Finnovating For Africa 2021 Report

POWERED BY:
Finnovating for Africa 2021
CONTENTS
2 OUR PARTNERS
5 INTRODUCTION
7 METHODOLOGY
10 OVERVIEW
16 COUNTRIES
23 LAUNCH DATES
26 CATEGORIES
Payments and remittances pg 27
Lending and financing pg 30
Business admin pg 31
Insurtech pg 33
Investtech pg 34
Personal finance pg 35
Blockchain pg 36
Open banking pg 37
Security & ID pg 39
Financial education pg 40
41 FUNDING
47 ACQUISITIONS
1
PARTNERS
Flutterwave is a payments technology company that helps businesses
all over the world expand their operations in Africa and other emerging
markets, through a platform that enables cross-border transactions
via one API. www.flutterwave.com
Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest fintech fund by portfolio size,

GreenHouse has emerged as a platform connecting startups,
corporates, and investors driving technological innovation in Africa and
the Middle East. www.greenhouse.capital
A leading Pan-African fintech company, operating the largest digital

payments hub on the continent. www.mfsafrica.com
The largest Open Finance platform in South Africa, aiming to redefine

financial services through the frictionless, safe and secure sharing of
consumer financial data. www.truID.co.za
A mobile payment company building an ecosystem to enable people

to digitally send and receive money, creating simple financial access.
www.mypaga.com
An award-winning technology services partner for organisations

implementing regulated financial services blockchain solutions.
www.demars.io
A venture firm focused on fintech for inclusion in emerging markets.

www.quona.com
The market leading Banking as a Service platform that powers AI for

financial services in emerging markets. www.jumo.world
A strategic communications, branding and media relations consulting

firm focused on Africa. www.abjel.com
A full-service, digital-only bank with a mission to make banking more

accessible, affordable and rewarding for every African on the planet.
www.kudabank.com
2
A WORD FROM OUR PARTNERS
In 2016, when we founded Flutterwave, it became clear as day that we needed to simplify payments
for endless possibilities. 5 years in and we have done more than simplifying payments. We have
supported entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes in their effort to grow the economies of
their countries.
As we continue on our journey of endless possibilities, we realise that we could make the journey
easier for other entrepreneurs and businesses. Businesses need investment. Investors need
businesses. Together, they need information on one another to make their relationships fruitful.
Africa needs more investment and the 2021 Finnovating for Africa report tells the story in numbers of
our growth as a continent and as an ecosystem.
Disrupt Africa has done painstaking work in collating the distribution of Fintech investments in Africa
over the years and in the period under review. This report attempts to explain the reasons why
startups are founded, fail or succeed. In all of these, we understand that there’s a lot we can
achieve with the right information. There are a lot of mistakes we could avoid and decisions we
could have made if we had the right information at the right time. Information gives us wings to fly.
Moreso, information widens our coasts and affords us the needed boots in our arduous journey to
endless possibilities.
We at Flutterwave are happy to support the 2021 version of the Finnovating for Africa report; to make
information accessible to all, to continue supporting the growth of African Startups and bolster
resilience and the entrepreneurial spirit of our dear continent. This, we do, with the conviction that
access to information for all, is an important precondition for a thriving tech ecosystem in Africa.
Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola

Co-founder & chief executive officer, Flutterwave
3
We would like to be the first to welcome you to this landmark publication: Disrupt Africa’s Finnovating
for Africa report. While Disrupt Africa and its partners have released a version of this report
biannually since 2017, this is the first edition available to the public for free. Open access to
information including analysis of the regional spread and growth of fintech ventures, startup activity
in various sub-sectors of the fintech industry, data on fintech startup launches by year, and tracking
of deals, companies, and funds is critical for the growth of the African fintech sector.
We at GreenHouse Capital (GHC) are proud to have partnered with Disrupt Africa and leading African
firms to produce this report and make it free to the public. Building out this pool of data as a
community and democratising access to these market insights benefits every participant in the
African fintech sector. This includes startups, founders, VCs, institutional investors, and more. At GHC
we interact with the kind of data included in this report daily to inform our accelerator programs, our
investment strategies, and our conversations with our portfolio companies.
Before Disrupt Africa and its partners began collecting and distributing this data, there was rarely a
light shone on the African VC and fintech sectors. Startups operated in a vacuum disconnected from
their markets and potential investors, both global and African, that were targeting their sectors. In-
vestors were left building market models from the ground up and searching for startups as if they
were needles in an impossibly large haystack called African markets.
This picture is much different today. Regional African startups are becoming pan-African, and global
capital is flocking to every corner of the continent. Largely thanks to this report and its predecessors,
all participants in the African fintech ecosystem are playing on a more equal footing when it comes to
market knowledge.
This report will help startups understand key market trends that can influence their business and
fundraising strategies. Providing startups with data to understand the current state of the entire
sector is key to unlocking global capital for African fintechs. Similarly, new and existing investors
in the African fintech sector can examine a broad survey of investment trends to understand who is
allocating capital where, and what direction the sector is moving. A clear picture of the quality and
competitiveness of this sector is the first step to new investment.
These are just a few examples of the key insights that can be derived from this report. We invite you to
dive in, absorb, learn, and share this report that Disrupt Africa and its partners have worked diligently
to develop.
Bunmi Akinyemiju Ruby Nimkar

Partner, GreenHouse Capital Principal, GreenHouse Capital
4
INTRODUCTION
To our friends across Africa’s tech startup and investment ecosystem:
The Disrupt Africa team is delighted to present to you the third edition of Finnovating for Africa,
the deep dive into the continent’s fintech startup ecosystem we bring to you every two years. When
we released the first edition of this report back in 2017, it was the first of its kind in Africa, and it
continues to track the development of the space as we release this latest edition.
This year’s publication, which tells the story of an amazing two years in the fintech ecosystem in spite
of the impacts of COVID-19, is slightly different, however. This is the first year we have open-sourced
the report and its associated dataset, a decision we took after doing the same with our flagship
African Tech Startups Funding Report 2020, which we released in January for free and has already
been downloaded by more than 3,500 people.
In the case of Finnovating for Africa, the publication has built a formidable customer base since
the release of its first edition in June 2017, including leading global tech companies, supranational
investors, Big Four consulting companies, leading banks, venture capital firms, and international
trade bodies. Yet it was a concern to us that the data and analysis contained within its pages were not
reaching the people that could arguably benefit from it most - African startup founders.
We determined to put this right, and as such are delighted to have partnered with Flutterwave,
GreenHouse Capital, MFS Africa, truID, Paga, DEMARS, Quona Capital, JUMO, Abjel Communications
and Kuda to open-source the report and deliver it to everyone, corporate or startup, institution or
angel, for free.
The valued support of these esteemed partners will ensure the report ends up in the hands of
thousands of entrepreneurs, who can use the data and trends it details to inform their own business
development and fundraising strategies. We cannot thank them enough, and hope to work further
with them in the future on ensuring access to leading data and analysis remains free.
But what story does that data have to tell? When we published the inaugural version of Finnovating
for Africa four years ago, fintech was just emerging as a leading sector within the wider African tech
startup ecosystem. In 2019, we found there had been significant development. In 2021, meanwhile,
the sector has truly come of age, in terms of startup activity and ecosystem maturity, but especially
from the funding and acquisitions perspective.
The ecosystem has really exploded in the last nine months or so, led by Nigeria. The US$200 million
acquisition of Lagos-based payments company Paystack by Stripe got the ball rolling in late
2020, and in 2021 investment in African fintech really peaked. The US$170 million round raised by
Flutterwave in March caught all the headlines, with the startup becoming a rare African “unicorn”, but
funding is flooding in across the board.
5
INTRODUCTION Finnovating for Africa 2021
Why are entrepreneurs and investors alike so attracted to African fintech? Mainly because the size
of the opportunity is immense. Financial technologies startups in Africa are rolling out a wide variety
of solutions that are competing with established incumbents or helping those incumbents
become more agile and effective, but, unlike in more developed markets, in many African countries
or verticals they are providing access to financial services for the first time. On a continent where
more than half of adult Africans still lack access to any kind of banking services, according to World
Bank figures, fintech startups are building inclusion from the ground up.
The scale of the challenge, and the resultant opportunities from both impact and return on
investment perspectives, is huge, and while the success of mobile money in many markets in Africa
demonstrated the willingness of Africans to adopt alternative financial solutions, startups are
continuing to pioneer solutions to access problems in many areas.
This report tells that story, taking a detailed look at the quickening development of African fintech
over recent years - the startups driving the ecosystem, where they are based, what spaces they are
active in, how much money they have raised, and, increasingly so, how they are exiting. All of this is
compared with the state of play as it was at the time of the first edition in 2017 and the more recent
one in 2019, in order to track progress.
Though the report finds the sector is still going through a phase of tremendous growth, it also details
the maturation of the space, as more advanced financial services are made available, as opposed to
the simple payments or remittances platforms that dominated the previous edition.
For entrepreneurs in the fintech sector, it highlights opportunities and challenges, while for investors
it provides key information on which startups and sub-sectors have proven most attractive to their
counterparts. The report also details trends in the fintech innovation space that will prove relevant
to policymakers and large corporations, especially established players within the financial services
space in Africa.
We very much hope you find the information contained here valuable. As with all of Disrupt Africa’s
industry reports, we greatly value your feedback as we strive to ensure our publications offer as
much value as possible to your business and the development of the African tech ecosystem. Please
let us know what more we can do.
Thanks for reading,
Gabriella Mulligan Tom Jackson
Co-founders of Disrupt Africa
6
METHODOLOGY
7
METHODOLOGY Finnovating for Africa 2021
The Finnovating for Africa Report 2021 is based on data extracted from a list of 576 fintech start-
ups from across Africa collated by the Disrupt Africa team. This list was built over a number of years
from Disrupt Africa’s own reporting on the African tech space, as well as additional research and
information provided by third parties.
Fintech - financial technology - is an umbrella term used to describe tech-enabled solutions

