Bidhaa 🧠🚀

If traditional insurance models have largely focused on large companies and high-net-worth individuals, ever wondered who caters to the uninsured workers across Africa? Eden Care Medical (YC S23) is on a mission to transform access to affordable, quality health insurance for the 90 million uninsured African employees. The challenges: - African insurance costs are 2.2x the global average, resulting in expensive insurance. - Health insurance penetration in Africa is a mere 0.2%, 15x lower than emerging market peers. - Traditional insurance models have largely focused on large companies and high-net-worth individuals, leaving the majority of Africans underserved. The Opportunity: - With 22 Africans expected to transition to middle-income status by 2030, health insurance spending is projected to grow sevenfold. - SMEs are formalizing at a rapid rate, presenting the largest insurance opportunity in Africa. - The digitization of healthcare facilities and end-users is enabling the deployment of end-to-end digital health infrastructure. By 2030, 310 million Africans will be middle class, with Eden Care poised to become the default insurer for this digitally native demographic. Moses Mukundi and the team designed Eden : - As a full-stack licensed health insurer leveraging innovative technology to reduce operational costs by 43%. - A digital infrastructure that automates the entire value chain, from HR and admin teams to employees and healthcare facilities. - A portal through which HR teams can effortlessly manage health benefits, while employees and dependents access healthcare, wellness programs, and rewards via our user-friendly app. - Service provides benefits from an end-to-end digital tool, eliminating manual processes and saving time and money. Join us on this exciting journey as we redefine health insurance for African employers. Together, let's ensure access to affordable, quality healthcare for all. 🚀 #EdenCare #HealthInsurance #AfricanEmployers #DigitalHealth #Insurtech

Here's how ChowCentral (YC S23) is redefining dining for Millennials and Gen Z in African cities. Think of it as the Chipotle for African cuisine! 🌯🍲 With over 50 million underserved Millennials and Gen Z in African cities craving convenient meal options, Chow Central sees a massive opportunity. By serving just 5 million of them monthly with an average spend of $8, Chow Central is eyeing a staggering $5 billion market opportunity. Born out of a post-graduation experiment, Chow Central started as a virtual restaurant page on Twitter during the Covid lockdown. The mission? To provide affordable meals while supporting underutilized restaurants. Fast forward 18 months, and Chow Central is now thriving in just one region, boasting over $80,000 in monthly revenue. The secret sauce? Chow Central has revamped its approach, operating a central kitchen to ensure top-notch quality and consistency. Partnering with carefully vetted underutilized commercial kitchens as fulfilment centers, Chow Central can deliver faster and cheaper meals to customers' doorsteps. ChowCentral (YC S23) boasts two distinct restaurant brands, each catering to diverse tastes: - 500chow: Immerse yourself in the rich flavours of local African delicacies, meticulously crafted with care and quality. - Healthy Grill: Indulge in the delectable offerings of our healthy grill, featuring shawarma, barbecue, and other mouthwatering options guaranteed to excite your taste buds. Behind Chow Central's success are the brilliant minds: Christopher Obasi and Adeyemi Onafuye: Visionaries with a track record of building industry-leading products at Moniepoint Nigeria. Tosin Onafuye: A seasoned professional who honed his skills at Vendease Africa, specializing in restaurant supply chain management. Are you ready to embark on Chow Central's culinary journey? Join us as we redefine dining for Millennials and Gen Z in African cities together! 🚀 #ChowCentral #AfricanCuisine #Millennials #GenZ #FoodTech #RestaurantRevolution #UrbanDining #HealthyEating #FoodDelivery #Entrepreneurship

