Melanin Kapital

🔔 Meet Our mentor Mélanie Keïta, in the Weconnect mentorship program a FREE initiative by Womenpreneur-Initiative in collaboration with SANAD’s Entrepreneurship Academy. This program is designed to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange between advanced-stage founders from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and early-stage female founders from the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region. Mélanie Keïta, named by Forbes in the 2021's 30 under 30 list, is a French-Senegalese impact investment professional and the CEO and co-founder of Melanin Kapital, a fintech platform facilitating capital access and management for businesses in Africa. Recognized for her work, she aims to revolutionize financial services in Africa through transparency and trust, providing affordable financial solutions. With an extensive background in impact investment and finance, she leverages her expertise to drive economic development in Africa. Melanie is also passionate about education, teaching in various institutions and sharing her knowledge on impact investing and finance. What’s in it for you? ✅ Personalized 1-on-1 Mentorship (2 hours per month) from September to December 2024, covering key areas like fundraising strategies, scaling your business, and fostering a culture of innovation. ✅ Group Session: Engage with mentors and the 2024 cohort of mentees in a collaborative group setting. ✅ Visibility: Boost your visibility through the Womenpreneur network. ✅ Receive invaluable guidance from experienced mentors who’ve built thriving tech startups in SSA. 📅 Deadline to apply: August 31st! Don’t miss out on this experience. 👉 Apply now: https://bit.ly/46qaQ9u 💰 Free of charge #Womenpreneur #SANADEntrepreneurshipAcademy #WeConnect #FemaleFounders #MENAEntrepreneurs #Agritech #Fintech

🌐 Grateful for the visit of the G7 representative to meet the entrepreneurs of the Melanin Kapital app.   For the past 2 years we have been working with the AFAWA program from the African Development Bank Group and the African Guarantee Fund to support banks to digitize their lend and financial literacy support to SMEs in Africa.   We were honoured by the representative of Germany, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Canada and Italy who came to our offices to see how the Melanin Kapital app operates and who are the SMEs that are accessing #credit and financial literacy services through our digital platform.   We still have a long work ahead of us. According to WEF, we estimate that 1 out of 2 loan application from SMEs are rejected by traditional banks, with our team we realized that this high statistics was mostly due to:   📝 Lack of formalization: most of our local businesses are lacking the proper legal structure and business permits that banks require to be authorized to make a loan. 🏦 Absence of tax compliance: paying taxes for businesses is scary but not being registered properly at the tax office, directly disqualifies them for accessing bank loans. 💳 Lack or negative credit history: most of the businesses we have dealt with so far had a credit history, but even if their businesses had a clean record, the founders had taken loans to start operations and did not manage to pay back. This is immediately a red flag for banks and still hinders many entrepreneurs to access the loans they need. 📉 Low level of revenues transacting in the bank account: as much as mobile money is widely developed in our market, many entrepreneurs still transact in cash and avoid banking it immediately. Without the traceability of digital transactions or audited financial statements, banks are unable to assess the accurate credit worthiness of those businesses and prefer to pass on the opportunity.   Our goal with the Melanin Kapital neobank infrastructure is to reduce this rejection rate to 10%, ensuring that access to finance becomes more inclusive, in particular for carbon reduction purposes.   Having the support of the #G7 through AFDB's AFAWA program, will allow us to keep innovating to support the SMEs that cannot yet qualify for loans to access the digital tool they need to build the documentation that will check lenders' boxes. It’s based on our experiences and the discussions with them that we are currently developing the second version of our Melanin Kapital app, including an credit-worthiness algorithm that aims to help 10,000 businesses by end 2024 to improve their financial health and become eligible for the credit they need to grow.   📨 If you are an institutional interested in furthering access to finance, or an entrepreneur looking to qualify for a loan, feel free to get in touch in DM 📫

✨#AFTSNairobi2024 Speaker Spotlight✨ As a French-Senegalese impact investment professional, Mélanie Keïta built her career in impact management funds in Paris, Nairobi, and Frankfurt. She is currently the co-founder and CEO of Melanin Kapital, a last-mile carbon financing platform that enables African SMEs to access green equipment faster and cheaper by using carbon credits and climate financing. Register for #AFTSNairobi2024 (use code SPEAKER25 at checkout to save 25%): https://lnkd.in/dskpWc7N. #fintech #financialservices #climatesolutions #climatefinance #tech #techevent

It was exciting to hear Mélanie Keïta, CEO & Co-Founder of Melanin Kapital, deliver a presentation on ‘Melanin Kapital: The Neobank Making African Savings, Saving the Planet’ at the #ATSLDN Investment Showcase. 🚀 Next stop! Africa Tech Summit Nairobi 🇰🇪. Join us on February 12th & 13th, 2025. https://bit.ly/45C7saY

