The best and most valuable startups in Africa have achieved remarkable success in the past year, despite the economic challenges faced by the world. These African startups are expected to continue to make waves in different industries in the coming years, showcasing the resilience and ingenuity of the continent’s entrepreneurs.
According to data from Crunchbase, in 2023, there will be 1,428 unicorns worldwide. These startups are valued at over $1 billion each and are collectively worth $4.9 trillion in the market. Africa represents 0.4% of the total global unicorns, with seven startups representing the continent.
Our review of Africa’s best and most valuable startups considered various factors, including growth potential, scalability, current value, funding history, customer traction, and competitive advantage.
Interswitch
Year founded: 2002
HQ: Lagos, Nigeria
Size: Over 2,000 employees
Founders: Mitchell Elegbe
Industry: Fintech
Funding: $200 million
Value: $1 billion
Interswitch is one of the most valuable startups in Africa, having achieved unicorn status in 2019 after a $200 million equity investment by Visa, giving it a $1 billion valuation. Founded in 2002 by Mitchell Elegbe and headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, Interswitch is an integrated digital payments and commerce company that pioneered the infrastructure to digitize Nigeria’s cash-based economy.
Interswitch has several subsidiary brands, including Verve, Africa’s exchange solution. Verve’s heritage is that of a home-grown card, but the brand’s future is about leading payments and beyond to uplift Africa.
The brand is committed to taking payments in Africa to new heights, leveraging local understanding to enable a seamless value exchange. Quickteller, another subsidiary, is positioned as a convenience platform providing exchange services to everyone, anytime, anyhow, and anywhere in the heart of Africa. The brand leverages Interswitch’s network of human service interfaces for secure financial transactions across Africa, further driving financial inclusion through Quickteller Paypoint.
Jumia
Year founded: 2012
HQ: Lagos, Nigeria
Size: 1001-5000
Founders: Sacha Poignonnec, Jeremy Hodara
Industry: E-commerce
Funding: $885 million
Jumia is an e-commerce company that operates a marketplace connecting buyers and sellers. It offers a platform for sellers to sell their products and has a logistics service that ensures efficient delivery of packages to buyers through a network of local partners.
With a total funding amount of $885 million raised in six funding rounds over seven years, Jumia is currently the most funded startup in Africa. In 2012, Jumia raised a Series A funding of $45 million from Blakeney Management, Rocket Internet, and Millicom Systems, followed by a Series B funding of $150 million in the next year.
Aside from the marketplace and logistics service, Jumia also provides a secure payment service that allows buyers to pay for their purchases with confidence. The payment service helps prevent fraud and ensures secure transactions. With Jumia’s platform, customers can shop online with ease and convenience, knowing that their payments are safe and transactions are secure.
Zipline
Year Founded: 2014
Location: Kigali, Rwanda
Size: 201-500
Founders:Keller Rinaudo Cliffton Keenan Wyrobek Ryan Oksenhorn William Hetzler
Industry: Logistics
Funding: $821 million
Zipline is a startup in Rwanda that uses automated drones to deliver medical supplies. The company’s primary goal is to provide people with access to vital medical supplies worldwide. Zipline has developed the world’s fastest and most reliable delivery drone, the world’s largest autonomous logistics network, and a great team to achieve this. Zipline’s values include continuous improvement, servant leadership, accountable ownership, customer obsession, and transparency. These values allow the company to build meaningful solutions and redefine what is possible.
Zipline’s technology is designed and tested in Half Moon Bay, California. The company also assembles its drones and the technology that powers its distribution centres in South San Francisco. Zipline conducts extensive flight testing in Davis, California. Currently, Zipline delivers medical products to local health facilities from its distribution centres in Ghana and Rwanda. The company is also expanding to other countries to provide access to medical supplies in remote and hard-to-reach areas.
Zipline’s innovative approach to delivering medical supplies is helping to save lives in remote and hard-to-reach areas. The company’s drones can quickly and efficiently provide critical medical supplies, such as blood and vaccines. This technology has proven particularly useful in developing countries where access to medical supplies can be challenging. Zipline’s mission is to improve healthcare outcomes by ensuring everyone can access vital medical supplies, regardless of where they live.
