Black Swan, a Mauritius-based FinTech startup, has been crowned the winner of the MEST Africa Challenge (MAC) 2025, following an electrifying Grand Finale held at Innovation City, Cape Town on November 26, 2025.
Organized by the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST Africa) and powered by Absa Group, the MEST Africa Challenge is one of the leading Pan-African pitch competitions, offering early-stage startups the opportunity to gain funding, mentorship, and global visibility.
The 2025 edition focused on FinTech, highlighting startups and embedded financial solutions that drive inclusion, smarter payments, and digital transformation across Africa’s economies.
Co-founded by Derick Kazimoto, Black Swan aims to “Make Africa Bankable.” Millions of consumers and MSMEs across Africa remain invisible to formal lenders due to fragmented, informal, and hard-to-verify data. This gap locks out capable borrowers and stifles credit growth. Black Swan addresses this challenge by transforming fragmented data into instant credit intelligence, enabling accurate affordability assessments and inclusive lending at scale. The platform empowers financial institutions to assess real risks, creating new opportunities for growth and economic mobility across the continent.
“Africa’s financial system cannot accurately assess the creditworthiness of millions of consumers and MSMEs because their data is fragmented, informal, and hidden from traditional lenders,” said Derick Kazimoto, Co-founder and CEO of Black Swan. “This invisibility prevents capable borrowers from accessing credit, limits growth, and hampers economic mobility. Our goal is to make Africa bankable.” Kazimoto further emphasized, “We believe Africa is shifting from informal, collateral-based lending to data-driven credit, changing how banks and FinTechs lend, trust, and grow.”
MAC 2025 received hundreds of applications from eight of Absa’s priority markets, including Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique, Seychelles, and Mauritius. After a rigorous selection process, ten startups advanced to the Cape Town finale, where they pitched to a panel of judges composed of investors, Absa executives, and industry leaders.
The Grand Finale celebrated Africa’s ingenuity, with founders presenting real, scalable solutions that addressed challenges in payments, credit, insurance, and trade finance.
“Congratulations to Black Swan and all the finalists of this year’s MEST Africa Challenge,” said Ashwin Ravichandran, Portfolio Advisor at MEST Africa. “This year marked a clear shift towards building scalable solutions. Founders are focusing on compliance, interoperability, and cross-border readiness from day one. FinTech is now serving real sectors like agriculture, energy, and trade, where lasting impact is possible. At MEST, we are inspired to see entrepreneurs building solutions that are deeply local yet globally adaptable, reflecting a new maturity in African innovation grounded in customer realities and aimed at scaling across borders.”
As the 2025 winner, Black Swan will receive US $50,000 in equity investment, entry into the MEST Portfolio, and the chance to pilot its solutions with Absa business units across Africa. This support will help the company scale its technology and broaden its impact across the continent.
“This year’s Challenge showcased solutions that reflect how people and businesses want to manage their financial lives in a simpler, more accessible, and more integrated way. Black Swan emerged as the winner because their solution meets a critical need and has the potential to complement the services we offer across our markets. The Challenge has highlighted the tremendous opportunities for improving customer experiences through thoughtful innovation,” said Tawanda Chatikobo, Head of Digital for Absa Regional Operations (ARO), Retail and Business Banking.
Now in its seventh year, the MEST Africa Challenge has become a springboard for early-stage founders across the continent, providing visibility, mentorship, and connections to partners who can help them grow. The Challenge continues to serve as a bridge between emerging startups and established industry players, combining the agility of innovation with the scale of corporate collaboration.
“Congratulations to Black Swan for reaching this important milestone. What impressed us was the technical discipline behind their approach: the clarity of their build, their architectural vision, and their strategy for scaling responsibly. The Challenge has broadened Absa’s understanding of the technology landscape and helped us identify new capabilities and partnerships,” said Tamu Dutuma, Head of Strategy and Transformation for Technology at Absa Regional Operations (ARO).
Since its inception in 2008, MEST Africa has trained over 2,000 entrepreneurs and invested in more than 90 startups. The MEST Africa Challenge (MAC) is its flagship pan-African pitch competition, designed to identify and support high-potential technology ventures.
