The technology scene on the continent is thriving, producing billion-dollar businesses that are transforming the digital landscape.



The word ‘unicorn’, synonymous with an entity that is &nbsp;rare and legendary, is the ideal way to depict startups valued at over $1 billion. Traditionally associated with Silicon Valley in the U.S., unicorns are now emerging across Africa, driven by rapid mobile adoption, a growing demand for financial services and an unstoppable entrepreneurial spirit.



These companies are pioneering solutions that respond directly to the needs of African markets, but are making waves far beyond the continent’s borders, while simultaneously attracting global investors and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the digital economy.



From Nigeria’s tech innovators to Egypt’s fintech pioneers, these African unicorns are transforming industries like banking, e-commerce, and digital payments.



Here’s a look at the businesses that are reshaping the way people and companies engage with technology in Africa and beyond:



Moniepoint – Nigeria’s Newest Unicorn



Fintech company, Moniepoint recently crossed the $1 billion mark after securing $110 million in funding, with Google’s Africa Investment Fund as one of its investors. Initially a banking infrastructure provider, Moniepoint now offers a full suite of digital banking services. It’s revolutionizing access to payments, foreign exchange, and credit, all thanks to Africa’s growing mobile connectivity.



Interswitch – A Pioneer in the Tech Scene



Founded in 2002, Nigeria’s Interswitch paved the way for digital payments in Africa and became one of the continent’s earliest unicorns, in 2019, with a reported valuation at $1 billion. Known for its Verve Card, Interswitch provides interbank transaction services, identity verification, and government infrastructure. The company has honed in on its mission to make financial transactions seamless across Africa.



Flutterwave – Simplifying Global and Local Payments



Flutterwave, founded in 2016, became a game-changer in payment solutions for businesses with its last public valuation at around $3 billion. Focused on simplifying international payments, it now empowers African entrepreneurs through tools like its Flutterwave stores and Disha, a platform for content creators. The company’s mission is simple but powerful: to ensure that’s it’s easier to do business with Africa.



OPay – A Fintech Powerhouse



OPay, founded by Opera and Balder Investment, quickly became a popular name in Nigeria and is valued at over $2 billion. After pivoting from ride-hailing to focus solely on fintech, OPay now offers services like airtime top-ups, microloans, and bill payments to over 18 million users. Its agent network is vast, enabling financial services even in remote areas.



Andela – Shaping Africa’s Tech Talent



Andela’s journey began in 2014 with a bold mission: to train Africa’s brightest developers and connect them with global companies. Today, it’s a talent marketplace, with a last reported valuation of around $1.5 billion, that places experienced engineers with top firms worldwide. Andela has moved from solely filling the global tech talent gap to &nbsp;also proving Africa’s potential on the world stage.



Wave – Senegal’s Mobile Money Innovation



Wave Senegal has reshaped the mobile money market in Francophone Africa, challenging telecom giants with its affordable, user-friendly platform. With lower fees and easy-to-use services, the startup, reportedly valued at over $1.7 billion, has seemingly become indispensable, making financial transactions more accessible for millions of users.



MNT-Halan – A Formidable Fintech Business in Egypt



The $1 billion valued MNT-Halan, as reported online, formed from a merger between ride-hailing and microlending platforms, is a leading force in fintech innovation in Egypt. Focused on loans, digital wallets, and B2B e-commerce, MNT-Halan provides vital financial services for individuals and businesses alike, making financial inclusion a reality.



Chipper Cash – Connecting Africa’s Financial Ecosystem



Chipper Cash, valued at around $2.2 billion, is breaking down financial borders with its cross-border payment services. Boasting over five million users, the app enables easy transfers, bill payments, and even crypto trading across Africa.

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The African Tech Unicorns Leading The Way Towards An Innovative Future

From Hollywood exports and Grammy artists to award-winning ideas that can save the world, Africa is not only diverse in its people but also in its industries and creativity. For FORBES AFRICA hundredth issue (since the magazine’s inception in 2011), we decided to curate a list celebrating these very ideas, inventions, and influential role models that have spelled Africa’s growth over the last decade.



