintech Innovation Challenge will be announced in Dubai on 16 February 2023 after the pitch competition.
The Fintech Innovation Challenge is sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (lead sponsor) and Ernst & Young LLP (EY US and Advancing Sponsor). Women’s World Banking’s core funders are Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and the Visa Foundation.