disrupting traditional financial services, and challenging incumbent service providers. While
increasingly, many companies include an element of fintech in their work, and incumbents launch
fintech-esque products in-house, this report focuses on startups with a fintech solution at the core
of their business.
So, for example, while an e-commerce platform which accepts payments is not a fintech startup for
the purposes of this report; an agri-tech company operating a crowdfunding solution specifically
for farmers is considered a fintech venture. A fintech product rolled out by a bank or established
company will not be included in this report even if it self-refers as a “startup”.
In previous editions of this publication we have broken fintech down into nine categories, and in
this report we continue with 10 categories. Payments and remittances covers startups facilitating
the transfer of money within or between countries using technology. Lending and financing
focuses on companies allowing users to directly obtain credit-based services, or smooth that
process by using technology to prove creditworthiness.
Business administration includes a range of back-end enterprise solutions including accounting,

invoicing, payroll management and tax; while investtech startups are offering solutions that allow
users to invest in and fund a variety of projects online.
Insurtech looks at the startups making innovative insurance products available online. Personal
finance covers startups operating in the savings or personal financial management spaces; while
security and ID denotes startups securing online financial services or helping firms with their Know
Your Customer (KYC) and due diligence processes.
The blockchain section focuses on startups active in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space,
including those that apply these technologies to other fields. Education covers businesses focused
on improving the level of financial literacy in Africa. A new section is also included in this year’s
edition of the report, open banking, which covers startups facilitating the use of open APIs to
enable third-party developers to build applications and services around financial institutions.
A note on the definition of a startup. In deciding what “startups” to include and exclude from this
study, Disrupt Africa has followed its usual editorial process, working on a case-by-case basis
to decide whether a company qualifies as a startup. The definition of startup is more subjective
than objective in any region; especially so in Africa where the scene is so nascent and there are no
established qualifications in terms of revenues and employee numbers.
8
METHODOLOGY continued Finnovating for Africa 2021
Startups are young businesses where success is not guaranteed, where people choosing to work
for the company are forgoing stability in exchange for innovation and the promise of tremendous
growth. This ability to grow is key, what differentiates startups from small businesses is the
potential - and desire - to scale regardless of geography.
More specifically, the majority of companies featured in this report are still in the process of scaling
up, their potential profitability is still growing - regardless of whether profitability has to date been
achieved -, and they may still seek external funding.
Companies that are headquartered outside of Africa, or have no African involvement in the
founding/management team - we do not consider “African”.
Companies that are a spin-off or built by a corporate or other large entity; have developed past the
point of being a startup; or have been acquired and subsumed into an established company are
excluded going forth (ie. they will feature in the year of acquisition but not thereafter).
Launch dates of startups have been ascertained via our own research and surveys of the companies
in question. Data on funding and acquisition comes from our separate annual report on funding for
African tech startups, The African Tech Startups Funding Report.
Given the impact of COVID-19, and the limited number of startup-focused programmes that have
been able to operate over the last 18 months, this edition of the report omits the lists of accelerator
and incubator programmes for fintech startups, and initiatives run by banks in Africa for such
companies, that have been included in previous years.
We do not claim to have identified every single African fintech startup in existence in 2021 - there
may well be some which have slipped through the net. The data contained in this report is, none-
theless, what we believe to be the most comprehensive information available currently on startup
activity in the continent’s fintech space.
Disrupt Africa data seeks to ascertain a minimum figure from which the growth of the African
fintech startup ecosystem can be tracked. As such, comparative data used to reflect on progress
over the years stems from previous editions of this report, published four and two years ago in June
2017 and June 2019.
9
OVERVIEW
10
OVERVIEW Finnovating for Africa 2021
The growth continues!

The African fintech space continues to hold onto the crown as the most popular space in the
continent’s tech startup scene. Since Disrupt Africa released the inaugural Finnovating for Africa
report in 2017, fintech has consistently been the most populated and most funded sector in
African tech. The data from 2021 is no different - the growth has continued with 576 fintech start-
ups currently active in Africa.
The number of fintech startups has increased by 17.3 per cent on the data from the last edition of
this report, released in 2019. In turn, the 491 startups identified in 2019 was growth of 63.1 per cent
on the 2017 count - displaying a lovely upward curve over the last four years. Overall, the number of
fintech startups active in Africa has increased by 89.4 per cent between 2017 and 2021.
Growth in fintech startups, by year
17.3%
63.1%
2017 2019 2021

301 491 576
89.4%
Overall growth
And the growth story is taking place continent-wide. While West Africa saw particularly strong
growth in the number of fintech startups in the region - Nigerian figures were up 42.6 per cent on
2019, Ghanaian companies grew by 25 per cent over the same period, and Ivory Coast’s count was
up 100 per cent, to cite a few hotspots - the fintech space has expanded substantially in all of
Africa’s corners.
The launch rate of new ventures has slowed - almost stagnated - in 2021, with only four new
companies opening their doors so far this year. However, the rate of new launches remained high
in the preceding two years, with 57 new startups launching in 2020, and 59 in 2019. As such,
20.8 per cent of companies featured in this Finnovating for Africa report have launched since the
publication of the last edition.
11
OVERVIEW continued Finnovating for Africa 2021
Fintech launches, by year
2019 59
2020 27
2021 4
The overall growth trajectory of the fintech space is made even more impressive by the churn rate
in the sector. 109 of the startups included in the 2019 edition of this report have since closed - 22.2
per cent of that year’s total population. Similarly, by 2019, 72 of the 301 startups counted in the
2017 census had closed (23.2 per cent). As such, the sustained growth in the number of fintech
startups should also be viewed through the lens of a relatively high churn rate, which sees over a
fifth of startups close their doors over a two year period.
Increasingly seen as a major contributor to financial inclusion in Africa and a real alternative to the
incumbents playing in the financial services space, African fintech is in its prime, and is clearly an
example of entrepreneurship thriving on the continent.
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The space leads African tech when it