Nigerian company, Flutterwave, is based on a financial application programming interface that makes it simpler to process payments across Africa. It is not just a useful tool for individuals, but also an enabling technology because it helps other businesses, including start-ups. And while Flutterwave is useful within countries, the unique nature of Africa makes it doubly useful across borders.&nbsp; Olugbenga GB Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, speaks to FORBES AFRICA:&nbsp;



F. Please tell us more about the type of work that Flutterwave. 



Olugbenga GB Agboola: is a payments technology company making it easier for individuals and businesses to make and receive payments from anywhere in the world through an API. We have helped global brands like Uber execute a quick and strategic African expansion. We have products for solopreneurs, small-medium, and enterprise businesses. Some of our products include checkout which is integrated into the merchant website for processing online payments for said merchants. We have Payment Links and Online Stores for freelancers and small businesses to receive payments and list their products, respectively. We have Barter by Flutterwave; a remittance solution for sending money to friends and family from one country or continent to another. What makes us stand out is our ability to process international payments in over 150 currencies, with multiple payment modes on our payment page, including Cards, Mobile Money, Barter, Bank transfers, etc. Our payment infrastructure is available in over 33 countries, including UK, Rwanda, South Africa, Nigeria, Rwanda etc.



F. What contributions have you made to the company as an innovator.



AGBOOLA: My key contribution at Flutterwave is to listen to the experts we have hired as they offer their recommendations and support them while they implement such ideas to move the organization forward. As an innovator, the best thing you can do for the organization is to surround yourself with other innovators. The Flutterwave Store came about through this process. Some Wavers in our Product and Support team reached out with a continent-wide issue; small businesses were closing up as a result of the pandemic and lockdown. They proposed a product that would make it easier for such businesses to get online and start selling from anywhere. I listened, supported their idea and today we have the Flutterwave Store with over 20,000 businesses onboard.



F. What are some of the highlights and challenges Flutterwave has had as a company.



AGBOOLA: A challenge that came up during the early days of the pandemic and lockdown was navigating how to move a team of over two-hundred people fully remote. We had only tried remote work partially so it was a big test of how our remote policies will remain in effect after going 100% remote at such short notice. But we did, seamlessly. Our people now spend more time with family and friends, get to avoid the tedious commutes and more. We’re happy to have surmounted that challenge. For our highlight, we’d never seen how much our work impacted businesses until we launched a product to help small businesses keep the lights on during the pandemic. We received lots of testimonials on how the Flutterwave Store helped small businesses thrive at a difficult time. There was a poultry owner who sold more eggs than expected with the Flutterwave Store, a bag reseller who received 1000 orders in 3 days and a food vendor who received payments from Qatar for delivery to a friend in Nigeria.



F. Please comment on the importance of having more innovators originate from the African continent?



AGBOOLA: Africa needs more innovators and backers. It is crucial that Africa continues to produce home grown innovators. It is even more important that we create systems that back these innovators to grow, thrive and achieve their potentials. This does two things; multiplies wealth in the continent by ensuring that these innovators translate their ideas into viable economic activities, and encourages the future generation of innovators to come forward with their innovations and ideas. Africa needs more innovators and may I add that Africa already has an encouraging number of innovators with excellent heads on their shoulders. They need support in the form of accelerators, funding and a robust support system that can help them achieve their goals and grow the continent.



F. Please comment on Forbes Africa celebrating you in their 100th issue by putting Flutterwave on the Innovators list.



AGBOOLA: We are grateful for the recognition. Forbes Africa has been a great partner and supporter of innovation in the continent. When you celebrate innovation, the future generation is encouraged to continue putting in the work. Our belief is that in the next version of this list, more innovators who may have not been known by now will be discovered. Africa has the brightest people you can think of in the world. We built Flutterwave and other groundbreaking technologies. We can do more, all we need is the right level of support.



