- Startups in Nigeria are pushing the bounds in terms of valuation and investments
- TheRadar spotlights 10 startups in Nigeria that are the biggest in terms of valuation
- The list includes five of the eight unicorns in Africa
The technology landscape in Nigeria has witnessed exponential growth, with many companies not only thriving but garnering investments from venture capitalists worldwide.
The recent $110 million equity raise by Moniepoint, which saw it become one of the eight unicorns in Africa, is a pointer to the growth of Nigerian startups.
In this regard, TheRadar spotlights the ten startups in the country with the most valuation.
Here are the 10 most valuable startups in Nigeria
1. Flutterwave
Since entering the fintech space in 2016, Flutterwave has been waxing strong. It reached unicorn status on March 10, 2021, after raising $170 million in Series C funding.
Flutterwave is an API-driven platform that aggregates payment gateways across the continent, allowing merchants to accept card and alternative payments (mobile money and bank transfers) easily.
It initially focused on global enterprise customers, like helping Uber easily accept payments across various African markets, but it diversified to offer a full range of products to a wide variety of customer groups with solutions like the Flutterwave Store, Flutterwave Capital, and creator economy platform Disha, among others.
In 2022, the startup raised $250 million in Series D funding, which drove its valuation to over $3 billion, making it one of the most valuable startups in Nigeria.
2. Interswitch
Regarded as Nigeria’s pioneer fintech startup, Interswitch has been at the forefront of the revolution in the fintech space, especially with its Verve and Quickteller payment platforms that have facilitated transactions and payments.
Founded in 2002, the transaction-switching platform attained unicorn status in 2019 after a funding round led by Visa and is currently valued at over $1 billion.
Interswitch offers a variety of digital payment and commerce solutions, including online payment gateways, interbank transaction switching and third-party card processing, card acquiring and issuance via domestic card scheme, Verve, identity management and digital payment infrastructure for state governments, point-of-sale solutions, among others.
In March 2023, the fintech processed 1.2 billion transactions, which was the highest it processed in a single month in the country. The increase in transactions was due to the Federal Government’s naira redesign policy.
3. Opay
Opay was co-founded in late 2017 by Opera and Balder Investment, an entity controlled by Chinese billionaire and Opera Chairman and CEO Yahui Zhou.
The mobile payments platform began operations in Nigeria in 2018 and was initially focused on its motorcycle taxi ride-hailing service, ORide. However, it veered into payments after a legislative restriction on commercial motorbike taxis.
On August 23, 2021, Opay joined Africa’s unicorn league after it raised an outstanding $400 million in a funding round led by Softbank, a Japanese venture company.
As of April 2024, Opay was valued at $2.7 billion, which makes it one of Nigeria’s biggest startups by valuation.
In addition to payment and money transfer services, OPay offers airtime top-ups, loans, savings, and more. As of April 2024, it offers services to 50 million users and one million merchants with a monthly transaction volume of over $12 billion.
4. Andela
After Andela raised $200 million from investors in September 2021, the company’s valuation increased to $1.5 billion at the time. It has continued to grow and is the biggest startup in Nigeria by valuation.
Founded in 2014, the New York-based startup is a Nigerian startup that connects African software engineering talent to global companies.
It started as a remote-engineering-as-a-service platform, training and hiring junior software developers across Africa, then placing them with global businesses as full-time distributed engineers but has since grown to become a talent marketplace for tech talents with or without prior Andela training or relationship.
5. Moniepoint
Moniepoint is the latest Nigerian startup with at least a $1 billion valuation. The Nigerian fintech raised $100 million in a Series C financing round on October 29, 2024. The round was led by Development Partners International (DPI) and other new investors, including Google’s Africa Investment Fund and Verod Capital. Global impact firm Lightrock, an existing investor, also participated in the funding round.
The new funding has further boosted the fintech’s valuation to at least $1 billion, increasing from around $400 million in a 2022 funding round when it raised $50 million.
Moniepoint was founded in 2015 and has been making giant strides and helping to drive financial inclusion in Nigeria, providing retail banking services and agent banking and catering to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Moniepoint’s achievements and growth trajectory within a few years of entering the fintech space earned it second place on the Financial Times list of Africa’s fastest-growing companies in 2023.
The company has shown great prospects, especially with digital payments, as its transaction value grew by over 205 per cent and processed 5.2 billion transactions worth over $150 billion.
Moniepoint, among other fintechs, proved its mettle again during the recent bank system upgrades that had customers of traditional banks stranded.
The fintech said it currently processes over 800 million transactions, with a monthly total value exceeding $17 billion, while maintaining profitability and has experienced a 2,000 per cent growth since entering the personal banking space about a year ago.
6. Jumia
Founded in 2012, Jumia is Nigeria’s pioneer e-commerce startup and dubbed the “Amazon of Africa” giving its strides in the space, serving many African markets.
The platform was the first African startup to list on the New York Stock Exchange in 2019.
Jumia’s finances and profits have fluctuated in recent times due largely to naira devaluation, inflation and the generally unfavourable business climate in Nigeria, but is still one of the country's valuable startups.
In early November 2024, the company recorded a $20.1 million operating loss in the third quarter of 2024, which is a 10 per cent increase in losses compared with the $18.3 million reported in the same quarter of 2023.
7. Kuda
Founded in 2019, Kuda has focused on digital banking, where customers do not need to visit physical branches to enjoy seamless and cost-effective banking solutions.
In 2021, Kuda raised $55 million in a Series B funding round led by Valar Ventures, Target Global, SBI Investment and SpeedInvest, a few months after it raised $25 million in a Series A funding.
8. Paga
Paga is another fintech that provides mobile payment services. It facilitates bill payments, money transfers, and other financial transactions.
Since making its entry in Nigeria’s fintech space in 2009, Paga has helped Nigeria’s financial inclusion drive, closing the gap between the banked and unbanked population. It currently has over 19 million users and has processed 335 million transactions worth over $32 billion in 15 years.
Paga reached $300 million in valuation and has Global Innovation Fund, Goodwell Investments and Unreasonable Capital as investors.
9. TradeDepot
TradeDepot was founded in 2016 as an e-commerce and logistics startup. In 2021, the company raised $110 million in debt and equity funding from investors such as Partech Partners, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Wamda Capital and TL com Capital. The funding was to expand its buy-now-pay-later services to merchants across Africa.
TradeDepot uses data-driven logistics solutions to provide business-to-business services, connecting retailers with wholesalers and manufacturers and facilitating efficient distribution of consumer goods across the country.
10. Moove
Moove is another valuable startup in Nigeria. In 2022, the mobility fintech raised $105 million in Series A debt and equity funding. Its investors include SpeedInvest, Left Lane Capital, Tekton Ventures and Class 5 Global. The startup is operational in Nigeria, South Africa and other African countries.
In March 2024, the startup’s valuation reached $750 million after a $100 million Series B investment by Uber. The deal saw Moove emerging as the lead African startup with the most fundraising in the first quarter of 2024. The continent’s startups raised $466 million in Q1 2024.
Founded in 2020, Moove provides financial services to drivers, enabling them to purchase vehicles through a revenue-based financing model. The company was created to provide access to credit for gig workers in the mobility industry.
7 African AI startups founded by Nigerians
Meanwhile, TheRadar reported that the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution has brought about innovations and startups leveraging technology to address pressing human needs.
The African continent is not left behind in this wave of revolution. The continent boasts a handful of startups changing the world, most of which are founded by Nigerians or located in Nigeria, including these seven.