comes to investments and acquisitions.
African fintech startups are far more likely to raise funding, or get acquired, than a company
operating in any other sector of the continent’s growing tech and innovation space.
When it comes to funding, 277 fintech ventures have banked a staggering US$874,968,465 in the
last 6.5 years, since Disrupt Africa began tracking funding into the African ecosystem, more than
twice that raised by any other vertical over the same period. The amount raised by fintech startups
on the continent is growing each year, at even greater rates, with the sector having already doubled
its 2020 total in the first six months of 2021.
2015 - 2021
277
fintech
ventures
US$874,968,465
2021 is shaping up to be an extraordinary year for fintech investment in Africa, with later-stage
startups raising bumper rounds at Series A and beyond, and earlier-stage ventures also increasingly
attracting the attention of investors, who see fintech as both a huge opportunity and a relatively safe
haven in the era of COVID-19.
The growth in funding is primarily driven by the “big three” markets of Nigeria, South Africa and
Kenya, and the payments and remittances and lending and financing verticals, though there has been
strong growth across the board.
Moreover, there is increasing evidence of M&A activity in African fintech, more so than in any other
sector.
Indeed, Disrupt Africa data suggests fintech businesses are more likely to be acquired than those
in any other space. The sector has seen seven acquisitions in a period of two years, compared with
10 in the previous eight; and in the reported US$200 million acquisition of Nigerian fintech startup
Paystack by Stripe last year can lay claim to one of the landmark moments of the African tech space
in the last decade. There is much more to come.
13
Welcome signs of
ongoing consolidation.
Startup closures are never good, but the early years of the fintech boom in Africa were
characterised by an understandable rush from entrepreneurs to build the “next big” Nigerian
payments platform or Kenyan agri-financing service. This resulted in unsustainable levels of
competition in some sectors and geographies, with multiple of the same types of businesses
launching, achieving some level of traction, and even securing investment. Saturation point has
been reached in a number of these cases, as the fintech space shows welcome signs of maturation.
Fintech startup closures 2019-2021
59.6% were based in South Africa, Kenya

or Nigeria.
40.3% were active in either payments

and remittances, or lending
and financing.
As noted previously, 109 of the fintech ventures featured in the 2019 edition of this report have since
closed their doors. That represented 22.2 per cent of the 2019 total. Closures in and of themselves
are obviously not positive things, but the countries and verticals in which most of these “fails’’ have
taken place suggests a market that is correcting itself.
The majority of these startup closures occurred in the more-populated markets and categories. Just
shy of 60 per cent of the fintech startups that ceased operations between 2019 and 2021 were based
in the three main markets - South Africa (26 startups; 23.9 per cent), Kenya (20 startups; 18.3 per
cent), and Nigeria (19 startups, 17.4 per cent). Given that these were the three pioneering fintech
markets in Africa, it is only natural that the majority of closures occur there, as “winners” emerge and
aspiring entrepreneurs focus their attention on less developed markets.
The same trend is evident when it comes to verticals. Payments and remittances startups, with 31
closures, accounted for 28.4 per cent of those that stopped operating in the last two years, while
lending and financing startups (17 startups, 11.9 per cent) were also more likely to fail than other
verticals. As the two most developed sub-sectors of the fintech ecosystem, market leaders have by
now emerged, and barriers to entry are higher, and thus failure is more likely. Increasingly, startups
are turning their attention to other areas.
14
African fintech startups are rushing to

rebundle the bank.
The onset of the fintech revolution in Africa was largely based on startups “unbundling the bank”,
focusing on niche segments such as payments, lending or, more recently, insurance and investments.
Yet this has changed over the last few years, and increasingly African fintechs are “rebundling”.
We first flagged this new trend back in 2019, when 73 of 491 fintech startups were found to have
operations in more than one category, 14.9 per cent of the total. This was up from just eight per cent
in 2017. And the trend has only become more apparent in the two years since. In fact, 143 of the 576
fintech startups tracked in 2021 are multi-category, representing 24.8 per cent of the total.
Startups operating in multiple categories 2017-2021
2021 143 24.8%
2019 73 14.9%
2017 24 8%
Rebundling, and indeed a move towards establishing full-scale digital banks, is most common in more
advanced markets. Thirty-nine (27.3 per cent) of the multi-category startups are in Nigeria, which has
seen big growth to become a leader in this regard, and is home to some of the most obvious examples
of the phenomenon - such as Kuda, Flutterwave, Cowrywise, and OneFi.
There are 31 (21.7 per cent) multi-category companies in South Africa, and 30 (21 per cent) in Kenya,
meaning 70 per cent of diversified fintechs are in the three most developed markets. This is up from
67.1 per cent in 2019.
From a sector perspective, the most common crossovers are also in the most populated categories.
Increasingly, payments and remittances and business admin platforms are merging into one, while
there are also strong ties between payments and lending and financing companies. Investtech and
personal finance platforms are also likely to go hand-in-hand, while blockchain usually combines with
other verticals too.
Anecdotally, an increasing number of new launches involve multi-vertical offerings, whereas in the
past startups tended to begin with one particular focus and move into other areas later. More and
more startups are opening their doors with the stated purpose of being a “digital bank”.
All of this is good for customers, who are able to access a variety of services from one provider, and
also, obviously, for fintech startups themselves, who can sell more products to the same or different
customer segments, aiding scale. What is more, there could be a significant benefit from a financial
inclusion perspective, with digital banks potentially succeeding where traditional incumbents have
largely failed in providing affordable, accessible financial services to the masses.
15
COUNTRIES
16
COUNTRIES
powered by
" At Paga we are driven by the singular purpose of making it simple for one billion people to
access and use money. Paga is a leading emerging markets Mobile Payments company; with
it’s next-gen, scalable, omni-channel technology and open APIs, Paga is empowering the
internet economy.
Paga has built an ecosystem that simplifies payments, commerce, and access to financial
services; a comprehensive product ecosystem for individuals and sellers, leveraging the strength
of its Agent Network and robust payment infrastructure.
Paga’s first market is Nigeria, with commercial launch in August 2012. In Nigeria, Paga is the
leading mobile money operator licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria and offers a range of
services such as: free money transfers, deposit to bank accounts, buying/sending of airtime,
bill payments, remittances, bulk disbursements & collections that are accessible via its online
channels (web/app) and on any basic mobile phone via dialing *242#.
Paga also owns the largest distribution network for financial services in Nigeria through its
nationwide agent network - mom and pop stores, pharmacies, grocery stores - where people can
get access to financial services.
While we are honoured and celebrated as the leading mobile money and payments company,
we believe strongly that ‘together we go further’ and this is why we are happy to partner with
"
Disrupt Africa in showcasing the many Nigerian and African start-ups and stakeholders, which
are joining us in the journey of transforming the continent through Fintech.
Daniel Oparison
Head of Growth; Brand Strategy, Marketing & Customer Experience at Paga
17
COUNTRIES Finnovating for Africa 2021
Finnovation is continent-wide.
In 2021, Disrupt Africa found fintech startups operating in 25 African countries. Totalling 576 start-
ups on the continent, the number of ventures per country ranges from one - in countries as diverse
as Libya and Botswana - to 154 in the most populated market, South Africa.
This spread is down slightly on 2019 figures, when startups were operating in 28 countries, but still
up from 2017 when companies were documented in 20 locations.
Naturally, there are some favourite markets. South Africa has been the most populated market
since Disrupt Africa data began, and this remained true in 2021 - home to 154 companies, and
accounting for 26.7 per cent of ventures on the continent.
Nigeria is keeping hot on the leader’s heels, with 144 fintechs making up 25 per cent of Africa’s
total. Some way behind, Kenya falls into third place with 93 companies in operation - 16.1 per cent
of the total. While trailing substantially as compared to South Africa and Nigeria, Kenya’s activity
is nonetheless far ahead of subsequent markets.
While there were nine new

fintech markets to emerge for Tunisia
the first time in the 2019 edition Morocco 6
of this report, in 2021 there was 7
only one new entry - Botswana, Algeria Egypt
which marked one startup
2 39
in operation.
Mali
1 Libya
Overall, while levels of activity 1
Senegal
differ and ecosystems are at 9 Ivory Benin
vastly different points in their 1 Ethiopia
Coast Ghana Nigeria
lifecycle, it is fair to say that 1
Sierra
10 38 144 Cameroon 3
fintech has infiltrated markets Leone 9 Uganda
continent-wide, and is changing DRC 24 Kenya
financial markets and people’s 2 Rwanda 6
93
25%
lives across Africa.
Tanzania 16.1%
4
Angola
3 Zambia
Fintech startups, by country 11
Zimbabwe
Botswana 6 Mauritius
1
1
26.7%
South Africa
154
Check out our startup partner: Check out our startup partner: Check out our startup partner:
18
COUNTRIES continued Finnovating for Africa 2021
COVID-19 forces a pick-up of the