There’s a race to resolve card issuance in the $134.4 Billion market in Africa. But why is that? 6-12 months, the average time to build a card integration system within a bank 🏦 in Nigeria. 🔹 The Challenge: The core problem is the slow speed of card issuance in Nigerian financial institutions. This delay not only hampers operational efficiency but also impedes businesses from accessing essential financial tools promptly. Issuing these cards can be complex and time-consuming because fintechs do not have the size and resources to join major card schemes like Mastercard, Visa, and Verve directly. Alternatively partnering with banks 🏦 leave the wait for months. Miden (YC W24) recently backed by Y Combinator, has sped up the process from months to weeks. 🔹Why It Matters: The speed and efficiency of financial transactions are crucial for businesses to thrive in today's competitive landscape. By streamlining the card issuance process, Miden empowers enterprises to access financial products swiftly, enabling them to make timely decisions and operate more effectively. Designed by Okiemute D A. and Ini-obong Udoh in 2022, running in stealth. 🔹 How They Solve the Problems: Miden functions as a debit card issuing platform tailored for businesses in Africa. With Miden, businesses can issue virtual cards in USD and Naira through customizable and easy-to-use API—a drag-and-drop interface—and pre-built integrations with flexible customization options. Their innovative approach allows enterprise customers to issue cards and other financial products seamlessly. Currently, Miden serves over 96,000 cards for its enterprise clients across 4 countries, processing a monthly total exceeding $2.5 million in its first year. Miden is expanding its scope beyond virtual cards to become a comprehensive core banking provider, offering a wide range of financial services. Miden's commitment to enhancing the speed and accessibility of financial activities in Africa positions them as a key player in revolutionizing the region's financial landscape. #ProductX #StartupProblems #cards

Ever struggled with the experience of finding scattered information across multiple SaaS tools both at workplace and during deep engineering hours? Michael Moyo and Louis Murerwa felt this and designed a solution out of this experience. 👨💼 Michael Moyo - CEO & Co-Founder 🎓 2 Engineering Degrees from Dartmouth College Zambian 🇿🇲 👨💻 Former Software Engineer at Microsoft 🚀 Serial Entrepreneur with 3 Previous Startups 👨💻 Louis Murerwa 🎓 Computer Science Graduate from Dartmouth College 👨💼 Former Software Engineer at Google NYC Zimbabwean 🇿🇼 Imagine a platform where you can seamlessly search, visualize, and execute critical cross-tool actions all in one place. Now stop imagining. They brought it to reality with Ocular AI (YC W24) AI. 🔹 Core Problem: They’re tackling the challenge of information overload and tool fragmentation faced by employees and engineers in today's fast-paced work environments. A firsthand experience they had working at Microsoft and Google. 🔹 Why It Matters: As companies expand, the struggle to find essential information and manage complex engineering tools intensifies, hindering productivity and efficiency. 🔹 Inspiration: Insights from interviews with industry leaders like Appian, Uber, Pinecone, Brex, Microsoft, and Google fueled their drive to simplify workflows and enhance collaboration. Join Ocular AI (YC W24) AI on its transformative journey as they redefine how organizations access information, streamline operations, and empower teams to thrive in the digital age. 🚀 #OcularAI #Innovation #WorkflowManagement #techrevolution

Join the Bidhaa Bandwagon for your next product brainstorming journey, no matter your location.

Babyl Rwanda 🇷🇼 is the largest digital health provider in Rwanda, optimising access, affordability, convenience and the adoption of telemedicine via digital health services across rural communities. Between 2000-2013, there’d been a significant lack of healthcare workers (625 doctors to almost 11 million people in public hospitals 🏥). The Rwandan government had supported the setup of community-based healthcare workers, insurance schemes (Mutuelle de Sante), the implementation of a national system of electronic medical records and the use of SMS to share reports among rural health workers, thus setting the stage for digital health. Babyl Rwanda was launched in 2016 in partnership with the Rwandan Government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Gates Foundation to solve the issue of access, affordability and convenience. Babyl Rwanda, owned as a subsidiary of BABYLON HEALTHCARE SERVICES LIMITED (UK based digital health firm), ran triage medical consultations and shared lab results over USSD with GPs and nurses, connecting to pharmacies nationwide for filled prescriptions, various Health insurance schemes (both private and the National scheme inclusive), and referring patients across partner health facilities. By 2023, Babyl had impacted: - Health Access: Provided over 3.5 Million tele-consultations to Rwandans making health accessible in remote regions with over 300 jobs created - Affordability 💵 : Babyl’s teleconsultation costs less than half of the costs of a traditional consultation at a clinic/hospital - Convenience: Rwandans could access a worker over the phone from anywhere in the country with 2.5 Million registered on the service Babyl Rwanda has played in the digital health field along side the likes of Zipline, mPharma and more. Its exiting of operations as announced in August 2023, sends multiple signals as a pioneer in Rwanda’s digital health space. One major signal as selected by Bidhaa: Inclusion can always be improved via technology in Healthcare as much as it has been adopted in Finance across the continent. Frugal innovation is the key. Follow Bidhaa 🧠🚀 for more updates.