MNT- Halan
Year Founded: 2018
HQ: Cairo, Egypt
Size: 10,001+
Founders: Mounir Nakhla
Industry: Fintech
Funding: $670 million
MNT-Halan is a financial services company based in Cairo, Egypt, that aims to provide digital banking solutions to people who are not part of the formal banking system. Founded in 2018, MNT-Halan’s primary goal is to make it easier for people to access financial services and replace traditional cash transactions with digital options. The company has obtained various licenses from financial regulatory authorities in Egypt, including microfinance, consumer finance, and nano finance licenses, authorizing it to provide financial services to businesses and individuals throughout the country.
The company has also obtained the first independent electronic wallet license from the Central Bank of Egypt, which allows the company to transfer money digitally through mobile applications, providing more convenience to customers.
MNT-Halan’s microfinance lending and payments platform is helping to transform the financial landscape of Egypt by providing financial access to underserved communities. The company has acquired two other companies, and its total funding amount is $607 million from 21 investors. As of 2023, MNT-Halan has over 60,957 employees and is considered one of the leading financial services companies in Egypt.
Andela
Year Founded: 2014
HQ: Lagos, Nigeria
Size: 1,001-5,000
Founders: Jeremy Johnson, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Nadayar Enegesi, Brice Nkengsa, Ian Carnevale, and Christina Sass
Industry: Commercial and Professional Services
Funding: $381 million
Andela is a global talent network that connects companies with engineering talent in emerging markets, such as Nigeria. It was founded in 2014 by Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Jeremy Johnson, Nadayar Enegesi, Brice Steven Nkengsa, Christina Sass, and Ian Carnevale.
In just nine years, Andela reached unicorn status, with a valuation of $2 billion. The company has received a total of $381 million in VC funding from 44 investors, including Generation Investment Management and Spark Capital, in nine rounds of funding. Andela’s latest fundraising was a Series E round in September 2021.
Andela helps software developers find jobs around the world by connecting them with long-term job opportunities with good pay and coaching to help them grow their careers. Initially, the company focused on hiring junior engineers for its four-year fellowship program, but they have expanded to hiring mid and senior-level engineers in several African cities. Since 2020, Andela has gone fully remote, allowing its employees to work from anywhere in the world.
As of 2021, Andela offers technologists from six continents opportunities to work with global companies on long-term contracts. They provide training in various software languages such as Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, React Native, Node, and PHP. With their success and impressive growth, Andela has become one of the most valuable companies in the emerging markets talent network space.
Chippercash
Year founded: 2018
Location : Lagos, Nigeria
Size: 201 to 500
Founders: Ham Serunjogi
Industry: Fintech
Funding: $337.2 million
ChipperCash is a fintech startup providing its customers with various financial services. These services include payment processing, the issuance of cards, stock trading, and airtime/data top-up. The company has over 5 million customers in Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, and the United Kingdom. ChipperCash aims to bring Africa closer by enabling seamless transactions between African countries.
The company places a high value on security and uses encryption technology to protect its customers’ payment information and personal data. ChipperCash offers free local transfers and the lowest cross-border rates, making it an affordable option for sending and receiving money across different countries.
With over 3 million users already utilizing the app for cross-border payments, Chipper Cash is quickly becoming a valuable startup in Africa, making financial services more accessible to the masses.
Wavemobile
Year founded: 2018
HQ: Dakar, Senegal
Size: 51-200
Founders: Drew Durbin and Lincoln Quirk
Industry: Fintech
Funding: $291.5 million
Wavemobile is a valuable startup in Africa that provides peer-to-peer money transfer services with low fees. The company was founded in Senegal in 2017 by two Americans, Drew Durbin and Lincoln Quirk, to serve the underbanked population in Africa. It uses mobile money accounts to facilitate transactions and has expanded its operations to Cote D’Ivoire and Uganda. In 2020, Wave became a subsidiary of WorldRemit, a global online money transfer company.
Wave’s $200 million Series A funding in 2021 made it a unicorn with a valuation of $1.7 billion, becoming the first unicorn in Francophone Africa. With over 5 million users, Wave plans to expand into other African markets. Wave offers a reliable and affordable way to send money within and between African countries, with a maximum fee of 1%. Its goal is to promote financial inclusion by providing easy access to mobile money services and facilitating financial transactions for the underbanked population in Africa.