“big three” markets..
The share of fintech activity contributed by the “big three” markets of South Africa, Nigeria
and Kenya has begun to creep back up since 2019. In 2021, 67.9 per cent of startups tracked (391
ventures) were based in South Africa, Nigeria, or Kenya - a rise on 2019 when 65.2 per cent of
companies came from the “big three” markets. Up until this point we had been witnessing a decline
in domination of the big three markets - in 2017, 74.4 per cent of startups were based in
these countries.
Share of fintech startups based in “big three” markets, by year
2017 74.4%
2019 65.2%
2021 67.9%
As noted previously, there was a concurrent squeeze in the total number of active
markets in 2021 as compared to earlier editions of the report; and in particular 2021 saw a
drop in the number of “new entrant” countries. All these factors in our assessment depict the
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the startup landscape in Africa - with “high-risk” funding
opportunities dropping off, in favour of funds being consolidated into more tried-and-tested, stable
markets. As such, there has been less opportunity for new startup launches and less backing for
companies in “greenfield”-type situations on the continent.
That being said, the “top six”, so to speak - the big three, as well as Egypt, Ghana and Uganda - has
performed particularly well in the period since 2019, contributing a full 85.4 per cent of startups -
492 companies. This is up from 81.7 per cent in 2019; which had been a decline from 88.4 per cent in
2017. Across the board, not just limited to fintech, Egypt has been experiencing a boom in its startup
landscape over the last few years; while Ghana has also been going from strengh-to-strength, led by
its fintech sector. These energetic markets have in particular held their own amidst the challenging
economic times and have fuelled the domination of the “top six” in 2021.
19
Nigeria becoming continent’s

fintech powerhouse..
Nigeria has always been a strong player in the startup - and indeed fintech - ecosystem in Africa,
however, it has been going from strength-to-strength in the fintech space over the past couple
of years, and has essentially taken over from South Africa in being the market to watch for
exciting news.
While Nigeria didn’t quite catch South Africa in terms of startup numbers in 2021 - Nigeria was home
to 144, South Africa 154 - it saw vastly larger growth, and we believe may overtake South Africa
by the next edition of this report. The 144 startups Nigeria hosts in 2021 is up 42.6 per cent on the
101-strong population it had in 2019, which in turn was up 36.5 per cent on 2017.
Growth in number of Nigerian fintech startups, by year
42.6% 144
36.5% 101
74
2017 2019 2021
Funding-wise, Nigerian fintech steals the show. Of the 277 fintech funding rounds tracked by
Disrupt Africa between 2015 and mid-2021, 108 of these rounds went to Nigerian startups, totalling
US$467,901,000 in investment and accounting for 53.4 per cent of funds raised since tracking
began. This is a far higher total dollar amount than any other country in Africa (South Africa, the
nearest competitor, raised a total US$216,124,800 over the same period).
Fintech funding in Nigeria has been particularly stand-out in 2021, with US$208,225,000 already
raised this year to date - more than the combined total amount of fintech funding secured in Africa in
2020 (or any other preceding year).
Of course, no discussion of Nigerian fintech in 2021 can happen without mention of the Flutterwave
round of March, which saw the startup raise US$170,000,000, propelling it to “unicorn” status with a
valuation of over US$1 billion. This followed hot on the heels of 2020’s standout news - when Nigeria’s
Paystack was acquired by Stripe in October, in a deal reported in the region of US$200 million. Given
Nigeria’s dominance of the market, we will not be surprised to hear of more similar success stories
emerging from the country over coming years.
20
African fintech
US$ 107,352,000 US$ 160,319,065 US$ 208,225,000
Total amount of Total amount of Total amount of NIGERIAN

funding in 2019 funding in 2020 funding in 2021 so far
of this year's
63% fintech funding
so far
QUONA
CAPITAL
A venture firm focused
on fintech for
inclusion in emerging
markets
Quona’s global portfolio of 35+ companies includes:
More information: quona.com
21
Preferred verticals depend on

stage of market development..
With the development of a fintech ecosystem typically beginning with the emergence of payments
platforms, before divergence into areas such as lending, insurance, investments and savings occurs,
it is possible to track the maturity of an ecosystem by analysing what areas its startups are active in.
In more developed fintech markets such as South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, payments and
remittances startups are less dominant, accounting for one-third or less of each market’s total
tally of fintech startups. In less developed markets, however, they are dominant, with such platforms
accounting for 43.6 per cent of Egyptian fintechs, 45.8 per cent in Uganda, and 70 per cent in the
Ivory Coast.
By the same token, the “big three” fintech markets have a higher prevalence of emerging verticals
such as insurtech, investtech and blockchain than less developed ecosystems, as activity in these
spaces is directly linked to ecosystem maturity.
Insurtech, for example, accounts for 19.5 per cent of South African startups and 16.1 per cent of
Kenyan ones, while 21.5 per cent of Nigerian fintechs are in the investtech space. Blockchain startups
are overwhelmingly from the three main markets, and in the newest vertical of all - open banking - are
only startups from Nigeria and South Africa. Emerging sectors like this are far less common in less
developed markets.
There has been a slight reversal of this key trend over the last two years, however. While between
2017 and 2019 the percentage of startups in major markets that operated in payments was falling
significantly, between 2019 and 2021 it ever so slightly increased again. As discussed previously in
this section, the effects of COVID-19 and its aftershocks mean there is comfort in the familiar for
entrepreneurs and investors, with activity strengthening slightly in more developed verticals as in
the more developed markets. For now, this has held emerging sectors like insurtech and investtech
back, but we expect this to be simply a blip as Africa’s fintech ecosystems continue to mature as the
pandemic is overcome.
Proportion of payments and remittances

startups in “big three” markets, by year
South Africa Kenya Nigeria
2021 27.3% 21.5% 33.3%

2019 21.3% 15.4% 32.7%
2017 32% 34% 41%
22
LAUNCH DATES
23
LAUNCH DATES Finnovating for Africa 2021
Rate of new fintech launches

over its peak.
While there has been a solid number of new fintech startups launched since the last edition of
Finnovating for Africa was released in 2019, the rate of new launches is definitely over its peak -
arguably no bad thing.
In 2021 so far, only four new companies have joined the market. In the preceding two years there was
more activity - there were 57 new launches in 2020, and 59 the year before that. In total, 20.8 per
cent of the fintechs currently active in Africa have launched since 2019.
However, at its height, the pace of new launches was almost double this (2019/2020) level. 92 of
Africa’s fintech startups - 16 per cent - launched in the space of a single year in 2016. This was
followed by a further 87 new companies joining us in 2017 (15.1 per cent of ventures active today),
and 88 fintechs began operating in 2018 (15.3 per cent).
24
LAUNCH DATES continued Finnovating for Africa 2021
Given that there is such a clear peak in startup launches between 2016 and 2018, and since then
there has been a continued slowing , it is fair to say that there has now been a shift away from the
scramble to be “the next big thing” in African fintech. Rather, existing companies are becoming
better established and commonly expanding their service offerings to reach into multiple
verticals, there is a renewed focus on consolidation, and there is an overall maturing of the space
which is reflected in the dwindling rate of launches.
This is no bad thing. In its peak “launch mode” days, the fintech market was characterised by a
flood of new companies promising the sky with little regard for competition and the landscape
of the market in general. This has ebbed, and been replaced by a more dependable, more joined-
up version of the fintech ecosystem. This new ecosystem is giving traditional financial services
providers a run for their money, and making a real difference to financial inclusion prospects on
the continent.
Launch dates of fintechs active in 2021
2021 4
2020 57
2019 59
2018 88
2017 87
2016 92
2015 69
2014 42
2013 25
2012 25
2011 11
2010 4
2009 5
2008 2
2007 4
2004 1
2002 1
25
CATEGORIES
26
PAYMENTS AND REMITTANCES

