RippleWave is using FinTech to solve crowdfunding challenges. #40Days40FinTechs Zambia and Malawi edition, Day 34

Millions of Africans, particularly women, children, and marginalized communities, struggle to access financial support due to barriers in traditional crowdfunding platforms, which require credit/debit cards.

Since most people in these communities rely on mobile money, they are excluded from global crowdfunding solutions, limiting their ability to raise funds for urgent needs.

RippleWave was formed to bridge this gap by providing a crowdfunding platform tailored for Africa, allowing individuals to raise funds directly from their communities via mobile money.

According to Abigail Musenge, the CEO and Co-Founder, RippleWave targets the underbanked to raise funds for any of their causes and projects, targeting vulnerable women as well as orphanages to raise funds via a web platform or USSD.

“In our platform we have been able to integrate financial inclusion best practices such as accessibility on low end phones and USSD functionality. It is a crowd-based platform available wherever one is found,” Musenge said.

Women in FinTech Hackathon Participation.

Team RippleWave participated in the 2025 COMESA Women in FinTech Hackathon and built this crowdfunding platform tailored for Africa.

According to its other co-founders, traditional crowdfunding platforms primarily rely on bank cards, excluding millions who depend on mobile money. They thus argue that by prioritizing mobile money integration, RippleWave unlocks accessible community-driven funding for those who need it most.

“Our competitive advantage is that we are mobile-money-first, meaning that anyone can be able to donate money regardless of them having a bank account or not,” added Mwansa Mwansa, a co-founder.

The team, along with 15 other participating teams, were taken through rigorous training on ideation, product development and business case presentations.  

In the end, they were happy with this incredible experience where they had a chance to network, collaborate, innovate and learn.

“The Hackathon gave us an opportunity to meet like-minded people from different countries solving everyday challenges,” noted Musenge.

“We are thankful to HiPipo and COMESA Business Council (CBC) for the opportunity to help us build a platform that is accessible to even people in rural areas,” she added.

RippleWave has been featured on Day 34 of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative; Zambia and Malawi edition. The roll-out of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative in Zambia and Malawi followed its success in East Africa. Over the past 5 years, the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative has featured over 200 FinTech stories from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, and Rwanda. This initiative has also engaged hundreds of end-users and shared their stories with millions worldwide.

The primary objective of this initiative is to support and showcase innovative FinTech giants and start-ups from across Africa, with a focus on promoting financial inclusion and economic growth, in addition to giving start-ups access to the resources they need to develop new and innovative financial solutions that can benefit underserved populations. Such resources include but are not limited to Level One Project guidelines, Mojaloop Open Source Software and Inclusive Finance systems, etc.