There is a particular kind of audacity in starting a bank with $500. Not a community savings group, not a micro-loan scheme — a bank. An AI-powered neobank built to serve the millions of Zambians that traditional financial institutions have spent decades overlooking.
That audacity belongs to Evelyn Kaingu.
A Problem the System Refused to Solve
As Co-Founder and CEO of Lupiya, she identified a gap that most people in finance preferred to work around. 65% of Zambians — the majority of them women — have no meaningful access to credit. This is not because they are bad financial risks. Rather, it is because the system was never designed with them in mind.
Traditional banks rely on collateral, credit histories, and formal employment records. For the informal trader or the woman running a business from home, those metrics are either unavailable or irrelevant.
A Smarter Way of Seeing People
Her answer was to change the metrics entirely. Lupiya uses alternative data to assess creditworthiness. This is a more honest way of evaluating people that the old system consistently failed to see clearly. As a result, she hasn’t just disrupted fintech. She has extended financial dignity to people who were told, in one way or another, that they simply didn’t qualify.
From $500 to a Continental Stage
The market took notice quickly. From that initial $500, Lupiya has since grown to raise over $14 million in investment. This figure speaks not just to the strength of the business model, but to the conviction behind it.
Then came the moment that put Zambian innovation firmly on the global map. Lupiya emerged as the overall winner of the GITEX Africa 2024 Supernova Challenge — one of the most competitive startup stages on the continent. It was not a regional award or a participation prize. It was the top prize, on a continental stage, competing against some of Africa’s most ambitious ventures.
Built for Zambia. Proven Globally.
The victory sent a clear message. Solutions built in Zambia, for Zambia, carry the kind of precision and authenticity that no imported model can replicate. Furthermore, it confirmed that local context, when paired with bold thinking, is a competitive advantage — not a limitation.
A Builder, Not Just a CEO
On this International Women’s Day, we don’t simply celebrate the award-winner or the headline fundraiser. We celebrate the builder — the woman who looked at a broken system and chose to construct something better, rather than simply document its failures.
Thank you, Evelyn, for proving that a bridge to financial dignity was always possible. It just needed the right architect.
#IWD2026 #WomenInTechZambia #Lupiya
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