At the commencement of the second cohort of its LABS by ARM Accelerator programme, five Nigerian startups got $20,000 each in funding from a leading insurance firm, Asset Resource Management (ARM).
LABS by ARM is a platform aimed at supporting and funding compelling fintech startups focused on solving key problems in innovative ways around the financial industry, while unlocking verticals and markets to change how users access and consume financial services.
According to the managers of the Accelerator programme, which has five participants in this year’s cohort from a pool of 191 applications, the initiative is aimed at helping early-stage growth fintech companies grow exponentially, giving them access to market while improving their distribution capabilities.
Against this background, the company’s Managing Director, Henrietta Olushina, in a statement made available on the company’s website, said: “For us, we believe that companies that build great technology and are solving real life problems are great companies to support. It is our own way of giving back to the fintech society.”
The programme, a 12- week programme, which kicked off recently, offers for the first time since its inception in 2019, a $20,000 seed funding, office space, Amazon Web Services (AWS) credit of up to $10,000, access to the ARM network capabilities and support the companies with carefully selected mentors comprising seasoned business leaders from the fintech industry who will provide hands-on support to the selected companies.
Olushina disclosed that the selected companies, for the second cohort, include Rise, Kwaba, Quantis Finance, Trusaver and Owoafara. She emphasised that six companies participated in the first cohort. The companies included ARM’s PayDay Investor and Trove, with the latter getting $30,000 seed funding, while other selected companies got a N3 million grant.
Meanwhile, ARM said it would make subsequent editions of the programme bigger and better, creating 25 alumni companies over a five-year period. The companies are charting a new market course and have become household names and unicorn companies in Nigeria.