The company runs an agent network that uses cash on hand to service customers who can make free deposits, withdrawals and bill payments, and get charged only a 1% fee whenever they send money. To be included in the list of the Africas fastest growing companies, a company had to meet the following criteria: Revenue of at least US $100.000 generated in 2018 (1), Revenue of at least US $1.5mn generated in 2021 (1). This has enabled the bank to place account-opening kiosks in retail stores across the country, bypassing the need for a physical branch network.10TymeBank reaches 3m customers, 700 retail kiosks, ITWeb, March 31, 2021. analyse how our Sites are used. Health insurance products include Day-to-Day plan, Hospital plan, Combined plan, Junior plan, and Senior plan. Its last round was a US$250 million Series C secured last year. The American luxury lifestyle brand storming the Cotswolds, Trump or not, US meltdown could be inevitable, Its the opposite of last year: the Hamptons shifting property market, FT ranking: The Americas Fastest-Growing Companies 2022, Alexandria Pharmaceuticals & Chemical Industries, M.M. Furthermore, entrepreneurs and investors can be exposed to fluctuating exchange rates and strict foreign-exchange control in some countries, which make it harder to maintain consistency. For example, M-Pesa and MTN both have a strong lending component in addition to their wallets, while Paga has leveraged its strong position in wallets to expand into merchant acquiring. First, given the variability between African markets, it is important that fintechs match their value proposition to the market they are entering. Cassava Fintech is a specialised Pan-African Technology company. cookies An independent company (not a subsidiary or branch office of any kind). Kenya Is Becoming a Global Hub of FinTech Innovation A lot of my friends. Fintechs in Africa continue to overshadow all other Flutterwave is on a mission to build payment infrastructure to connect Africa to the global economy. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Lower disposable income and lower customer loyalty in Africa make it harder for fintechs to build viable and profitable business models through customer monetization, even with a large customer base; thus, finding ways to lower customer acquisition cost is vital. See the list below: READ: 10 African startup founders & CEOs to watch in 2022. Nedbank; SARB; Standard Bank; Technology Innovation Agency. 10 up-and-coming South Africa fintechs shaping financial services now Top 8 Most Well-Funded Fintechs in Africa - Fintech Africa The company generated revenues of $88 million in 2020 with a staff base of 1,102 employees. Globally, we have seen fintechs evolving to achieve scale through three major routes. Figures from San Francisco-based tech and digital investment platform Partech, Beck notes, show that African tech start-ups raised $5.2bn in 2021, three times more than the previous year. After record-breaking fintech investment in 2021, funding is slowing down, especially for later-stage start-ups. Opay was founded in 2018 in Lagos, Nigeria. Still, much attention is likely to be paid to the innovative start-ups now attracting record funding, many of which are touting scaleable solutions to Africas deep-seated problems. Africas fast-growing population of more than 1.3 billion people offers a large potential market for fintechs, but actually acquiring customers can be challenging because of factors such as infrastructure constraints and low customer purchasing power. The ranking was created through a complex procedure. Paga. These are also the markets that have attracted the most venture capital and where unicorns (companies valued at $1bn+) and would-be unicorns have proliferated. The country counted the highest number of such companies in the Africa region. All Rights reserved. Will ChatGPT be Homer Simpsons salvation? Africa fintech start-up funding rose 49% in 2020; 2021 should be even higher, due to the recent massive Flutterwave deal. High-profile companies that met the criteria for inclusion were added to the list (27 in total). Companies wishing to participate in next years ranking can pre-register here, List of 100 shows that sectors from fintech to renewable energy to healthcare managed to develop their businesses while much of the world shut down, FT ranking: Africa's Fastest Growing Companies 2023, Global shocks put Africas resilient spirit to the test, Nigerian businesses overcome woes to lead FT-Statista ranking, Off-grid solar offers light and some hope, Egypt must face reality and reform to build on its success stories, Africa healthcare faces dialysis challenge, Africas IT and fintech sectors sustain drive to digitalisation, CIA chief made secret trip to China in bid to thaw relations, Saudi Arabias prickly prince of oil bristles as crude price slides, Train crash in India kills more than 260 people, US defence chief warns China against risky behaviour in Indo-Pacific, Indonesia floats Ukraine peace plan, triggering sharp western criticism, Six Glazer siblings could retain Manchester United stakes under Ratcliffe offer, More than 400 Grail patients incorrectly told they may have cancer, Airline orders point to resurgent post-pandemic travel demand, Everyone will get affected: Tesla jolts EV charging industry, AI ripe to shake up private banking, says Israeli entrepreneur, Active management is a sham no wonder my returns are suspect, There needs to be a health warning: How crypto trading can lead to addiction, Handful of tech stocks drive diverging measures of S&P 500 performance, Inflation back at the top of the fear list for worrywart investors, Management 101: dont drain a reservoir to find your phone. Chipper Cash has raised US$302 million in funding, according to CB Insights and Dealroom, and is valued at US$2 billion. 