Mauritius-based startup Black Swan was crowned victor of the 2025 edition of the MEST Africa Challenge (MAC) following a high-energy Grand Finale held on 26 November at Innovation City in Cape Town.
Organized by MEST Africa and powered by pan-African bank Absa Group, the MAC 2025 focused exclusively on early-stage fintech ventures and embedded financial solutions aimed at deepening financial inclusion, enabling smarter payments, and accelerating digital transformation across African economies.
Black Swan, co-founded by Derick Kazimoto, pitched a bold solution to one of Africa’s most stubborn financial problems: the invisibility of millions of consumers and micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to formal lenders.
Because their data often remains fragmented, informal, or difficult to verify, many capable borrowers are locked out of credit.
Black Swan’s platform aggregates disparate data sources; from mobile-money transactions and utility-bill payments to other informal financial behaviours and transforms them into reliable “credit intelligence.”
This enables banks and financial institutions to assess affordability and creditworthiness more accurately, unlocking lending at scale to underserved populations. “We believe Africa is shifting from informal, collateral-heavy lending to data-driven credit,” Kazimoto said. “A transformation that’s changing how banks and FinTechs trust, lend, and grow.”
“Congratulations to Blackswan on reaching this milestone. What resonated with us was the technical discipline behind their approach: the architecture, the clarity of the build, and the way they’re thinking about scaling responsibly.
For us, the Challenge is about expanding Absa’s view of the technology landscape and identifying where new capabilities or partnerships might emerge.” Tamu Dutuma, Head of Strategy and Transformation for Technology at Absa Regional Operations (ARO).
The 2025 MAC attracted hundreds of applications across Absa’s eight priority markets: including Mauritius, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Botswana, Mozambique, Seychelles, and Zambia. After a rigorous screening process, 20 semi-finalists were selected; 10 went on to pitch live at the Cape Town finale before a panel of investors, industry leaders, and Absa executives.
As winner, Black Swan receives US $50,000 in equity investment, entry into the MEST Portfolio, and crucially the opportunity to pilot its solutions with Absa’s business units across Africa.
“This year’s Challenge has revealed just how much opportunity exists to enhance customer experiences through thoughtful innovation,” said Tawanda Chatikobo, Head of Digital for Absa Regional Operations, commenting on Black Swan’s win.
According to Ashwin Ravichandran, Portfolio Advisor at MEST Africa, “this year showed a clear shift toward building for scale; founders are prioritizing compliance, interoperability, and cross-border readiness from day one.”
Since its inception in 2008, MEST Africa has trained more than 2,000 entrepreneurs from over 22 African countries, and invested in over 90 startups spanning fintech, agritech, digital media, e-commerce, healthcare, and more.
The MEST Africa Challenge, now in its seventh year, has become one of the continent’s leading pan-African pitch competitions offering early-stage tech startups funding, mentorship, global exposure, and access to corporate pilots with established partners.
In 2025, the competition narrowed its focus to fintech and high-value value-chain solutions, reflecting the growing importance of digital financial inclusion, credit infrastructure and cross-border scalability in Africa’s economic evolution.
Beyond Black Swan, the MAC 2025 has signalled a broader maturity in African innovation, founders are increasingly building deeply technical, scalable, and interoperable platforms not just apps. This hints at a new wave of fintech infrastructure startups that may fundamentally reshape how banking, credit, and financial services are delivered in Africa.
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