These three startups triumph Fintech Disrupt Challenge 2016

The winning startups will receive seed funding of Rs10 million


Tech Desk November 30, 2016
Team Ricult receiving the winning cheque from the Judges. PHOTO VCOURTESY: RICULT

Ricult Pakistan, Paysys and Publishex won the Fintech Disrupt Challenge 2016 organised by Karandaaz Pakistan in collaboration with the LUMS Centre for Entrepreneurship (LCE).

A total of 63 applications were received in three weeks and 28 start-ups were shortlisted to go head-to-head on the final day in front of a six-judge panel of Romana Abdullah, Asad Azfar, Amaar Ikhlas, Yasser Bashir, Naeem Zamindar and Mohsin Termezy.

The teams were given one minute each to pitch their idea in front of the judges and the audience.

Their ideas came in areas like payments, financing, insurance, savings, investment and the real estate sectors. The participants merged longstanding financial transaction systems in the country with technology and pitched their ideas to win the seed money for their startups.

From a shortlist of 28 high calibre startups, judges chose the three startups after an intense grilling session. The winning startups will receive seed funding of Rs10 million.

Ricult Pakistan

The startup provide smallholder farmers easy and cheap access to credit, higher quality goods, soil testing, free delivery, and direct link to buyers, leading to improved yields, better quality crop, and higher profitability.

Fintech Disrupt Challenge: Start-ups vie for Rs10m seed money

"The marketplace connects farmers to farm input sellers; farm produce buyers, bank creditors, insurers, veterinary services, farm advisory services and everything that can help them have better farming results. “But this is not just a marketplace for farmers. We believe in building strong relationships with our local farmers and ensuring that they have easy access to bigger markets, quality products, enhanced profitability and hence a better future,” CEO Usman Javaid said in an interview.

PublishEX

PublishEX, founded in June this year, is the only Pakistani company to have become a viable multi-telco payment aggregator with agreements and integrations ongoing with 3 of the 4 largest operators covering 85% marketshare of the total cellphone market in Pakistan.

Their solution allows integration of over 100 million subscribers to make payments online without requiring a bank account, credit card or having to go to carrier specific mobile wallets.

Paysys

Paysys offers a modern Payment System for collecting tax payments through the internet. Taxpayers can create their electronic payments from anywhere and schedule all their future payments to be credited to Government of Pakistan (GoP). Banks, taxpayers, withholding agents and e-Intermediaries are beneficiaries of this system.

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