It was exciting to hear Mélanie Keïta, CEO & Co-Founder of Melanin Kapital, deliver a presentation on ‘Melanin Kapital: The Neobank Making African Savings, Saving the Planet’ at the #ATSLDN Investment Showcase. 🚀 Next stop! Africa Tech Summit Nairobi 🇰🇪. Join us on February 12th & 13th, 2025. https://bit.ly/3XBpYON

❗ Attention start-ups in #Kenya, #Rwanda and #Tanzania! You can still apply for #develoPPPVentures funding until 30 June. 🗓 ❓ What advantages does it offer? This is what Mélanie Keïta, Co-founder & CEO of Melanin Kapital tells us. The climate fintech platform aims to provide affordable and efficient financing for small and medium-sized enterprises looking to invest in green productive assets. We have been supporting the company in this mission since last year. 💚 💡 So what are you waiting for? Apply for EUR 100,000 of non-dilutive funding and receive tailored support and strategic advice from our experts. 📌 You can find more information here: https://lnkd.in/g6mJrd3g 📌 Go directly to the application here: https://lnkd.in/eXffpvDF   🤝 On behalf of Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ), implemented by DEG Impulse, and supported by VC4A, ViKtoria Ventures, Impact Hub Kigali and Ennovate Ventures.

📺 #ATSLDN Investment Showcase session for Melanin Kapital - The Neobank Making African Savings, Saving The Planet, delivered by Mélanie Keïta, CEO & Co-founder at Melanin Kapital. Accessing any kind of capital in Africa is challenging—it’s actually 4 to 5 times harder than in any other region in the world. The problem lies in a fundamental lack of trust. Watch Melanie’s presentation to learn more about their solutions https://bit.ly/3zoULV8

Africa has the highest proportion of women entrepreneurs in the world. Here are some facts many don't know: 👉 Women make up 58% of Africa's self-employed population (source WEF) 👉 42% of the non-agricultural labor force in Sub-Saharan Africa is self-employed, one of the highest rates of entrepreneurship globally. 👉 Kenya is no 1 in Africa and no 3 worldwide when it comes to the share of female crypto owners. 👏 In Web3, African women are taking the lead and building great solutions. That’s why I’m excited to celebrate EMURGO Africa's recent report highlighting these incredible entrepreneurs, some of which I met personally: ▪ I met Ruth Iselema in 2019, and later, Adaverse invested in Bitmama. ▪ Sarah Idahosa is thriving as a Community Manager at Cassava Network. ▪ I had insightful discussions with Deborah Ojengbede from AFEN BLOCKCHAIN NETWORK at an Emurgo event. ▪ Mélanie Keïta, met in Kenya, and invested in Melanin Kapital. ▪ Devon Krantz from South Africa, her project Web3 Sanctuary won the NODO grant last year. ▪ Proud of Nelly Chatue-Diop, with Adaverse investing in her project, Ejara. Congrats to all others mentioned in the report and good luck building! Check out the full report here: https://lnkd.in/gDYtkEGB P.S. Throwback to 2019 when I ran the first China-Africa Tech Connect event as the Cofounder and CEO of Future Hub Africa. Ruth, pictured below, was already running Bitmama!

We are excited to announce the 12 finalists for the #EcobankFintech2024! From a pool of over 40 Semi finalists, meet the emerging top 12 finalists who will compete for the ultimate cash prize of $50,000 at the Grand Finale on September 27, 2024 in Lome! Massive congratulations Sawport Inc., BuuPass - Bus, Train & Flight bookings, PaySika, PROBOUTIK, exuus, MiaPay, Sproutly, YMO, EasyEquities, VaultPay (YC S23), Melanin Kapital, and Daba on your outstanding #innovations.                                            #FintechInAfrica #FinancialInclusion Huawei Proparco TechCabal Jeune Afrique AfriLabs Africa Fintech Network BlueSPACE Innovation Hub MEST Africa Expand In Africa Founders Factory alx_africa Sand Technologies Naija Startups Konfidants

Nous sommes ravis d'annoncer les 12 finalistes du #EcobankFintech2024 ! Parmi plus de 40 demi-finalistes, découvrez les 12 finalistes émergents qui se disputeront le grand prix de 50 000 $ lors de la Grande Finale le 27 septembre 2024 à Lomé! Félicitations à Sawport Inc., BuuPass - Bus, Train & Flight bookings, PaySika, PROBOUTIK, exuus, MiaPay, Sproutly, YMO, EasyEquities, VaultPay (YC S23), Melanin Kapital, et Daba pour vos remarquables #innovations. #FintechEnAfrique #InclusionFinancière