<a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/cover-story/2021/04/01/the-100th-issue-100-innovations-inventions-icons-from-africa/">For more on the 100 Innovations, Inventions &amp; Icons From Africa (Forbes Africa) </a>

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THE 100th ISSUE: A Quick Chat With Flutterwave

Google Launchpad Accelerator is a six-month acceleration program designed to rapidly accelerate the best start-ups from emerging markets. The program starts with a two-week all-expense-paid program in the Launchpad space in San Francisco.
The start-ups face an unrelenting barrage of mentorship sessions, presentations from Googlers and mentors, and topics spanning from goal-setting to artificial intelligence.
I had the chance to be one of the mentors for these start-ups, being in daily contact and observing their progress. The air in the Launchpad space is filled with the wanting to learn new things. The start-ups are picked as the best from their region and immediately subject to questioning everything about their business. The first two days are the most brutal; as a mentor I could see some of the start-ups being deconstructed and having to start again from the beginning.
The one thing that separates all the start-ups in Launchpad from all the others is their drive to solve problems and learn new things. By the third and fourth day of the first week, the teams are already adjusting their strategies and measurable improvements can be seen.
What’s clear from the whole experience is that start-ups, around the whole world, face similar challenges. The camaraderie and connection you see among the start-ups stems from the entrepreneurs being very similar people.
Launchpad is primarily a two-week onsite activity in San Francisco and the following half year support. Launchpad is not asking for any equity in the start-ups. Other accelerator programs, such as Y Combinator and 500 Startups, are longer-term programs which focus on getting investment after going through the acceleration process and connects the start-ups with more external partners. Launchpad picks the best start-ups from emerging markets with existing traction and functioning product and tries to expose them to the Silicon Valley approach as well as the access to Google directly.
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For African start-ups, this is invaluable.
“The biggest struggle for our business is in getting the resources needed for business success &#8211; people, finances, and enabling infrastructure,” says Lanre Oyedotun, Co-Founder and CEO of Delivery Science, the start-up that developed FieldInsight, an app that helps organizations obtain data, visibility, and control over everything going on in the field.
“It’s a big struggle to build the right partnerships needed to start and grow the business. When you’re small, it’s quite difficult to partner with bigger organizations,” says Shola Akinlade, Co-Founder and CEO of Paystack, which helps businesses accept payments, from all channels, from their customers.
Organizations don’t get much bigger than Google.
“Google is an iconic company and it has managed to build a reputation for solid technology tools and infrastructure, while maintaining world-class people operations. No organization in the world epitomizes scale more than Google. We want to learn how Google did that, how they managed rapid scaling and how we can apply those lessons to our organization,” says Iyinioluwa Aboyeji, the Managing Director and CEO of Flutterwave, a technology and infrastructure platform for processing payments across Africa.
A large proportion of Africa’s recent economic growth comes from investment in technology. Tech start-ups are important for the development of the continent.
“By 2025 Africa will have 800 million people below the age of 25. Humanity is faced with a potential catastrophe of epic proportions unless they receive adequate capacity development,” says Adetunji Adegbesan, the Founder and CEO of Gidi Mobile, a start-up that uses mastery learning to connect Africans to economic opportunity at scale.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/investment-guide/2017/09/13/tech-can-close-gap-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How Tech Can Close The Gap In Africa</a>
To help Africans make the most of this economic opportunity is JUMO, the largest scale, lowest cost financial services platform for emerging markets.
“In the emerging markets, the vast majority of people have no access to good financial choices. We are creating access at an unprecedented rate. We help people to borrow and save at the lowest price and with products that help them improve their lives. JUMO is a multi-bank marketplace where banks compete to give customer the best deal on their phone using only behavioral data,” says Andrew Watkins-Ball, the CEO and Founder of JUMO.
“Launchpad is an incredible opportunity to work with hugely experienced people from a broad array of disciplines, helping us to solve the big challenges that we are experiencing as we scale our company. We are being given incredible access to the Valley eco-system of investors, large businesses and potential mentors. It is great to connect with start-ups from all over the world that are solving really big problems,” says Watkins-Ball.
Africa has many problems to solve and, with the help of Launchpad, these start-ups are doing their bit to provide some of the solutions. &#8211; Written by Jan Beránek, Google Launchpad mentor

Tag: Flutterwave

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

The African Tech Unicorns Leading The Way Towards An Innovative Future

THE 100th ISSUE: A Quick Chat With Flutterwave

African Start-Ups Boosted By Google Launchpad Accelerator