powered by
"
A little over a year ago, it was the biggest and richest states that were struggling the most with
the pandemic. Fast forward to a year and half later, and there are two tales of recovery. While the
global North prepares for a herd immunity and a “pre-Covid” life, African countries along with
their emerging counterparts are struggling to obtain vaccines.
The pandemic highlights the importance of a stronger push towards digital capabilities. As the
situation remains uncertain, the most resilient firms and individuals have been those that can
run their economic affairs digitally.
Africa has been on a path of digital transformation in payments. Just a decade ago, mobile
money payments in Africa were a small fast-growing sector, today there are 1.2 billion mobile
money wallets in the world, half of which are in Africa. In the last year we’ve seen record
investments in African fintech companies, and record valuations of mobile money businesses.
M-PESA’s referenced valuation is at least between US$7-10 billion, and could be higher; the MTN
Group values its mobile money business at US$5 billion, while Airtel’s mobile money business is
valued just under US$3 billion.
COVID-19 pushed many customers to use digital tools in the sending markets. It became the only
choice for some time. People tried it and liked it. So, this trend is there to stay and grow.
But the competition is still with cash. To build more resilient societies, we have some way to go
in moving more people towards digital payments. First, we need to reduce the cost of services,
and we need to start linking additional services on P2P transactions -like insurance- to deepen
financial inclusion and resilience.
And while we would love for every mobile transaction to pass through our MFS Africa Hub, we
"
think that there’s so much more to do, and still so much space for more innovators to enter the
payments space to help digitize African payments.
Dare Okoudjo
Chief executive officer, MFS Africa
27
PAYMENTS AND REMITTANCES Finnovating for Africa 2021
Payments and remittances rebound

amidst search for reliable markets.
Among the earliest segments to emerge in African fintech, the payments and remittances space
continued to prove the most populated in 2021, as in the previous two editions of this report. The
significant pain points inhibiting payments on the continent, as well as moving money around and in/
out of the continent, means entrepreneurs are ever-eager to provide new solutions to plug the gaps
left by incumbents in the financial services sector.
There are now 206 startups active in this space - growth of 24.1 per cent on the 166 startups
operating in payments and remittances in 2019, which in turn was up 32.8 per cent on the 125
companies tracked in 2017.
While consistently the most popular sub-sector of fintech, the proportion of startups accounted for
by the payments and remittances segment had been in decline over previous years as the fintech
market continent-wide evolved and more startups emerged in more varied segments.
However, there was a turn-around over 2019-2021, with the category strengthening slightly, perhaps
echoing the more timid decision-making in evidence by entrepreneurs and investors over the
pandemic-affected period. In 2021, payments and remittances accounted for 35.8 per cent of fintech
ventures; in 2019 this figure was 33.8 per cent; while in 2017 it had been 41.5 per cent.
Generally speaking, the more developed an ecosystem is, the more diverse and equally spread its
fintech startups across sub-sectors. Segments like payments and remittances tend to receive less
attention in the more mature markets, as entrepreneurs span a wider breadth of verticals.
Over this last period in question, however, even the “big three” markets have seen activity in core
spaces redoubled. Nigeria overtook South Africa in 2021 as the key market for payments and
remittances - home to 48 ventures (23.3 per cent of the category’s total activity). The country saw
growth of 45.5 per cent from the 33 companies it hosted in 2019; 31 in 2017. While the payments and
remittances space had been dwindling in importance in Nigeria - dropping from encompassing 41 per
cent of Nigerian fintech startups in 2017, to 32.7 per cent in 2019 -, this segment’s proportion begun
to sneak back up in 2021, making up 33.3 per cent of the country’s fintech ventures.
A similar story plays out in South Africa, which now hosts 42 such startups - 20.4 per cent of the
category - up slightly from 38 companies in 2019, and 30 in 2017. These numbers mean payments and
remittances startups account for 27.3 per cent of local fintech companies; up from 21.3 per cent in
2019, which had been a decline from 32 per cent in 2017.
Check out our startup partner:
28
PAYMENTS AND REMITTANCES continued Finnovating for Africa 2021
Some way behind in startup numbers, Kenya, Egypt and Ghana all saw the payments and remittances
space boom in the 2021 data. With 32 startups, Kenya saw the sector grow 60 per cent on 2019
figures; Egypt saw its number of startups expand by 70 per cent to 17; and Ghana now has 13
companies, up 44.4 per cent from 2019.
There are also 11 payments and remittances startups in Uganda; seven in the Ivory Coast; six apiece in
Senegal and Zambia; five from Cameroon ; three each in Morocco and Zimbabwe; and two in Angola,
Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Tunisia. Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and
Mauritius each had one.
Proportion of payments and remittances startups, by country
8.3%
Egypt
2.9%
23.3%
Senegal
Ivory 2.4%
Coast GhanaNigeria 5.3%
Cameroon
3.4% Uganda
Kenya
6.3%
15.5%
2.9% Zambia
Other
12.2%
South Africa 20.4%
29
LENDING AND FINANCING Finnovating for Africa 2021
Lending and financing full steam

ahead with pan-African growth.
The lending and financing space has continued to grow over the last two years, as Africans continue
to face difficulties in accessing credit-based services. Typically, either locally relevant product
offerings don’t exist; or the data required for the credit-scoring systems underpinning such services
isn’t available for many African consumers and businesses. Enter African entrepreneurs, unlocking
credit services through localised knowledge and tech-enabled solutions.
There were 134 lending and financing startups counted in 2021, making up 23.3 per cent of the
continent’s fintech companies. This is up 42.6 per cent on the 94 ventures operating in 2019, which in
turn was up 44.6 per cent on 2017 - an exemplary four-year run of growth.
In this sector, the growth has been continent-wide - while the “big three” markets put on particularly
strong performances, their overall share of lending and financing startups continued to decline as
newer markets also developed at pace.
In 2021, there were 36 startups from Nigeria, up 50 per cent from 24 companies in 2019, and 20 in
2017. South Africa contributed 32 ventures, up 28 per cent from 25 startups in 2019, and 22 in 2017.
Kenya was home to 27 of these startups, an increase of 28.6 per cent from 21 companies in 2019, and
11 in 2017.
Proportion of lending and financing startups from “big three” markets, 2017-2021
82% 74.4% 70.9%
2017 2019 2021

Similarly, Uganda saw 10 per cent growth between 2019 and 2021, with 11 startups now active in the
country; Egypt enjoyed 200 per cent growth on 2019, now home to nine companies; Ghana measured
125 per cent growth with nine startups currently in operation; and Zambia posted 150 per cent growth
to host five startups in 2021. There was also activity in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Morocco and Rwanda. As
such, the extent of pan-African expansion of the lending and financing segment is clear to see.
Check out our startup partner: Check out our startup partner:
30
BUSINESS ADMIN Finnovating for Africa 2021
Progressive growth in a diversified

business admin space.
The business administration category held its place as the third most popular segment for the third
edition running of this publication. In 2021, there are 117 startups active in this space (20.3 per cent of
fintech ventures), up 56 per cent on the 75 operating in 2019 (15.3 per cent of the total). This was also
a solid 66.6 per cent increase on 2017 figures - with the business admin space building progressively
over the past four years.
It is no surprise the business admin category attracts entrepreneurial attention. Although historically
Africa has been a notoriously cash-based, off-grid and manual market when it comes to conducting
business, this is very rapidly changing; and everyone from market traders to big companies are eager
for and receptive to tech-forward options to give their business a competitive edge. Entrepreneurs
are rushing to provide innovative tech-powered services to support this next phase of African
business.
A notable feature of this segment is that 51.3 per cent of business administration ventures are
also active in the payments and remittances space - “multi-category startups” - giving a nod to the
increasing convergence of these two spaces. Business admin startups are increasingly adding
payments to their locker, or payments startups are adding additional tools as startups look to create
more rounded product portfolios.
of business administration ventures are also

51.3% active in the payments and remittances space.
60
startups
Business admin Payments and
startups remittances startups
31
BUSINESS ADMIN continued Finnovating for Africa 2021
South Africa and Kenya lead the space, home to 26 startups (22.2 per cent of companies) each. This
displays a significant slow-down in South Africa, which contributed 26.7 per cent of the sector’s
startups in 2019 and 33 per cent in 2017. For Kenya, it is a jump up from 18.7 per cent of the category
in 2019, although lower than the 24 per cent it was home to in 2017. Nigeria is also home to 21
business administration startups (17.9 per cent of the category).
Egypt contributed 10 startups (8.5 per cent of the total); there were nine from Ghana; six from the
Ivory Coast, four from Senegal; three apiece from Cameroon and Morocco; and two each from Rwanda
and Tunisia. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia were
home to one business admin startup each.
The business admin category has seen a surprisingly strong period over the past two years; 2020 in
particular saw 14 new companies join the ranks of those busy in this space - however, the majority
of these were diversifications by existing companies into the sector rather than brand new launches.
The increase in cross-overs does seem to be the key fuel for growth in the space at the moment,
and we see no reason for this to stall as the tendency towards diversified product portfolios
further develops.
32
INSURTECH Finnovating for Africa 2021
Insurtech stagnates, hit by pandemic?

