Meet the 7 African startups shaping the future of B2B and B2C financial services

CB Insights, a market intelligence platform that analyses data points on venture capital, startups, patents, partnerships and tech news, has released its annual list of 250 most promising private fintech companies globally. Seven African startups are among the Fintech 250.

The Fintech 250 is CB Insights' annual list of the 250 most promising private fintech companies in the world. This year’s winners are shaping the future of B2B and B2C financial services, from payments and banking to investing and insurance.

Some of this year's winners are creating safer and more efficient methods of sending and receiving payments. Others are striving to make banking, loans, mobile wallets, and investing products available to historically underserved populations all over the world.

According to CB Insights, the startup list was chosen based on factors such as proprietary Mosaic scores, funding, market potential, business relationships, investor profile, news sentiment analysis, competitive landscape, team strength, and tech novelty.

Africa had 7 winners from the list, and among them were 3 first-time winners: MFS Africa, TeamApt and Paga. The other returning winners are JUMO, KuCoin, Chippercash and Opay. Nigeria had 3 startups, South Africa had 2, Ghana had 1 and Seychelles had 1.

Meet the 7 most promising African fintech companies of 2022, according to CB Insights Fintech 250 list:

JUMO (South Africa)

JUMO is a market-leading banking as a service platform, enabling real-time access to funds at the lowest possible operating cost. The core banking and infrastructure startup have so far raised $267 million.

Some of the disclosed investors in JUMO are Google for Startups Accelerator, Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation, GEMCORP, Mastercard Foundation, Proparco, Goldman Sachs, LeapFrog Investments, VEF, Odey Asset Management, Ash Park, Fidelity Investments, and Visa Ventures.

KuCoin (Seychelles)

KuCoin is a secure cryptocurrency exchange that makes it easier to buy, sell, and store cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, KCS, SHIB, and DOGE. The platform has so far attracted $180 million worth of funding.

KuCoin’s disclosed investors are IDG Capital, Matrix Partners China, NGC Ventures, Circle Ventures, Jump Crypto, and Susquehanna International Group.

MFS Africa (South Africa)

MFS Africa connects mobile money users and service providers, providing all access to simple, secure, affordable, and compliant mobile financial solutions. The Johannesburg-based startup has raised $281million in investment.

Investors who have participated in MFS Africa funding rounds include Goodwell Investments, LUN Partners Capital, Equator Capital Partners, FSD Africa, UK Department for International Development, Lendable, Norsad Finance, AfricInvest, Allan Gray, British International Investment, CommerzVentures, Endeavor, AXA Investment Managers, Admaius Capital Partners, Vitruvian Partners.

Opay (Nigeria)

OPay makes financial services such as bill payments, transfers, withdrawals, savings, and loans easier and more accessible to customers. The Mobile Wallets & Remittances platform has attracted $570 worth of investment.

Opay’s disclosed investors are GSR Ventures, IDG Capital, Meituan Dianping, Opera, Sequoia Capital China, Source Code Capital, Bertelsmann Asia Investments, Gaorong Capital, Longzhu Capital, Redpoint Ventures China, Softbank Ventures Asia, 3W Partners, SoftBank Group.

Paga (Nigeria)

Paga enables users to transfer money electronically and make payments through their mobile devices. The mobile payment platform that also offers basic banking services such as savings accounts, wire transfers, and merchant services has raised $38 million in investments.

Investors who have participated in Paga are Acumen, Adlevo Capital, Capricorn Investment Group, Flourish Ventures, Goodwell Investments, Jeremy Stoppelman, Jim O'Neill, Tim Draper, Global Innovation Fund, Unreasonable Capital, Ping An Cloud Accelerator, Gaingels.

TeamApt (Nigeria)

TeamApt offers digital banking services – micropayments, savings, lending, insurance and pensions, using a combination of tech and low-cost offline distribution. The payments processing and network platform has attracted $58 million in investments.

TeamApt disclosed Investors are Quantum Capital Partners, British International Investment, Endeavor, FMO, Global Ventures, Kepple Africa Ventures, Novastar Ventures, Oui Capital, Soma Capital, Light rock, and QED Investors.

Chippercash (Ghana)

Chipper Cash is a financial services company that features a software application platform that enables free instant cross-border mobile money transfers. The cross-border payments app has attracted $302.6million worth of investments.

The disclosed investors in Chipper cash include 500 Accelerator, 500 Global, Deciens Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, Catalyst Fund, Raptor Group, Paycheck Protection Program, Bezos Expeditions, Ribbit Capital, Brue2 Ventures, One Way Ventures, SVB Capital, Tribe Capital, Global Tech Ventures, and FTX.