September Newsletter: The Mauritius FinTech ecosystem mapping has begun.

The Mauritius FinTech ecosystem mapping has begun.

The 2019 halfway mark has come and gone, and we have seen a lot of developments for MAFH and African FinTech. This includes the recent, first-ever Mauritius FinTech ecosystem mapping event ⁠— made possible by our members and the Mauritius FinTech community.

While there is a lot to celebrate (like MAFH’s 1st anniversary), FinTech marches on and so do we. Here’s to the next few months of continued innovation, community building, and shared success.

Continue reading to find out more about these new developments, past events, upcoming events and some of our newest members.

A Word from the CEO

Dear fellow fin-atics,

"Since the beginning of recorded history, the power of the crowd has had the ability to influence the outcomes of many key situations."

In July, we saw this type of crowd gather in Mauritius to discuss yet another FinTech innovation with the power for good — crowdfunding. The ability for small businesses and good projects to raise funds through pooling our collective capital, has allowed us to get personally involved on a human level once again. We had the honour of partnering with organisations such as the African Crowdfunding Association, Fundkiss and Olive Crowd, proving once again, that together, we can achieve so much more. A big thank you to all of our partners for their dedication and shared success!

Some other crowd gathering events during that month were the World Blockchain Summit, Interactive Session on the Development of Start-ups & FinTech, and many others! I encourage everyone to attend these opportunities and let your uniqueness stand out in the crowd.

In August, we saw MAFH breaking barriers once again (and not only physical ones!). We have been looking for a new place to call home over the past few months and have found the ideal location. We will share more with everyone, but needless to say, a FinTech-focussed hub with its own event space, desks and hot desks aligns with our vision of bringing everyone together, for sharing and learning to happen.

On the ecosystem mapping project that kicked off, there is no prouder moment than when we had nearly 40 different stakeholders attending the first workshop on the 15th of August. Seeing such a diverse group, from corporates, start-ups, academics, "competitors", and others working together for the benefit of the community and country, was inspirational. A big thank you to the team and everyone involved and we look forward to many more of these in the near future.

Date: 15.08.2019

Venue: PwC, Moka

August marked the start of an important project for the Mauritius Africa FinTech Hub and the FinTech organisations based in Mauritius! Together with partners PwC Mauritius, MAFH is undertaking to map the local FinTech ecosystem, with the purpose of improving cohesion and collaboration between key stakeholders.

These maps and infographics will include the FinTech start-ups based in or registered in Mauritius, as well as stakeholders actively involved in supporting and funding FinTechs. The aim is to develop these maps in order to better understand and support FinTech business needs and to help grow the industry together.

A huge THANK YOU to workshop facilitator Alexandra Fraser and everyone who participated in the stakeholder workshop. It was an incredible turn-out of stakeholders across the ecosystem and MAFH really appreciated the fantastic contributions and valuable insights! A special thank you to the PwC team, Diya Guttoo & Vasseenee Maunthrooa-Moonien, for supporting the event and Jean-Pierre Young, Advisory Leader, PwC Mauritius for welcoming all the participants.

Keep an eye on your inbox and social media for updates and for the FinTech Startup survey, the 2nd component of the project, which has been launched.

Should you wish to contribute to the ecosystem mapping please click here and fill out the form. It will take no longer than 10 minutes of your time.

Date: 22.07.2019

Venue: Hennessy Park Hotel, Ebene

MAFH together with Fundkiss, Olive Crowd and The Africa Crowdfunding Association hosted its first-ever, and highly successful, crowdfunding event — The African Crowdfunding Platform Event. The event saw our members and partners address 93 attendees including entrepreneurs, students and regulators.

Crowdfunding is changing the landscape of financing and lending for SMEs and entrepreneurs and has led to regulators implementing FinTech sandbox licenses in countries like France, Kenya and right here in Mauritius.

Panelists Paul Perrier (Fundkiss) and Anne-Marie Chidzero (FSD Africa) discussed the four key pillars that crowdfunding platforms need to be successful: Community, Technology, Team, and Transparency. The event concluded with the regulatory panel emphasizing the importance of this form of financing and how it will drive the landscape of financial services into the future, particularly Africa. Crowdfunding will play a large role in supporting African entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship itself. This means we will see "Africans funding Africans!".

Hustlemania event by DXTeam

MAFH attended (and bid at) the launch of #hustlemania - a new reality show using an auction format to demonstrate digital wallets in action! Hustlemania is an amazing initiative by MAFH members Ducorp XTM that uses experiential learning to showcase how to use digital tokens. This is the perfect platform to see blockchain in action in a practical and fun way.

We even bought our new mascot, Finny, with digital tokens at the launch! (see image on the right)

MAFH has a busy few months ahead, building and participating in the ecosystem. Some events to look forward to are:

EDB delegation visit to Singapore
Nigeria FinTech week in October (speaker slot)
Africom in Cape Town (speaker slot)
Singapore FinTech week in November

These international events and visits are important opportunities to showcase Mauritius as a FinTech Hub, learn about the trends, growth and challenges in FinTech on an international scale while helping to facilitate global connections between our members and FinTech players abroad.

Our one year anniversary is also coming up! Watch this space.

Each month MAFH helps to grow the FinTech ecosystem by onboarding new startup and corporate members who are doing amazing work in the FinTech space and those who are just starting their FinTech journey.

As an organisation, we are particularly proud of the members we already have - all leaders, visionaries and experts at the forefront of driving the FinTech agenda and innovation in Africa and the Mauritian FinTech ecosystem.

August saw the launch of our new weekly post – MEMBER MONDAY – showcasing all our members. Keep an eye on our LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram accounts to stay up to date with our members, their accomplishments and revolutionary solutions.

To date MAFH has 36 Members:

Corporates: 6
Startups: 30

This month we featured the first 3 members to sign up:

DéMars
Imagine you could move your money like you send an email. How much easier would this make your life? Our first-ever member, DéMars, is providing solutions that do just this across Africa and beyond.

The immediate goal for DéMars is to create a global, decentralised Stellar network for individuals and businesses by providing fast, safe and easy-to-use digital asset wallets, API’s and treasury solutions. Find out more about what DéMars founder has to say about FinTech here.

Website: https://www.demars.io/

Horizon Africa
Are you interested in starting your blockchain journey or simply learning more about this exciting, limitless technology? Horizon Africa specialises in the development and deployment of blockchain-based solutions and often hosts events focused on education and capacity building.

Whether you are interested in game development, improving security in the government sector or tokenizing the African economy, Horizon Africa has a solution for you. Keep an eye out for the soon-to-be-launched Horizon Africa Blockchain Network.

Website: https://lnkd.in/dQevwv9