The financial landscape in Africa is an uneven spectrum of financial entities and economies that are thriving in the global scene. While Africa faces a number of economic challenges like financial inclusion, a number of startups and platforms have emerged with the establishment of fintech companies streamlined to solve financial issues within the regions they operate in.

In 2019, over 54% of all startup investment in Africa was targeted at the fintech sector, making it possible for the scaling-up of these startups. Also, according to a 2017 Global Financial Inclusion Database made available by the World Bank, 42.6% of all adults in sub-Saharan Africa had some kind of bank or mobile money account. This number doubled since 2011 when only one-fifth of the adult population dealt with financial institutions.

Circling back to the unevenness of the financial landscape on the continent, Kenya appears to be the top-performer (with 82% of the population having access to at least one financial product) when it comes to financial inclusion. Other countries like Nigeria (which is listed among the globe’s top seven unbanked nations) leave the majority of their citizens out of the formal banking system.

That said, here are the top five fintech startups that are striving to bridge the financial inclusion gap between the different categories of the African population. This ranking is, however, based on the number of money raised since inception.

Opay

Founded: 2018, Lagos, Nigeria.

Funding: $570M

Services: mobile payments, loans, remittance, ride-hailing

OPay was founded in 2018 in Nigeria by Opera Software – Developers of one of the popular web- browsers and search engines, Opera Mini Browser. However, the Opera company registered OPay as a separate entity and still maintains a mutually beneficial relationship, with Opera, holding about one-fifth of the OPay shares

Opay's e-wallet features facilitate P2P transactions, mobile top-up, bill payments, paying for transportation (which was later discontinued due to government sanctions), food & grocery delivery. Its super-app integrates numerous services on a single platform.

In 2020, OPay introduced a line of affordable Olla Android smartphones. The company also recently rolled out a digital overdraft product CreditMe, for short term loans aimed at working-class people in their mid-20s and 30s, like students and small business owners, who have a source of income.

OPay also acquired an international money transfer license in 2020 and announced a partnership with WorldRemit. The partnership would allow people to receive money from over 50 countries directly into their OPay wallets.

In August 2021, according to Bloomberg, Opay raised $400 million in a fresh financing round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, valuing the company at $2 billion.

Flutterwave

Founded: 2016, Lagos, Nigeria

Funding: $234.7M

Services: Developer APIs, B2B payments, payment gateway systems

This startup has developed an API that lets global merchants and businesses process credit cards and local alternative payment methods in Africa. The company’s proprietary software enables both foreign and African sellers to serve pan-African customers while processing payments like a local company.

The list of existing customers includes Uber, Booking.com, and Jumia. Flutterwave also prepared the payment integration for U.S. pop-star Cardi B’s 2019 performances in Nigeria and Ghana.

The startup enables business owners to accept payments from customers in 150 currencies, including Naira, USD, GBP, Euro, and Yuan. It operates in Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, UK, US, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The startup is currently headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

In March 2021, PayPal was able to extend to merchants in Africa after a partnership with Flutterwave.

Interswitch

Founded: 2002, Lagos, Nigeria

Funding: $210.5M

Services: Mobile Payments

Fintech unicorn became the second VC-backed startup in Africa to achieve a ten-figure valuation in 2019 after Visa acquired a minority equity stake in the firm.

Interswitch was unarguably the pioneer of the Nigerian digital payment infrastructure. In 2002, the company started offering innovative solutions in a predominantly paper-ledger and cash-based system. The solutions include various personal and business finance products, such as Verve payment cards and the Quickteller payment app.

Since 2019, Verve cardholders can also make payments on a global network with new cross border transaction capabilities.

In 2020, Interswitch partnered with Kenya-based Credit Bank to launch a multi-currency prepaid card - an initiative that keyed into mobile money payments. In the same year, the startup also announced it’s going to revive venture investments in African startups.

Wave Mobile Money

Founded: 2018, Dakar, Senegal

Funding: $200M

Services: Mobile Payments, B2B Payments

Wave Mobile Money is a fintech that likens itself to PayPal in terms of offering easy money transfer between peers. The only difference is that it works with mobile money accounts instead of bank accounts. Customers visit physical agent posts to make deposits and withdrawals without a fee or use a smartphone app with a flat 1% cut of the money being sent.

According to the founders, Drew Durbin, Lincoln Quirk, Wave Mobile Money is on a mission to make Africa the first cashless continent. Now on a continent where less than 10% of the population has a bank account, Wave is building the first modern financial network — no account fees, instantly available accounts, and accepted everywhere.

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In August 2021, the startup made history by being Africa's first Francophone platform to become a Unicorn after it raised $200M in a Series A round from investors and is now valued at $1.7 billion.

PalmPay

Founded: 2019, Lagos, Nigeria

Funding: $40M

Services: Mobile Payments, P2P Transaction

This Nigerian-based payment startup, PalmPay, officially launched in 2019 after raising a $40 million seed round led by Chinese mobile phone maker Transsion.

On launching, the company made a strategic partnership with mobile companies TECNO, Infinix, and Itel which later became a nice addition to generous investments made to the platform. This partnership ultimately led to the PalmPay app being pre-installed on 20 million phones of the partner companies.

During its launch phase, over 100,000 users were registered on the platform and over one million transactions were processed on the app. Activities on the platform were also approved by the Nigerian Central Bank. In addition, PalmPay has formed a significant partnership with Visa.

Currently, the startup also operates in Ghana, where it boasts over 1 million customers - The payment app developed by the fintech brings users cashback rewards for buying airtime or paying bills.