Anis Kallel is one of three co-founders of Tunisian fintech business Kaoun, made up of innovators who travelled to the US to study at top universities, then returned to Tunisia to grapple with the issue of financial inclusion.
The company has created an app called Flouci, which allows users to set up free bank accounts remotely. As set out in Disrupt Africa, Flouci works by facilitating the process through a ‘Know Your Customer’ system, through the smartphone.
The company has raised funding from angel investors and has partnerships with two Tunisian banks and the National Digital Certification Agency.
Kallel left Tunisia to attend the University of Rochester on a full scholarship when he was 19. While there he studied Computer Science and Business. He did research on Human Computer Interaction and interned at Electronic Arts and Microsoft.
To further an interest in emerging markets, he took a job with Seedstar, a Swiss investment group as their associate for Africa. In the role he travelled to 16 African countries to identify the “best and most investable early stage startups.” In the role, he worked with corporate organisations, Governments and startups on growing entrepreneurship ecosystems.
“This tour furthered my belief that Tunisia has a lot more to offer the world, and encouraged me to move back home in 2018 as the Co-Founder of a FinTech company called Kaoun — كون (Universe, in Arabic) working on identification, Payments and Credit.”
In a popular TEDx talk, Kallel says that one of his aims is for people “to realise the incredible potential that African talent has and the contribution that they’ll have in the next wave of innovation, not only in Africa, but all over the world.”
Kallel’s co-founders, also from Tunisia, are Nebras Jemel (Harvard) and Rostom Bouazizi (Colombia University).
Tags: Africa, fintech, Tunisia
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