1: Ham Serunjogi and Maijid Moujaled, Co-founders of Chipper Cash In 2022, we expect to witness Chipper Cash's rapid expansion across more African countries. Nigeria is now home to over 200 fintech standalone companies, plus a number of fintech solutions offered by banks and mobile network operators as part of their product portfolio. 1. This year, MNT-Halanacquired business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce platform Talabeyah to add a fast-moving consumer goods offering to its merchant network. Palmpay has also initiated a strategic partnership with Visa. Time, money, and people need to be managed effectively to launch and sustain growth. Everyone has the right to completely log off: what bosses think about the right to disconnect, Wellcome Leaps Regina Dugan: Odds are irrelevant, if what youre trying to do is important, Sci-fi writer Ted Chiang: The machines we have now are not conscious. Key strategies here have included building agent networks or using preexisting infrastructure such as physical shops for delivery of financial services. Our newsletter gives you access to a curated selection of the most important stories daily. Let us now focus on these leading fintech players that are expected to lead the pace in 2022. For example, South Africas first digital bank, TymeBank, overcame infrastructure challenges through a strategic alliance with major retailers. The submitted revenue figures had to be certified by the chief financial officer, chief executive or an executive committee member of the company. Fintech in Africa: The end of the beginning | McKinsey Best Fintech Companies in Africa - AfricaOTR African fintechs and other stakeholders, including governments and investors, have an opportunity to consider how the sector can achieve sustainability over the long term. Jumo, which is active in seven markets, namely Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Cte dIvoire and Pakistan, says it has served more than 20 million customers and disbursed over 130 million individual loans worth a total of US$4 billion. Overall, we anticipate that the growth opportunity in fintech is likely to be concentrated in 11 key markets: Cameroon, Cte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda, which together account for 70 percent of Africa's GDP and half of its population. A third option is to start with a payment infrastructure solution and evolve into a national digital platform. This inaugural FT list was compiled with Statista, a research company, and ranks African companies by their compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in revenue, between 2017 and 2020. Here is a list of the 10 most exciting ones Affinity Health offers a range of health insurance products. Valuations, however, have come under pressure in recent months. Currently, about 70 percent of fintech start-up deals are financed by investors headquartered outside of Africa, most of them in North America. However, Opay is not registered under Opera but as a separate entity, with Opera owning one-fifth of its shares. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was calculated as follows: ((revenue 2020 / revenue 2017)^(1/3)) 1 = CAGR. All data reported by the companies were processed and checked by Statista. The revenue figures were then converted into US dollars for better comparability in the ranking. This article is a collaborative effort by Max Fltotto, Eitan Gold, Uzayr Jeenah, Mayowa Kuyoro, and Tunde Olanrewaju, representing views from McKinseys Financial Services Practice. Last year, these ventures raised a record of US$2 billion, according to Crunchbase data, up 770% from 2020s US$230 million. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Forbes Magazine called Chipper Cash one of the top 50 fintech businesses in Africa in 2019. An effective governance structure can help to build a strong, positive organizational culture that provides stability, clarity, and directioneven in difficult times. What's the most common final funding type when companies get acquired? But the rigorous screening process (see methodology, below), which also requires senior executives to sign off on the figures submitted by their companies, means the ranking can offer a meaningful insight into the health of these private businesses. Based on analysis of data from the World Bank on adjusted net national income per capita. Currently, Palmpay is working towards onboarding merchants on its platforms so that customers can pay for services via its platform. The 10 most popular fintech companies in Africa are: 1) RainFin RainFin is a South African peer-to-peer lender that connects and allows you to easily and quickly lend or borrow to people around you. Fifth, another African reality is that, with 90 percent of all transactions on the continent still cash based, successful fintechs have had to find ways to reach clients offline. Wave claims to serve more than 10 million users monthly across its operating markets, and says it is the largest mobile money provider in Senegal. Flutterwave operates an API that allows individuals and firms to process credit cards and alternative payment options available in the African continent. These Fintech firms can reach out to the unbanked and underbanked, bringing financial services to the people. These are also the markets that have attracted the most venture capital and where unicorns (companies valued at $1bn+) and would-be unicorns have proliferated. A Wholly-Ghanaian-owned company and one of Africas leading financial services technology solutions providers, ITC has since 2001 developed various products and services geared towards financial inclusion and creating value for the end-user. