BetaLab Selects Five East African Startups for Cross-Border Acceleration program

Britam’s innovation hub, BetaLab, has named five East African startups as winners of its 2025 Regional Startup Challenge. The winners, hailing from Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania, are set to join a 60-day accelerator program.

They will work closely with Britam’s business units, industry experts, and global mentors to scale their solutions in health, embedded finance (InsurTech and FinTech), agriculture, and climate resilience.

The challenge, a regional first for BetaLab, attracted over 150 applications from established, market-tested startups. It is designed to advance the region’s digital transformation by identifying innovations that can strengthen the insurance and financial services value chain.

Across East Africa, the startup landscape continues to strengthen, with founders increasingly building cross-border solutions to the region’s shared challenges. This is creating a strong pipeline of regional-ready startups, and BetaLab’s role is to help them validate, integrate, and scale these solutions through Britam’s network and expertise

Fifteen finalists were shortlisted to pitch before a panel of Britam leadership, venture capitalists, and technology experts alongside Carolyne Kamau the innovations officer at Britam Kenya who leads startup partnerships through BetaLab, after a four-week venture development bootcamp curated to make them investor ready

The winning cohort highlights a strong focus on health-tech, fintech, and climate-tech:

• MobiKlinic (Uganda): A health-tech platform enabling patients to book appointments and access virtual consultations through its YoKlinic product.

• Paytota (Uganda): An omnichannel payment gateway that enables businesses to accept mobile money, bank, and card payments through one unified dashboard.
• Afya Lead (Tanzania): A health-tech company providing digital micro-health insurance for underserved and informal-sector communities via its Pamoja Bima product.

• Rada 360 (Tanzania): A climate-tech solution using satellite data and AI analytics to support climate-resilient agriculture for farmers, insurers, and banks.

• ISARO Econext (Rwanda):A climate-tech platform connecting organizations with smallholder farmers to plant trees, offering real-time impact visibility via a live dashboard.

In addition to the accelerator, the startups will receive technology credits and access to Britam’s regional network to support scaling and market expansion.

Evah Kimani, Britam’s Director of Partnerships & Digital, said the initiative combines Britam’s market reach with the speed and creativity of founders.

“Through BetaLab, we are building a pan-African innovation engine that connects high-potential innovators with the scale, networks, and industry insight needed to grow beyond their home markets. Our approach is straightforward: identify strong local solutions, strengthen them with the right technical and commercial guidance, and open pathways for regional expansion through Britam’s footprint,” she said. “This program reflects our commitment to work with innovators shaping the future of insurance and financial inclusion across the continent.”

This regional challenge forms part of Britam’s long-term strategy to fuel the digital economy and advance financial inclusion by collaborating with the startup ecosystem.

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