In late 2026, Kenyan fintech Flowt closed a $550,000 pre-seed funding round led by Delta40 Fund I and Impacc, with support from the Argidius Foundation. Led by Elana Laichena, former Kenya Country Lead at Delta40 and founder of Acacia Innovations, the startup is leveraging artificial intelligence to slash the credit evaluation process for African SMEs engaged in the climate transition to just a few days. In my view, this technological bet goes beyond technical prowess: it aims to fill a funding void that is stifling green innovation across the continent by offering small businesses a level of visibility traditional banks struggle to provide.
In practice, Flowt's tool cross-references bank statements, M-Pay transactions, and accounting data from platforms like QuickBooks, Zoho, or Odoo to generate a lender-ready credit file in a matter of days. Its first beneficiary, GreenBay—a Kenyan company that refurbishes household appliances and home solar systems—secured a working capital loan from Choice Bank as a result. This milestone comes against the backdrop of a funding gap exceeding $330 billion for small businesses in Africa, and a credit demand in Kenya reaching around 4 trillion shillings, compared to just 700 billion actually disbursed—representing nearly one-fifth of the national GDP.
For Cameroon and Francophone Africa, Flowt’s model represents a potential roadmap. If local players manage to adapt a similar platform, Cameroonian SMEs working in solar energy, waste management, or agro-processing could gain faster access to vital financing. However, this would require greater commitment from banks and microfinance institutions to integrate these algorithmic assessments, along with a regulatory framework that guarantees data transparency and protects entrepreneurs.
The question moving forward is not merely technical, but societal: how can we ensure that AI-driven credit scoring does not create new inequalities, but genuinely fosters financial inclusion? Flowt’s progress will need to be closely monitored so that such innovation does not remain an isolated case, but becomes a shared lever for the entire continent—where every small green enterprise can finally turn its ambition into reality.