70% of the world’s total French-speaking population is located in Africa and as of 2023, 485.7 Million made up the 21 Francophone countries on the continent, where > 25% of adults are unbanked. Here's our Product #4 on the #30daychallenge at Bidhaa 🧠🚀. In Ivory Coast 🇨🇮, one of the major challenges has been the complexity of its traditional banking services, its accessibility and restrictions on financial inclusion. Régis Bamba and Hassan Bourgi took up the challenge. They designed a financial super app, Djamo within the Ivorian market, with expansion plans beyond its borders in the West African region and other French-speaking African countries in the future. They have designed the super app to include: - Visa-powered debit card: Djamo offers a Visa-powered debit card that allows users to make online purchases on platforms like Amazon, Alibaba, and Netflix. - Interoperability between banks and mobile money: The app enables users to send money between bank accounts and mobile wallets, bridging the gap between traditional banking and mobile money services. - Salary accounts: Djamo provides salary accounts, allowing companies to pay salaries to employees with a Djamo account. - Automated spending categorization: Users can track their spending and receive insights about their budgeting. - Automated saving product: Djamo offers an automated saving product that guides customers' financial objectives. - Premium plans: DJAMO has a free option and two premium options with varying services: $2/month and $3.5/month, which are 80% cheaper than other bank accounts offered by financial institutions - In-house delivery app: DJAMO built a delivery app with in-house delivery agents to ensure timely delivery of their Visa cards Djamo from its founding in 2020, has grown to over 750,000 accounts in Ivory Coast by 2023, processing over $400 Million in transactions just two years from its inception. Funds raised: $15 Million  Accelerator: Ycombinator (W21) DJamo’s business model relies on interchange, floating, payout and subscription fees, taking into account their volume of paying subscribers. DJamo’s goal is focused on becoming the one-stop personal finance partner for consumers in Francophone Africa, catering to the underbanked and unbanked population. #ivorycoast #personalfinance #superapps #francophone

Moneco (YC S22) as a neobank 🏦 supports the African diaspora in Europe, particularly those settling in France. Moneco solve problems for Africans by providing accessible and affordable banking services, starting with a current account, a payment card, and free remittances. The founders, Bilal Dahlab and Jimmy KUMAKO, have a multicultural background and experience in finance, consulting, and technology, which they leverage to create a banking product tailored to the needs of the African diaspora. Funds Raised: $3.3 Million Accelerator: YCombinator (S22) Target Users: African Diaspora Year Founded: 2022 Moneco (YC S22) addresses several challenges faced by African migrants in Europe, such as: - Ease of account opening: Moneco allows users to open an account in a few minutes using only a passport, and it provides a French IBAN. - Simplified migration procedures: Moneco guides users through the process of settling in France, helping with administrative procedures like Campus France, visa applications, and proof of resources. - Affordable and secure financial services: Moneco offers competitive rates for transfers and uses cutting-edge technologies for biometric identity verification, end-to-end encryption, and account protection to ensure data security and guard against fraud. Moneco's long-term vision is to become a one-stop-shop for all financial needs of the African diaspora, not only in Europe but also in Africa, where they see even bigger challenges. The startup is in the process of registering with the ACPR as a payment service agent for Xpollens, an electronic money institution, which will enable Moneco to offer regulated and secure financial services. Moneco makes money by via transaction fees for remittances and other banking services. The acquisition of Moneex by Gozem - Africa's Super App, a Beninese FinTech startup, indicates the possibility of Moneco's services being expanded to other African countries, potentially increasing its revenue streams.

