5 Startups Positioned to Be Africa’s Next $1 Billion Company

Africa’s startup ecosystem is experiencing a surge of innovation and entrepreneurial activity, with several companies positioned to become the continent’s next billion-dollar success stories. These companies have attracted significant investments, expanded their operations, and are poised to disrupt their respective markets. 

With the rapid growth of the African startup ecosystem, no sector has grown more quickly or received more funding than FinTech. Examples include OPay, Wave, Flutterwave, Fawry, Interswitch, amongst others who are valued at more than $1B.

This article will highlight some startups that have shown remarkable potentials across industries such as fintech, e-commerce, amongst others. Let’s dive in.

Raise

In a bid to not only address the challenge of modernizing the creation and updates of cap tables, Raise is also tackling the issue of liquidity for employees and founders of African startups. Raise is uniquely positioned to concentrate its efforts on multiple African countries, enabling it to deeply understand and efficiently resolve the distinct challenges prevalent in the region. 

The company with so much has been on the lookout for funding. However, Raise recently secured support from Carta, a prominent equity management platform that was previously valued at $7.4 billion in its most recent private valuation. The details of the agreement between Carta and Raise have not been publicly disclosed.

Similar to Carta, Raise specializes in organizing ownership data for African companies, ensuring accessibility to crucial information. The company is currently operating in Nigeria and Kenya. Notably, the number of companies joining the Raise platform is witnessing a remarkable 60% month-on-month growth rate. As of 2021, Raise successfully manages over 200 cap tables, with total assets exceeding $400 million. Additionally, Raise received support from 500 Startups to expand its technology and further enhance its scale.

54gene

One Top African Startup to watch out for is 54gene as a result of its growth even amidst global pandemic. The company offers comprehensive genetic testing and molecular diagnostics services to both patients and physicians having understood that despite Africa accounting for 16% of the global population, less than 3% of genetic material utilized in global pharmaceutical research originates from the continent.

Following its Series A funding round in April 2020, 54gene has made significant strides. It established its own genetics sequencing and microarray laboratory in Lagos through a partnership with Illumina, a renowned biotech company based in the United States. 

Building on this success, the company successfully concluded a Series B funding round, raising $25 million in September 2021. With the surge in investments in HealthTech following the COVID-19 pandemic, 54gene has emerged as a standout startup to monitor closely in Africa. It has the potential to revolutionize healthcare and positively impact the well-being of Africa’s population, making it a company of significant global importance.

Floatpays

Established for an innovative employee benefit that every business needs, Floatpay helps staff build financial wellness through on-demand earned wage access, paycheck. With FloatPays’ Earned Wage Access (EWA) service, it enables employees to access a percentage of their earned income instantly at any stage of the pay cycle. This means they can address emergencies or unforeseen expenses without resorting to borrowing and incurring interest or late fees.

The company which has a significant opportunity to extend its services to other African countries and having limited access to capital during emergencies poses a major challenge, Floatpay participated in the S21 class of YCombinator and has primarily concentrated its efforts in South Africa thus far. FloatPays has raised $5.1M.

Mono

Mono is a technology company dedicated to empowering the digital economy in Africa. It achieves this by leveraging open banking as a foundational layer for businesses, facilitating access to financial data, identity data, and bank transfer payments.

In October 2021, Mono successfully secured a Series A funding round of $15 million, with Tiger Global as the lead investor. This substantial investment will play a crucial role in supporting Mono’s expansion plans, allowing them to extend their operations beyond Nigeria and Ghana to include markets in Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa, as envisioned by their founders. Mono has raised $17.6M up to date.

Twiga

Twiga Foods, a Kenyan startup, also emerged as a frontrunner in Africa’s agricultural technology sector. With its innovative approach to connecting farmers with markets through a digital platform, Twiga is positioned to become one of Africa’s next billion-dollar companies. 

The company revealed the closure of a remarkable $50 million Series C funding round, led by Creadev, a family office and private equity investor based in Paris and Nairobi in 2021. This latest funding infusion elevates the total funding raised by the company to an impressive $110 million thus far. The total funding stood at $157.1M