AIfluence, Africa’s first AI-driven influencer marketing platform, has emerged as the winner of the Visa Everywhere Initiative VEI Kenya Edition 2023. The startup beat four other finalists to clinch the top prize of $20K and an opportunity to work with Visa on future projects.
The VEI is an open innovation competition that invites solutions from startups to address future payment and commerce challenges. The competition is being hosted in partnership with LOOP, a digital media platform that connects entrepreneurs and innovators across Africa.
The five finalists for the VEI Kenya edition were AIfluence, Ndovu, Africa Blockchain Center, Paylend, and Leja. These startups were selected from over 100 applications across various sectors such as fintech, e-commerce, agritech, healthtech and edtech.
On July 6th, 2023, the finalists took the stage to pitch their solutions to a panel of judges and a live audience. The event was live-streamed on YouTube. AIfluence impressed the judges with their pitch and solution that offers an end-to-end solution to augment and scale marketing strategies. The startup connects brands with relevant influencers across Africa, Asia, and Europe. AIfluence says it processes $10K transactions to influencers weekly and has worked with over 50 brands such as Visa, Samsung, Unilever, and Coca-Cola.
The CEO of AIfluence, Nelson Aseka, said that AIfluence is disrupting the traditional marketing model by using AI to match brands with the best influencers for their campaigns. He also said that AIfluence provides real-time data and insights on the performance and impact of influencer marketing campaigns. AIfluence will also represent Kenya at the VEI regional finals later this year, where they will compete with other winners from different countries in Africa.
The people’s choice of the VEI Kenya edition was Ndovu, a wealth management platform for the African market that enables users to invest in diversified portfolios of local and global assets. The startup won $10K as an audience favorite, as voted by the viewers of the live stream. The CEO of Ndovu, Radhika Bhachu, said that Ndovu aims to improve financial inclusion and literacy in Africa by providing easy access to financial markets. She also mentioned that Ndovu has partnered with Kyosk, a digital platform that connects SMEs to customers and suppliers, to onboard over 200 SMEs on the platform. Ndovu says it has so far processed $6.1M transactions and has 35,000 user accounts. Ndovu is licensed in Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Rwanda.
The other finalists were Africa Blockchain Center, a leading company focused on capacity building in the blockchain technology sector; Paylend, a fintech startup that specializes in digitizing micro and small businesses across Africa; and Leja, the ultimate finance management app for MSMEs. All these startups showcased their innovation and impact in solving real problems for real people in Africa. They are truly inspiring examples of how technology can transform lives and businesses.
Congratulations to AIfluence for their well-deserved win and to all the finalists for their hard work and passion. You are all winners in my eyes.
Read: The winner of Visa Everywhere Initiative (VEI) 2023 Kenya edition to be announced on July 6th 2023
