The South African Reserve Bank and the Bank for International Settlements have announced the winners of the 2025 G20 TechSprint challenge, which focused on improving trust and integrity in scalable and open finance.
According to the organisers, the competition, held under SA’s G20 presidency, is the first of its kind to take place in Africa.
It aimed to find practical technology-based solutions to issues such as digital identity, access to credit and cyber security in fast payment systems.
Launched in May 2025, the challenge invited innovators, developers and financial experts worldwide to propose tools that could help central banks and regulators improve financial integrity and inclusion.
Participants were asked to address three problem areas:
● Digital identity verification between financial institutions.
● Credit data portability to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) access finance.
● Fraud and cyber risk protection in fast payments.
This comes as only 33% of SMEs have access to credit while providing 87% of employment opportunities in SA, according to a policy brief by the United Nations Development Programme.
More than 165 teams from over 30 countries submitted entries. An independent panel of experts judged the submissions in Pretoria.
The winners are:
● Team Ownapay SA, from South Africa, for digital identity solutions.
● Team Silence Laboratories, from Singapore, for credit data portability.
● Team FNA and Proto, from the UK, for fraud and cyber risk mitigation for fast payments.
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