In the 2019 edition of this report, Disrupt Africa wrote the insurtech space in Africa was beginning to
take off, following over 200 per cent growth in the preceding two years. However, in the period since
2019, African insurtech has stagnated, possibly a victim of the limiting economic climate occasioned
by the pandemic.
There were 57 startups active in the insurtech space in 2021, making up 9.9 per cent of fintechs. In
2019, there were also 57, which accounted for 11.6 per cent of fintech companies.
Africa has exceptionally low insurance penetration rates continent-wide, and although disposable
income is growing rapidly continent-wide, insurance products rolled out by incumbents have missed
the mark in terms of relevance. Startups have begun to roll-out more relevant, tech-based insurance
products that speak to the continent’s population; but as a general rule of thumb, insurance remains
a “nice to have” product reaching a minority of the continent’s population, rather than a universal
necessity. As finances are squeezed by the COVID-19 pandemic, it may be that willingness to spend
on new insurance products - both from a consumer and an investor perspective - is dwindling.
Insurtech is predominantly found in more mature startup ecosystems; South Africa being the
continental leader by far. The country accounts for 52.7 per cent of insurtech startups, with 30
ventures. In 2019, this proportion was similar, at 47.4 per cent. Kenya is home to 15 startups - 26.3 per
cent of insurtech activity; a percentage that remains the same as in 2019.
Nigeria, albeit the biggest economy in Africa, lags far behind in terms of insurance uptake in general,
as well as in the startup sphere. Only four ventures are based in the country. There are a further eight
countries with one startup each.
Tunisia 1
Insurtech startups, by country

Egypt 1
South Africa - 30
Mali 1
Kenya - 15
Nigeria - 4 Nigeria 4
Egypt - 1 Kenya 15
Ghana - 1 Ivory Coast 1 Ghana 1
Tanzania - 1
Ivory Coast - 1 Tanzania 1
Tunisia - 1
Mali - 1
Botswana - 1 Botswana 1 Zimbabwe 1
Zimbabwe - 1
South Africa 30
33
INVESTTECH Finnovating for Africa 2021
Investtech resilient amidst continued

demand for investment options.
Continued, or arguably increasing, demand for alternative avenues to raise and make investments
has meant the investtech space in Africa has remained lively over the past two years. Between 2017
and 2019 investtech was the fastest growing sector of African fintech, with the number of start-
ups leaping 242 per cent over those two years. Since 2019, the space has grown a further 18.5 per
cent, with 77 startups now operating investtech ventures (accounting for 13.4 per cent of fintech
companies). As such, though the pace of growth has slowed, investtech is not struggling in the face of
pandemic-induced economic tightenings like other segments have done.
New startup launches have reflected this resilience, with 15 new companies joining the market in
2019; eight in 2020; and even two so far this year in 2021. The peak year for new launches was 2016 -
when 23 new startups opened their doors.
Investtech startup launches, by year
2021 2 2016 23 2011 1
2020 8 2015 14 2010 0
2019 15 2014 12 2009 1
2018 14 2013 6
2017 19 2012 2
Investtech is most popular in Nigeria, which is home to 31 active startups in 2021 - 40.3 per cent of the
sector. This is up from 30.8 per cent in 2019, and 26 per cent in 2017 (the only year in which Nigeria
was in second place).
South Africa is also a frontrunner, although substantially behind Nigeria, with 19 companies and
accounting for 24.7 per cent of the investtech ventures. This share of activity is up from 20 per cent
in 2019, but shows a large slide from the initial interest shown in 2017, when South Africa comprised
37 per cent of the investtech market.
Elsewhere on the continent, Ghana and Kenya each contribute 6.5 per cent of investtech startups in
2021; while Egypt, Uganda and Zimbabwe are home to 3.9 per cent of ventures each. Two startups
were counted in Algeria; and one apiece in Angola, Cameroon, Libya, Tunisia, Senegal and Zambia.
34
PERSONAL FINANCE Finnovating for Africa 2021
Personal finance holds tight, records

steady growth.
The personal finance space has also fared well over the past two years, with plentiful new launches
and an overall increase in the number of active startups in the sector. In 2021, there are 47 companies
operating in personal finance - mostly offering innovative savings solutions - making up 8.2 per cent
of the fintech market. This is up 30.6 per cent on 2019; which in turn was up 125 per cent from 2017.
There were six new launches in 2019, eight in 2020, and one so far in 2021 - reflecting a low churn rate,
and generally stable activity in the sector.
Personal finance is largely the domain of more established markets. Nigeria dominates in 2021 with
36.2 per cent of startups; while South Africa is home to 25.5 per cent of these ventures. In each
edition of this report the two countries vie for top position in the personal finance space, with South
Africa leading in 2019, and Nigeria in 2017.
Kenya is some way behind contributing only 8.5 per cent of startups, with interest in the country
declining steadily. In 2019, it was home to 11.1 per cent of personal finance ventures, and 12.5 per cent
in 2017. This year, Kenya tied with Ghana for startup numbers; and there were also companies tracked
in Egypt, Uganda, Rwanda, Cameroon, Tanzania and Zambia.
Personal finance startups, by country
17 12 4 4 3
Nigeria South Africa Kenya Ghana Egypt
1 1
2 2 1
Uganda Rwanda Zambia Cameroon Tanzania
Check out our startup partner:
35
BLOCKCHAIN Finnovating for Africa 2021
Blockchain mostly stable, despite

fluctuations and setbacks.
Globally speaking, the blockchain market is volatile and takes unexpected twists and turns - this
stands true for Africa also. The continent’s blockchain space has mostly remained stable, but
faces fluctuating uptake; occasionally takes hits - consider Nigeria’s Central Bank prohibiting
cryptocurrency transactions earlier this year; and is still really trying to figure out just what
blockchain looks like in Africa.
In 2021, 42 blockchain startups were counted, making up 7.3 per cent of fintech ventures. This is
a slight decrease from the 45 companies around in 2019; a figure which was up 150 per cent from
2017 levels.
Since its inception, South Africa has been the leader in the blockchain space on the continent.
However, this lead is contracting. While the country accounted for 44 per cent of blockchain start-
ups in 2017, by 2019 this slipped to 40 per cent; and in 2021, South Africa is home to 31 per cent of
the sector’s players.
Conversely, interest and activity in Nigeria is growing. From 11 per cent of startups based there
in 2017, up to 17.8 per cent in 2019, and now in 2021, 26.2 per cent of the sector’s companies are
from Nigeria.
Share of Africa’s blockchain startups based in South Africa and Nigeria, by year
2017 44% 2017 11%
2019 40% 2019 17.8%
South Africa 2021 31% Nigeria 2021 26.2%
Elsewhere, 16.7 per cent of companies are based in Kenya; where blockchain has had a particularly
up-and-down trajectory over the past four years. Ghana is home to 11.9 per cent of the market’s
startups; 7.1 per cent are based in Zimbabwe. Mauritius, Morocco, Rwanda and Tunisia have one
startup each. Of interest, there is a notable absence of Egyptian startups on this list - a rare area of
fintech where the country isn’t striding ahead to make a name for itself.
Check out our startup partner: Check out our startup partner:
36
OPEN BANKING
powered by
" Since the beginning of 2021, we’ve seen a massive surge of clients looking to build on their existing
platforms to improve their customer offering. Whilst 2020 was a good year that saw us sign deals with
multiple clients, 2021 has seen the big institutions, including two of South Africa’s “Big Five” and other
Tier 1 industry leaders, bring open finance to their customers.
Testament to the growth of the industry in 2020 and the indications of 2021, we’re looking to initiate the
continent’s first Series A funding round for an open banking fintech solution.
At truID, our philosophy from the start has been about redefining consumer experience, as ultimately
by holding their data we have the responsibility to secure their privacy and reimagine their experience
and expectations. In reality our business has to be consumer focused because the three core principles
that enable adoption for open banking services rely on trust - engagement, security and deriving
meaningful insights.
However, to make open banking work in South Africa and across the rest of the continent, nuances in each
of the regions need to be specifically addressed and regulations need to accommodate individual territory
requirements. There’s no duplication solution from Europe’s PSD2 or Australia’s CDR. A copy paste
approach runs the risk of further widening the inequality gap. So, the core of our mission is to continue
engaging with all stakeholders within the ecosystem, including regulatory bodies like the IFWG and
the rest of the industry, to start defining these standards. Only through robust conversation and
collaboration will we develop a framework that promotes financial inclusivity and improves the financial
consumer experience.
To realise our ambition of a universal framework, we work with all types of businesses, from startups
through to enterprise clients, in order to accommodate unique requirements at every level. Open banking
is not a one size fits all system, so to ensure it works for both consumers and businesses within Africa,
collaboration and problem-solving is woven into the fabric of what we do. Open banking and open finance
"
can deliver a new paradigm within financial inclusivity and change the way services are delivered. It’s an
exciting time to be working in the financial sector with new changes and innovations coming at every turn.
Paris Valakelis
Co-founder, truID
37
OPEN BANKING Finnovating for Africa 2021
All of a sudden, open banking is a

