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Village Capital and PayPal have announced the expansion of their investment readiness programme for financial health entrepreneurs to several new regions, including sub-Saharan Africa.

The organisations announced they will host four incubator programmes around the world over the next two years: in the US, Latin America, India and sub-Saharan Africa.  At least 40 emerging fintech entrepreneurs will be supported through the programmes.

Retaining Village Capital’s unique peer-selection investment model, at the end of each programme, participating entrepreneurs will review each other to decide which two participants will receive US$100,000 investment each from Village Capital.

“Our partnership with PayPal has added tremendous value to entrepreneurs participating in our programmes, thanks to the company’s intrinsic values and focus on improving the financial health of global citizens. Entrepreneurs who have joined our programmes have benefited hugely from the expertise of their incredibly talented team,” said Village Capital president Ross Baird.

“We’re delighted to expand this partnership across all of our core geographies, now including Africa, and we can’t wait to see the solutions the entrepreneurs develop unique solutions that address current market challenges.”

The partners have just selected the cohort of entrepreneurs to join the first US-based programme, Village Capital: Fintech US 2017.

PayPal employees serve as mentors on the programme, and the company has funded four of the previously held accelerators.

“At the heart of PayPal’s mission is our commitment to democratise financial services and help improve the financial health of families and small businesses around the world. Through this collaboration, we are supporting Village Capital’s global efforts to inspire and support social impact entrepreneurs who are addressing financial health challenges by developing community-based solutions that assist those that are currently underserved by the global economic system,” said Franz Paasche, senior vice president of corporate affairs at PayPal Inc.

Applications to the African programme will open in the third quarter of 2017, and will seek a mix of consumer-focused and small and medium enterprise (SME)-focused ventures from across sub-Saharan Africa.

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