Flutter wave
Year founded: 2016
HQ: Lagos, Nigeria
Size: 151-200
Founder: Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Olugbenga Agboola
Industry: Fintech
Funding: $250 Million
Flutterwave is a payments company that offers a fully unified set of payment tools for businesses of all sizes. They provide various solutions such as Checkout, which features a smart payment ordering system, payment acceptance tools for accepting payments from anyone, anywhere in the world, transfers or payouts to bank accounts, ecommerce tools for creating a free online store and selling worldwide, invoicing tools for generating professional invoices, payment links for receiving one-off or recurring payments, and card issuance for creating physical and virtual cards that work globally.
According to Crunchbase, Flutterwave has a total funding amount of $474.5M and have received investment from 50 investors and are trusted by over 1 million businesses, offering a range of payments tools to help businesses grow their revenue and provide a seamless payment experience for their customers.
Flutterwave aims to provide businesses with the commerce tools they need to grow their revenue and provide the best payment experience to their customers. They are trusted by over 1 million businesses, including well-known brands such as Uber, MTN, and Microsoft.
Opay
Year founded: 2019
HQ: Lagos, Nigeria
Size: 201-500
Founder: Yahui Zhou
Industry: Fintech
Value: $2 billion
Funding: $ 170 Million
Opay is a financial technology company that offers a range of solutions to simplify payments, transfers, and savings, and provides cashback on airtime and data top-ups. Their user-friendly services include an app for mobile payments and money transfers, savings accounts that earn interest, and loan facilities for borrowing money when needed.
Founded in 2018 by Chinese billionaire Yahui Zhou, Opay is based in Nigeria and has quickly become one of Africa’s most valuable payment companies. In fact, it achieved unicorn status faster than any of its peers and has been downloaded over 10 million times on the Google Play Store.
Over the past five years, Opay has raised an impressive $570 million from 14 investors, including 3W Capital and Softbank Ventures Asia, across three funding rounds. This marks the highest total equity funding ever received by an African startup.
Opay’s most recent funding round, a Series C in August 2021, helped boost the payment company’s market valuation to $2 billion, closing the gap on industry giant Flutterwave. With its innovative solutions and continued growth, Opay is poised to remain a major player in the African fintech industry.
Esusu
Year founded: 2016
HQ: Lagos, Nigeria
Size: 101 to 200
Founders: Samir Goel and Abbey Wemimo
Industry: Fintech
Funding: $145 million
Esusu is a valuable fintech startup founded in 2016 by Abbey Wemimo from Nigeria and Samir Goel from India. The New York-based company aims to help individuals save money and build credit by reporting their rent payment data to credit bureaus. Esusu has reached fintech status and was listed in the Forbes Fintech 50 list in 2021, which recognizes the most innovative fintech startups in the world.
Esusu has partnerships with top property managers in the United States, including Mercy Housing, WinnResidential, and Goldman Sachs Asset Management. It reports rent payment data for over 2 million rental units across all 50 states in the US, helping renters build their credit scores and gain access to more financial opportunities.
The company has received significant funding, including a SoftBank-led Series B funding round of $130 million in January 2021, enabling it to expand its services and partnerships.
Fawry
Year founded: 2008
HQ: Cairo, Egypt
Size: 201-501
Founders: Ashraf Sabry
Industry: Digital transformation & e-payments
Funding: $122 million
Fawry is a payment network that helps customers in Egypt pay their bills online or digitally using ATMs, retail points of sale, and digital wallets. The company was founded in 2009 by Ashraf Sabry to make it easier for people and businesses in Egypt to pay their bills. Fawry currently operates over 60,000 service points to make payments accessible to everyone.
Although Fawry is not technically a unicorn because it’s a public company valued below a billion dollars, it’s still considered a successful startup. In 2021, the company had a valuation of $2 billion before it dropped. Nigerians, including City Block Health and Calendly, found other successful startups. City Block is a health-tech company worth $5 billion, while Calendly is a scheduling platform worth $3 billion.
Nomba
Year founded: 2017
HQ: Lagos, Nigeria
Size: 51-200
Founders: Yinka Adewale and Pelumi Aboluwarin
Industry: Fintech
Funding: $35 million
Nomba is a company that helps over 200,000 small businesses in Nigeria with banking and payment services using point-of-sale machines. The company started in 2017 as “Kudi.ai,” a chatbot that helped people with money matters on social apps.