very real phenomenon in Africa.
This category of startup, featured here for the first time in Finnovating for Africa, for now only
has six representatives, just one per cent of all African fintech startups, with the most established
venture - South Africa’s truID - having opened its doors in 2017. Yet the progress is marked and
tangible.
First, what is it? Open banking is a practice that provides third-party financial service providers
with open access to consumer banking, transaction, and other financial data from banks and non-
bank financial institutions through the use of APIs and data aggregation services. Once established,
it will allow for the networking of accounts and data across institutions for use by consumers,
financial institutions, and third-party service providers.
Widely considered a major innovation that is poised to reshape the banking industry, open banking
is new everywhere, but in Africa it is starting entirely from scratch. Disrupt Africa tracks only six
players in the space thus far, four from Nigeria and two from South Africa, yet the space appears
to be opening quickly, and it is also attracting strong investor interest. Those six ventures have
already raised US$15,675,000 (1.8 per cent of fintech funding since 2015) between them, more
than startups from more established verticals such as security and ID, investtech, personal finance,
and education.
Six ventures have already raised

US$15,675,000
of fintech funding
1.8% since 2015
Why the interest. Firstly, the potential is undoubtedly significant, as a growing fintech ecosystem
on the continent needs startups like these to bridge the gaps. Second, there is progress in the
most developed markets, namely Nigeria and South Africa, hence why 100 per cent of open
banking startups hail from these markets. In Nigeria, an independent forum is looking at open
banking standards, while in South Africa the Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group (IFWG),
formed by, among others, the National Treasury and the Reserve Bank, is providing a platform
for future engagements on open banking. Progress is being made, and COVID-19 is accelerating
the process.
New to the report in 2021, but a quickly developing and well-funded open banking category is one to
watch over the next couple of years, especially in Africa’s most developed fintech markets.
38
SECURITY AND ID Finnovating for Africa 2021
Security and ID taking baby steps

towards growth story.
The security and ID space has expanded significantly over the last two years, but nonetheless
remains in its infancy. There are currently 22 startups active in the sector, helping to secure financial
transactions, and assisting with KYC and due diligence processes.
While the sector remains a relatively unaddressed area of fintech, and only makes up 3.8 per cent
of fintech companies, this year’s figure does display 51.7 per cent growth on 2019, when the space
comprised only 14 startups.
Security and ID was initially dominated by South Africa, but this has shifted somewhat in 2021 as
Nigeria has become a strong contender. The two countries now tie with 36.3 per cent of start-
ups each. For South Africa, this is a big decline from the 60 per cent it held in 2017; but Nigeria’s
involvement has shot up from only 13 per cent in 2017. Kenya and Ghana each house 13.6 per cent of
startups in this sector - with this completing the list of only four countries to have any companies
working in this space.
Security and ID startups, by country
13.3%
36.6% 13.3%
8 8 3 3
36.6%
South Africa Nigeria Kenya Ghana
Thus although a vitally important area of fintech, the security and ID space has yet to take root in
Africa, and while there are a few notable companies innovating in the sector - look to South Africa’s
Entersekt, and Nigeria’s VerifyMe for early examples - the real unfolding of this space is still in
the future.
39
FINANCIAL EDUCATION Finnovating for Africa 2021
Financial education continues to

be neglected.
New tech-forward solutions are being rolled out at a pace across Africa, with the continent’s
population proving characteristically open to adopting new services. However, this has not been
accompanied by any real effort by entrepreneurs to improve financial literacy, and there could
potentially be negative side effects to a boom in tech-powered financial services with little-under-
stood terms and conditions.
The space has remained stagnant in size since 2019, with seven startups in operation in the education
sector in both 2019 and 2021 - although not the same seven companies, pointing to a high churn rate.
The only positive takeaway in this space is that there has been a continuous geographic expansion
in where these startups are based. While back in 2017 Kenya hosted all of the education ventures on
the continent, it now has only two startups in operation, and they are joined by companies in Egypt,
Nigeria, Sierra Leona, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Financial education startups, by country
2 1 1
Kenya South Africa Nigeria
1 1 1
Egypt Zimbabwe Sierra Leone
40
FUNDING
41
FUNDING Finnovating for Africa 2021
Fintech tightens its grip on investment

into African tech startups.
Since Disrupt Africa began tracking funding in the African tech startup space in 2015, 277 fintech
startups have raised a massive US$874,968,465 in funding, substantially more than any
other vertical.
Meanwhile, around 40 per cent of the 576 startups listed for this report have secured investment
at some stage, a rate far better than any other sector.
These are impressive numbers, that represent substantial growth since Disrupt Africa last
analysed the space back in June 2019. Then, African fintech startups had secured US$319,885,400
in funding since 2015, with that figure having more than doubled in the two years since.
Always a strong performer, fintech’s numbers have been steadily getting even better as investors
double down on the space, especially in the last 18 months. Whereas in 2015, 21 fintech startups
secured US$55,012,000 in investment, by 2020 a total of 99 ventures were raising a combined
US$160,319,065.
The first six months of 2021, meanwhile, have been extraordinary, with 54 companies securing a
combined total of US$330,493,000. Flutterwave’s US$170 million round, which made the startup
a “unicorn” with a valuation of over US$1 billion, obviously accounts for almost half of that total,
but even disregarding that impressive outlier African fintechs are having an unprecedented year
from a funding perspective.
Total African fintech funding, by year
2015 US$55,012,000 21
2016 US$31,354,000 35
2017 US$57,683,400 43
2018 US$132,755,000 58
2019 US$107,352,000 77
2020 US$160,319,065 99
2021 so far US$330,493,000 54
For context on the size of fintech’s achievement in terms of investment so far in 2021, the current
figure raised for the year is only US$4 million short of the total funding raised by all African tech
ventures as recently as 2018. This is a dominant space that is having a breakthrough year. One
note of caution, however - raising funding is no guarantee of success, or even existence in the
fintech sector, with 45 - 16.2 per cent - of the startups backed by investors since 2015 having
closed their doors as of June 2021.
42
FUNDING continued Finnovating for Africa 2021
Nigeria leads the way as “big three”

