Despite slow recovery from a pandemic year and an uncertain financial landscape, 2021 proved to be a remarkable one for the start-up ecosystem in Africa. Many foreign funding investment deals took place in the key markets – Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and Egypt.
Techpoint.africa reports that the fintech industry carted away an enormous share of start-up funding last year, recording a whooping 120% increase than 2020, 2019 and 2018 combined.
Starting with this article, GetFundedAfrica will be showcasing the top five from each of the aforementioned countries.
Here are the top five from Nigeria:
1. Flutterwave: First on the list is the company founded in 2016 to provide payment infrastructure and services across the African continent. It raised a $170 million Series C funding round in 2021, the biggest sum of money ever to be secured by an African tech start-up. The funding pushed the company into unicorn status with fellow fintechs, Interswitch and Jumia, as it is currently valued at over $3 billion. Flutterwave is also the highest valued African start-up on the continent.
2. Moove: Make that moove is what this next organization urges its target market to do. Moove emerged in 2019 and provides vehicle-financing to ride-hailing drivers. Uber is its preferred fleet partner. $63.2 million in Series A funding was its share of investments for last year.
3. FairMoney: The microfinance bank sits pretty in third place with a $42 million Series B funding, enabling the bank to continue to keep its promise of instant, no-collateral loans to its customer base.
4. Kuda: The bank of the free – Nigeria’s first mobile-only bank – was first known as Kudi money in 2017. Two years later, it became Kuda Bank. It raised a $25 million Series A & B funding to further its disruption of banking services with free services – free debit card, zero card maintenance, free transfers, etc.
5. Mono: The baby of this list earns its name through years of existence and funding amount. A tech company, Mono was founded in 2020 and is geared toward using open banking “as a layer for financial data, identity data, and bank transfer payments for businesses.” A $17.125 million in Series A funding secured last year is one way to hit its target.
