Five African fintech startups made this year’s Fintech 250, CB Insights’ annual list of the 250 most promising private fintech companies in the world.
The 250 winners were selected from a pool of over 12,500 eligible private companies based on CB Insights’ internal benchmarks as well as analyst briefings submitted by applicants.
Factors that were taken into account include funding, market potential, business relationships, investor profile, news sentiment analysis, competitive landscape, team strength, and tech novelty.
According to CB Insights, globalisation is a key theme for this year’s Fintech 250 with winners headquartered in 33 countries across the globe — seven more than last year.
For example, three of this year’s first-time winners — MFS Africa, TeamApt, and Paga — are building payment networks in Africa.
About two-thirds of this year’s Fintech 250 are B2B companies, representing a broader shift in market sentiment away from consumer-facing fintechs.
The categories with the most winners are payments processing and networks, followed by insurance, cryptocurrency, core banking and infrastructure, and retail investing and wealth management.
This year’s list includes 159 unicorns with a $1 billion valuation, representing almost two-thirds of the total list. These companies raised over $51 billion across 337 equity deals in 2021 alone.
The African fintech startups on the CB Insights Fintech 250 2022 list:
Opay (Nigeria)
Opay is a mobile money platform. Launched in June 2018, the company raised US$400 million at a valuation of US$2 billion in a round led by SoftBank in 2021.
Paga (Nigeria)
Paga is a mobile payments and financial services company. The company claims to have 19 million unique users and processed over US$10 billion since its founding in 2009.
TeamApt (Nigeria)
TeamApt is a financial platforms for businesses that provides payments, banking, and credit services. Founded in 2015, the company is currently valued at around US$800 million.
JUMO (South Africa)
Jumo offers savings and credit products to entrepreneurs, as well as financial services infrastructure to banks and service providers. The company raised US$120 million in 2021.
MFS Africa (South Africa)
MFS Africa is a digital payments gateway which connects mobile network operators across the continent through a single API. The company raised US$100 million in 2021.