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Some, such as AfricaWorks, offer co-working spaces a real estate model that has had its difficulties but could plausibly benefit from hybrid post-Covid working patterns. Publicly valued at $95bn as of Q4 2022, this figure has faced some recent scepticism after a round of . GDP per capita in Africa is the lowest of any continent, and fintechs have adjusted to this by, for example, using scale to reduce the cost of serving customers, as M-Pesa has done, or changing the business model to pay-as-you-go for businesses that cant afford advance payments, as Yoco has done. To get a sense of the continent's up-and-coming fintech leaders, we've compiled a list of the top eight most well-funded fintech companies in Africa. The company provides APIs for money transfers, accepting credit cards and for subscription management. As you may well know, many of them raised quite a lot of money last year. There are three broad characteristics of a healthy corporate governance model: strong culture building, productive stakeholder engagement, and a clear talent strategy to build the organizations capabilities. As in the inaugural year, the list was compiled with Statista, a research company. The company has been listed among the top FinTech start-ups in Africa by Disrupt Africa. Flutterwave. PUNCH Newspapers on Instagram: "Branded content: *Flutterwave CEO The cohort includes eleven startups from Nigeria - Ashiri NG, bunce, DeemPay, Fluna, Incash, KoinWa, Stacs, Vagrent . According to some estimates, about 50 percent of Africas software developers are based in just five countries (South Africa, Nigeria, Morocco, Kenya, and Egypt).8e-Conomy Africa 2020 - Africas $180 billion internet economy future, IFC, 2020. Flutterwave has raised US$474.7 million in funding and is valued at US$3 billion, according to CB Insights. These figures are in line with global market leaders.3McKinsey Global Banking Annual Review, McKinsey, December 1, 2021. Top Fintech Companies in Africa | FiFi Finance In fact, according to Techpoint Africa, the fintech sector accounted for 54 per cent of startup investments in 2019. Articles Top 5 fintech startups in Africa Jan 14, 2021 Today, we'll take a look at the most successful fintech startups in Africa Top 5 fintech startups in Africa. In todays world of hybrid working, this is even more critical than before. The following are the fintech firms that made it into the FT annual ranking of Africas fastest-growing companies. Palmpay was founded after a seed round of $40 million was led by Trassion, a Chinese Mobile phone maker. Such strategies have one of two things in common: they either have a repeatable and healthy revenue source coming from core activities, such as card switching for Interswitch or serving merchants with point-of-sale for Yoco, or they have multiple monetization strategies, such as having a B2C arm for a B2B company or vice versa. Following the application phase, Statista examined the officially stated revenue data of about 900 public companies in Africa. That's a whole lot of money that is available to facilitate new product developments, infrastructure upgrades and territorial expansions. As a result, it may be necessary to find ways to boost local participation in venture financing. Unblock notifications in browser settings. Stephen and Luis talk about cybersecurity in the public sector with a focus on African organisations, and the risks, challenges and weaknesses found therein. AfCFTA's promising future: Boosting African trade amidst obstacles, See the ambitious Sh1.4 trillion ($10 billion) project the president of Kenya is involved in, Chat GPT for Building Design: How Archistar brings artificial intelligence to the property sector, detailed how 62% of the $4.65 billion that was raised by African startups in 2021 went to fintechs, 10 African startup founders & CEOs to watch in 2022. Business Insider Africa presents five African fintech startups to watch in 2022. Top Fintech Companies in South Africa List Ranking 2023Updated These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Parent company Opera reported that OPays monthly transactions grew 4.5x to over US$2 billion in December 2020. An impressive feat for a startup that has intentionally stayed under the radar. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent. 10 African startup founders & CEOs to watch in 2022 OPay has raised US$570 million in disclosed funding and is valued at US$2 billion, according to CB Insights. FT ranking: Africa's Fastest Growing Companies 2022 Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! Out of this years top 75 high-growth companies in Africa, 5 are fintech companies. The startup closed its latest round in August 2021, securing US$400 million. These African fintech companies, OPay, PalmPay, Flutterwave and Yoco are listed on the third annual Fintech 250: Top Fintech Companies of 2020. Here are the 5 African fintech companies listed among the world's Top Kevin Kelleher, Unicorns are finding it harder to run with the pack as valuations tumble,, Manish Singh, YC advises founders to plan for the worst amid market teardown,. We bring you daily editor picks from the best Business Insider news content so you can stay updated on the latest topics and conversations on the African market, leaders, careers and lifestyle. 2015 - 2023 Copyright CK Finanzpro GmbH. McKinsey analysis estimates that Africas financial-services market could grow at about 10 percent per annum, reaching about $230 billion in revenues by 2025 ($150 billion excluding South Africa, which is the largest and most mature market on the continent) (Exhibit 2). (1). Its latest round was a US$120 million fundraise it secured last year to improve its technology and product while scaling to customers within and outside Egypt. Wave has raised more than US$290 million in equity and debt capital funding to date, and is valued at US$1.7 billion, according to CB Insights.