Six African startups just split $400,000 in grants — for farmers and finance

FINCA Ventures has named six winners of its third annual prize, splitting $400,000 in grant money — funding the founders keep, not equity they give up. Kenya's VunaPay, which moves payments for smallholder farmers through cooperatives, and Kumbatia Seafood, which sources sustainably caught fish from the Swahili Coast, took $100,000 each; Kenya's nesti and Zimbabwe's eAgro won $60,000 each; Kenya's Pollen Patrollers and the Rwanda/Zimbabwe team ChatCash won $40,000 each. More than 700 startups applied across fintech-for-inclusion and sustainable agriculture, with the finals judged on October 6 at a Cisco-hosted event in San Francisco.