Top 5 Leading African Fintech Companies of 2021

Over the last year, there have been several changes in the economies and structures of African countries. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, several people were forced to stay at home and go primarily cashless.

Africa’s Fintech stepped in to help, providing Africans with cutting-edge technologies that allowed them to access the best financial services available. Despite the fact that the previous year was difficult and put a lot of pressure on these fintech firms, they remained strong and tenacious in meeting Africa’s needs.

Africa faces a number of economic challenges when it comes to providing financial services to its citizens. In this regard, the expansion of fintech firms across the continent has aided in reaching the continent’s local population, thereby improving the quality of financial services they receive. According to Techpoint Africa, the fintech industry accounted for 54% of startup investments in 2019.

Fintech exists to fill gaps in traditional financial services that traditional financial services have been unable to fill. These Fintech companies can reach out to the unbanked and underbanked populations, bringing financial services to them.

Fintech firms have emerged as key players in Africa’s financial-economic revolution, and many of them are worth keeping an eye on.

The top fintech firms working to close the financial services gap in Africa’s various demographics are listed below.

1. Flutterwave

Flutterwave was founded in 2016 in Lagos, Nigeria, and it currently has a total funding of $64.7 million. Flutterwave operates an API that enables individuals and businesses to process credit cards and other payment options available in Africa. Its primary goal is to connect local and foreign businesses and service providers with their customers.

It enables these businesses and service providers to receive payments from their customers in a timely and efficient manner, and it is currently operational in 150 countries. Sellers can be paid in USD, Naira, Euro, Yuan, and GBP. The company’s headquarters are in San Francisco, California.

Apart from being a payment gateway, Flutterwave will introduce a new feature in 2020 that will allow businesses to set up their store directly on the Flutterwave platform. In its quest to provide financial services to Africans, the company has partnered with well-known companies such as Visa, Alipay, and Worldpay.

2. Opay

Opay was founded in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2018. Its current total funding is $170 million. Opay is a payment gateway for sellers that also offers loans, remittances, and ride-hailing services. Opera Software, a leading web browser and search engine, founded Opay. Opay, on the other hand, is registered as a separate entity, with Opera owning one-fifth of its shares.

Opay is an e-wallet that allows for mobile top-ups, peer-to-peer transactions, food and grocery delivery, transportation, loans, and logistics, among other things. In addition, in 2020, Opay will release Olla Android smartphones. CreditMe, an overdraft service aimed at students and small business owners in their mid-20s and 30s, was also launched by the company.

Opay also has an international money transfer license and has recently announced a partnership with WorldRemit. The collaboration enables people with an Opay wallet to easily receive funds from over 50 countries. The covid pandemic may have limited some of its services, such as transportation and logistics, but Opay has since concentrated on financial services.

Opay has over 5 million users and was able to raise $400 million in a funding round led by Softbank Vision Fund in August 2021. The company is currently valued at $2 billion.

3. Yellow Card Financial

Yellow Card was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Yellow Card is a Pan-African cryptocurrency exchange that is currently operational in 13 countries and is constantly expanding its reach to new ones. Yellow Card provides a wide range of cryptocurrency products and services. Yellow Card’s mission is financial inclusion, and it is dedicated to making cryptocurrency and other financial services available to Africans. Africans can use Yellow Card to send money, make payments, and protect the value of their assets from the constant depreciation of their currencies in many African countries. This is something that many cryptocurrency websites do already.

Yellow Card, on the other hand, aims to differentiate itself by developing products that do not require customers to be crypto experts. Yellow Card announced a $15 million funding round in September 2021, led by Valar Ventures, Third Prime, and Castle Island Ventures.

4. Yoco

Yoco was founded in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2013. It currently has $23 million in funding. Yoco has assisted over 100,000 South African businesses by providing a payment gateway that includes a point-of-sale service. Yoco’s point-of-sale card machine, Yoco Go, is easily connected to mobile phones, allowing street vendors to conduct online transactions.

Yoco also operates a number of retail locations where business owners can easily sign up for services and purchase hardware. Yoco introduced a new feature in 2018 that made it simple for small businesses to obtain cash advances. It had granted 225 advances totaling $509,000 in just three months of its launch.

However, COVID-19 may have forced Yoco to reduce its team size because client sales had dropped by more than 90%, but management has been looking into re-employing team members to continue its services since then.

5. Palm Pay

Palm Pay was founded in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2019. Palmpay was founded following a $40 million seed round led by Trassion, a Chinese mobile phone manufacturer. It formed a one-of-a-kind partnership with Infinx, Techno, and Intel, and its app is pre-installed on these devices. It was able to register 100,000 users and process one million transactions during its initial launch. Palmpay is also available in Ghana, where it has over 1 million users.

Palmpay has also formed a strategic alliance with Visa. Its services include mobile payments and peer-to-peer transactions. Palmpay currently provides cashback rewards to users who use its payment platform. PalmPoints can also be earned through referrals, deposits, and transfers. Palmpay is currently working to onboard merchants on its platforms so that customers can pay for services through its platform.