claim bulk of cash.
As in 2017 and 2019, in this edition of this report, the vast majority of investment into African
fintech ventures goes to companies located in Nigeria, South Africa or Kenya. The “big three”
accounts for 87.9 per cent of the investment secured by fintechs since 2015, a figure that is only
slightly declining. It was 88.9 per cent in 2019 and 98.5 per cent in 2017.
Other markets lag some way behind. Egypt has made significant gains in recent years, but still only
accounts for 5.1 per cent of total fintech funding in the last 6.5 years. Tunisia, Uganda and Ghana
are the best of the rest, but between the three of them raised just 4.2 per cent of total investment.
Clearly, then, the “big three” fintech markets are still favoured by investors, and this picture is
showing no real sign of changing in any meaningful way any time soon. Yet within those three
markets, the balance of power has shifted dramatically since 2019.
Two years ago, Nigerian fintechs had raised US$128,624,000 in funding, accounting for 40.2 per
cent of the total. South African startups had raised just over US$1 million less, with US$127,497,800
representing 40 per cent of the overall number. Fast forward to 2021, however, and Nigeria has
streaked ahead.
In the last two years, fintech funding in Nigeria has gone up by 263 per cent to US$467,901,000 -
53.4 per cent of fintech’s total. This was driven in part by the Flutterwave round, but many others
have also been securing backing and helping to establish Nigeria as the leading fintech market on
the continent. By contrast, in the same period, South Africa’s fintech funding has increased by a
relatively small 69.5 per cent.
Like Nigeria, Kenya has also reported strong growth in the last two years, with its fintech funding
figure leaping 209 per cent to US$85,990,000 (9.8 per cent of the overall total). Though there are
signs of growth in other markets too, the overwhelming signs are that investors, especially in the
age of COVID-19, still prefer to invest in the more established fintech ecosystems.
43
Total African fintech funding, by country, 2015-2021
Nigeria - 108 rounds - US$467,901,000

South Africa - 128 rounds - US$216,124,800
Kenya - 52 rounds - US$85,990,000
Egypt - 35 rounds - US$44,400,000
Tunisia - 6 rounds - US$26,047,000
Uganda - 12 rounds - US$7,136,665
Ghana - 15 rounds - US$3,520,000
3%
5.1%
53.4%
0.4%
9.8%
0.8%
24.7%
44
Leading categories increase share of

investment as pandemic plays out.
While from a geographic perspective leading markets are retaining their dominance, if at slightly
reduced levels, when we look at funding from a category perspective the most popular segments
are actually raising a larger percentage of funding than ever before.
Investment in the payments and remittances space, for example, leapt 180 per cent between 2019
and 2021, hitting a whopping US$542,806,665. This represents 62 per cent of the overall total,
up from the 60 per cent two years ago. Lending and financing startups saw a similar increase in
funding, which grew by 176 per cent to hit US$130,930,000 (15 per cent of the total, up from 14.8
per cent in 2019).
Part of the reason for this is that startups in these spaces, notably the likes of Flutterwave, Kuda,
AZA Finance and Adumo, are raising later stage capital at an unprecedented size, but there is also
evidence that at early stages investors during the COVID-19 pandemic are preferring to put their
money into more tried and tested verticals.
45
That is not to say there have not been success stories in other verticals. Business admin funding
has grown by 241.8 per cent over the same period, though this is due in part to high levels of overlap
with payments platforms, and personal finance startups have now raised 337 per cent more than
they had raised in 2019, though this growth comes from a low base. Open banking, which did not
exist as a category of this report in 2019, has proven popular with investors, and startups in that
space have now raised more in the last two years than security and ID, investtech, personal finance
and education companies have since 2015. Yet other categories are not seeing the type of growth in
investment that startups in these areas would have hoped for.
Blockchain startups, for example, have raised 57.3 per cent more than they had raised in 2019, while
insurtech funding growth has been 58.2 per cent. Though still solid, for emerging verticals that were
looking to close the gap on payments and lending from a capital perspective, this relatively slow
development comes as a blow.
Total African fintech funding, by category, 2015-2021
Payments and remittances

US$542,806,665
Lending and financing

US$130,930,000
Blockchain
US$46,197,000
Business admin
US$43,609,000
Insurtech
US$29,378,200
Open banking
US$15,675,000
Security & ID
US$15,514,000
Investtech
US$10,660,000
Personal finance
US$6,213,600
Financial education
US$2,850,000
46
ACQUISITIONS
47
AQUISITIONS Finnovating for Africa 2021
Seven acquisitions in the space of two years,

compared with 10 in the previous eight, suggest
M&A activity in the African fintech space is
hotting up.
Indeed, Disrupt Africa data suggests a fintech business is more likely to be acquired than a venture
in any other vertical.
South Africa has generally led the way, accounting for six of these deals, from the acquisition in
2011 of mobile financial services provider Fundamo by Visa for US$110 million, via the buyouts of
22seven by Old Mutual, TYME by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), and SnapScan by
Standard Bank, to recent deals taking over CompareGuru and PayFast.
Nigeria has been more active in recent years, however, and at a larger scale. Vanso, TopCheck and
Amplify got the ball rolling, but the major M&A activity in the fintech sector in the last few years
was Paystack’s reported US$200 million acquisition by Stripe in October 2020, a big moment that
ignited increased interest in the continent’s fintech space.
Startups in Egypt, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda and Zambia have also been acquired in the last six years.
Numbers are clearly still relatively small, but the fact acquisitions in the fintech space have grown
in number by 70 per cent over a period of two years suggest there is a desire to “buy in” innova-
tive services on the continent, and Disrupt Africa expects the amount of acquisitions to increase in
the coming years. The Paystack acquisition was a landmark for the African startup ecosystem as a
whole, and may yet usher in a new era of investment and acquisition activity, especially in fintech.
The early signs are good.
48
AQUISITIONS CONTINUED Finnovating for Africa 2021
2011 2013 2014

(South Africa) (South Africa) (Kenya)
2015 2016
(Kenya) (Egypt) (South Africa) (Nigeria)
2018 2017
(Ghana)
(Nigeria)
2019
(Nigeria) (South Africa) (South Africa) (South Africa)
2020
(Uganda) (Nigeria)
2021
(Zambia) (Kenya)
49
© 2021 Disrupt Africa
www.disrupt-africa.com
This work is a product of the staff of Disrupt Africa.
All rights reserved.

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Finnovating for Africa 2021

Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest fintech fund by portfolio size,

A leading Pan-African fintech company, operating the largest digital

The largest Open Finance platform in South Africa, aiming to redefine

A mobile payment company building an ecosystem to enable people

An award-winning technology services partner for organisations

A venture firm focused on fintech for inclusion in emerging markets.

The market leading Banking as a Service platform that powers AI for

A strategic communications, branding and media relations consulting

A full-service, digital-only bank with a mission to make banking more

A WORD FROM OUR PARTNERS

Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola

Bunmi Akinyemiju Ruby Nimkar

Thanks for reading,

Gabriella Mulligan Tom Jackson

Co-founders of Disrupt Africa

Fintech - financial technology - is an umbrella term used to describe tech-enabled solutions

Business administration includes a range of back-end enterprise solutions including accounting,

The growth continues!

Growth in fintech startups, by year

2017 2019 2021

Fintech launches, by year

Contact DEMARS now to demo the money

The space leads African tech when it

Fintech startup closures 2019-2021

59.6% were based in South Africa, Kenya

40.3% were active in either payments

African fintech startups are rushing to

Startups operating in multiple categories 2017-2021

2021 143 24.8%

While there were nine new

COVID-19 forces a pick-up of the

Share of fintech startups based in “big three” markets, by year

Nigeria becoming continent’s

Growth in number of Nigerian fintech startups, by year

2017 2019 2021

US$ 107,352,000 US$ 160,319,065 US$ 208,225,000

Total amount of Total amount of Total amount of NIGERIAN

Quona’s global portfolio of 35+ companies includes:

More information: quona.com

Preferred verticals depend on

Proportion of payments and remittances

South Africa Kenya Nigeria

2021 27.3% 21.5% 33.3%

Rate of new fintech launches

Launch dates of fintechs active in 2021

PAYMENTS AND REMITTANCES

Payments and remittances rebound

Check out our startup partner:

Proportion of payments and remittances startups, by country

South Africa 20.4%

Lending and financing full steam

82% 74.4% 70.9%

2017 2019 2021

Progressive growth in a diversified

of business administration ventures are also

Insurtech stagnates, hit by pandemic?

Insurtech startups, by country