About 10 years ago, if you asked a business owner what the most preferred form of payment was, they’d tell you they preferred cash which is the traditional method of transacting. Today, millions of cashless transactions are taking place thanks to the growth of financial technology across the continent through the efforts of top Fintech startups in Africa.
Innovation has paved the way for cashless transactions through financial technology like MTN and Airtel’s mobile money. Not only does this way of transacting have the highest form of convenience, but it is also safe and secure with features like biometrics that guarantee maximum protection.
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Some of the most successful startups today in Africa are in the financial technology sector and have continued to thrive because of the high rate of adaption by many on the continent. These top fintech startups in Africa have created newer ways of carrying out cashless transactions by developing networks across borders connecting different entities across the continent.
A rundown of the top fintech startups in Africa today.
Founded in Lagos, Nigeria Flutterwave is one of the most successful mobile payments startups today with headquarters in San Francisco in the U.S. The company that was launched in 2016 has become one of the fastest-growing fintechs in Africa and one of the most funded startups of 2020. It recently closed a huge deal this year of $170 million valuing it at Unicorn status that is more than $1 billion.
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Flutterwave provides convenient and mobile payments solutions by building technology, tools, and infrastructure for businesses and banks who want to provide a more seamless and secure payments experience for their customers.
Bitfxt makes it on our list of top fintech startups in Africa as a financial software company founded in 2016 in Lagos and specializes in the use and distribution of digital crypto currencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum. Through Bitfxt, you can buy and sell digital currencies in real-time.
The company aims at empowering billions of people in Africa and across the world by bringing digital currencies like Bitcoin to everyone and everywhere. In 2020, the crypto startup secured funding of $15 million that would enable it to do infrastructural expansion and develop new products.
Planet42 is a company in South Africa with Estonian roots that is increasing access to mobility through a car subscription service. Through planet42, customers are availed with financing options and those who cannot afford to buy cars can rent them for a monthly payment. It has partnered with 300 local car dealerships in South Africa that specialize in used cars where it buys the cars from them and rents them out to customers for a monthly fee. In 2020, it secured funding worth $2.4 million in June and debt financing from a U.S company Lendable worth $10 million in December.
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Aella credit was founded in Nigeria and has headquarters in Nigeria, San Francisco, California and Manila in the Phillipines. It was started in 2015 with its main offering as lending. It provides quick loans directly to consumers and uses proprietary information and information from credit bureaus to gauge the creditworthiness of borrowers. In 2020, it managed to secure debt funding of $10 million from HQ Financial Group based in Singapore.
Kuda was founded in Nigeria in 2016 is a digital-only bank that started out as an online-only savings and lending platform. Now it offers all banking services online without a standard physical location and has a full banking license from the Central Bank of Nigeria. In 2020, it raised $10 million in funding led by Target Global. Today, it announced that it has secured $25 million in funding led by Valar Ventures, a company that has invested in a number of fintech startups with Kuda being its first African startup to invest in.
This is a South African based company founded in 2016. It is a FinTech business offering short-term capital solutions to SMEs who have no access to funding, security, financials or track record but have a contract/purchase order with a reputable company/government organization. It secured $5.8 million in funding in 2020 which would help it, partner, with Small and Medium-sized Enterprises to help accelerate their growth.
Based in Cairo, Egypt Moneyfellows is a group lending and savings platform. It uses an automated concept of saving money through money circles a practice that is very popular for saving money in different parts of the world. It allows a group of people (who are normally friends or colleagues) to contribute a fixed instalment every month to a pool with one of the members taking the whole pool as payout every month. It has a mobile-based platform that makes this process more efficient and scalable. It secured funding of $4 million in 2020 led by investors like Partech and Sawari Ventures.
YouVerify is a Lagos-based startup founded in 2017 is a business to business service that allows companies to verify the identity of people. It automates identity and background verification processes, primarily serving startup financial and telecommunication service providers. In March 2020, the company announced that it had received funding of $1.5 million that was led by investors like Orange Digital Ventures Africa.
With remarkable growing in Africa’s startup eco system, these top fintech startups in Africa have innovated diversity within financial technology exposing the entire continent to endless possibilities.
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