The startup worked to help small businesses act like banks for people in communities that need easy access to financial services. They offer essential financial services like taking out money, transferring money, and paying bills to everyone in Nigeria.
Nomba aims to help small businesses and people in Nigeria with their financial needs. They started using a chatbot to help people on social apps and then made point-of-sale machines to help small businesses. Nomba works to help people in communities that bigger banks often forget. They want to ensure everyone in Nigeria has easy access to financial services, no matter where they live.
Ulesson
Year founded: 2019
HQ: Lagos, Nigeria
Size: 201-500
Founders: Sim Shagaya
Industry: E-Learning
Funding: $15 million
uLesson is an education startup from Nigeria that created a mobile app for students to learn. The app has videos, questions, and quizzes for Nigerian secondary school students. It was made by Sim Shagaya, who also started a big online store in Nigeria before.
The lesson app has many subjects to learn from, like math, science, and economics, and it has features for students to talk and learn together. The app can be downloaded on any phone and used without the internet. It’s also not too expensive for students to use. The startup got money from investors and wants to go to other African countries soon. Overall, lesson helps Nigerian students learn better by giving them a way to study that is easy to use and personalized to their needs.
Telda
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Cairo, Egypt
Size: 11-50
Founders: Ahmed Sabbah
Industry: Fintech
Funding: $5 million
Telda is a fast-growing digital bank that offers free bank accounts and a payment card to its users. Founded by Ahmed Sabbah and Youssef Sholqamy, Telda enables its customers to make payments, withdraw cash, pay bills, and send and receive money easily.
In just a short time, Telda has achieved significant success and garnered the attention of investors. In May 2022, Telda secured $5 million in pre-seed funding, led by Sequoia, and became the first company to receive a license from the Central Bank of Egypt to onboard customers digitally and issue cards.
As a result of this achievement, Telda is expected to make even more progress in 2023 by introducing new features and services that will benefit its customers.
With a total funding amount of $25 million and four investors, Telda is one of the most valuable digital banks in the region. Its user-friendly platform and commitment to providing easy, fast, and secure banking services have made it a popular choice for people looking for a hassle-free banking experience.
Piggyvest
Year Founded: 2016
HQ: Lagos Nigeria
Size: 51-200
Founders: Ayo Akinola, Joshua Chibueze, Nonso Eagle, Odunayo Eweniyi, Somto Ifezue
Industry: Banking and Financial Services/ FinTech
Funding: $1.2 million
PiggyVest is a financial tool designed to simplify the process of saving and investing money. It is particularly useful for individuals and businesses seeking consistent savings. With PiggyVest, users can set a savings goal and automate the process of saving towards it. The platform deducts a small amount of money regularly from the user’s linked debit card and is saved towards the set goal. Withdrawals can only be made on a fixed date, which helps to prevent impulsive spending.
Launched in 2016, PiggyVest has over 2 million users and has helped over 1,000,000 people save towards their goals. It has become a popular personal finance management tool in Nigeria, offering investment opportunities and group savings plans.
PiggyVest has raised $1.15 million from eight investors so far. The platform’s co-founders, Joshua Chibueze, Somto Ifezue, and Odunayo Eweniyi, were selected by Endeavor to join its global network of high-impact entrepreneurs. They will join over 30 African entrepreneurs currently part of the network.
How We Reviewed The Best & Most Valuable Startups In Africa
After looking at the different startups in Africa, we considered the following factors to determine the 15 best and most valuable startups in Africa:
- Growth Potential and Scalability: We looked at the potential to achieve significant growth in the coming years. This was determined by our experts after looking through the revenue growth, user acquisition, and market share gains of these startups.
- Funding history: We analyzed the startup’s funding history to gain insights into its potential for success. Startups that have raised significant amounts of funding from reputable investors are more likely to be valuable and successful.
- Customer and Client Base: We evaluated the startup’s customer base and majorly considered growing customer acquisition and retention rates and overall customer satisfaction.
- Current Value: We also considered the present value of the startup and used this in listing them out.
- Funding history: The startup’s funding history can provide valuable insights into its potential for success. A startup with significant funding from reputable investors is more likely to be valuable and successful.
- Competitive advantage: We looked for startups with a clear competitive advantage, such as proprietary technology, a unique business model, or a strong brand