Finance platforms built by problem-solvers have aided in powering everyday USD debit 💳 transactions in Africa. But they haven't been an easy bite. Until June 2022, one of the largest Debit card issuing API platforms based in Zambia 🇿🇲, Union54 (YC S21), ran the market. Perseus Mlambo and Alessandra Martini while running a challenger bank 🏦, faced significant delays with debit card issuing and settlement of card transactions which other finance platforms struggled with. They got a Mastercard principal membership. With a Banking issuing Number (BIN) sponsorship from a large card scheme such as Mastercard, they could issue cards and as an acquirer, process payments while running card management services. In 2020, Union54 (YC S21) was designed to support Africa-based fintechs in issuing virtual and physical debit cards via their APIs, saving fintechs on setup and compound running costs. Plugged to Union54, a FinTech could design cards with selected currencies to be charged on while setting up extensive target users, use cases, time frames and processes. Its revenue model was a PAYGO model on API calls, a Flat fee on Card requests and transactions. Accelerator: Ycombinator (Summer 2021) Funds (seed): $15.1 Million Challenges: Fraudulent Chargeback of over $1.2 Billion by cardholders and unauthorised card usage. Union54 paused its card issuance services in 2022. Chargeback as a payment dispute is a double-edged sword designed to shield against fraudulent practices in business, protecting merchants and cardholders. Inevitable occurrence in digital economies. Union54 launched ChitChat in 2023, in partnership with Mastercard. ChitChat 💬 💰 💳 will serve the market as a Mobile payments and social commerce platform with encrypted messaging, enabling users to make payments with USD debit card access and purchases from storefronts within the app, a Super App 👌🏾. First Beta Markets: Ghana 🇬🇭, Tanzania 🇹🇿, Angola 🇦🇴. Designed on the premise that mobile payments and chat platforms can be a reckoning force in accelerating trade across the continent. This time users are getting USD 💳 on the app's terms. Pivots are common. One feature we will highlight across the Bidhaa App as we brainstorm. Excited about Union54 (YC S21)’s ChitChat 💬 💰 💳 ? repost ♻ and follow Bidhaa 🧠🚀 for more updates and early access, as we launch Africa's most loved brainstorming tool 🙂 for entrepreneurs.

Ever spent months figuring out how to withdraw cash directly to your bank account among several bank accounts you own? Here’s our Product1 #30dayschallenge based in South Africa 🇿🇦: Stitch Imagine Plaid in the US 🇺🇸, TrueLayer in the UK 🇬🇧 and more. In 2019, Kiaan Pillay, Junaid Dadan and Priyen Pillay designed an API-led financial services platform, called Stitch MONEY. They had spent 8 months trying to connect their Finance wallet to banks just to enable their platform users to directly withdraw cash. It showed them how the lack of infrastructure in fintech slows down progress. As a financial data aggregator and payment API integrator, Stitch powers the data transfer networks of fintechs and digital finance segments of businesses, enabling smooth compliance 📋and user identity 🆔 verification. Funds raised: $52 Million. Stitch enables Payment service providers (PSPs) in South Africa to bypass the technology infrastructure barrier faced while attempting to integrate APIs of multiple banking systems into their software. Acting as a data 🗃️ custodian, Stitch retrieves data from users’ banks 🏦 on a need-to-know basis. Operating on a B2B model with revenue models (PAYGO, Enterprise Custom Charge), Stitch plays in a FinTech API market across several players like Okra, OnePipe, Mono and more. Excited about Stitch 💵, repost ♻ and follow Bidhaa 🧠🚀 for more updates and early access, as we launch Africa's most loved brainstorming tool 🙂 for entrepreneurs.