African Businesses to watch make waves in the market despite today’s unstable world economy. Our Continent is home to a lot of great businesses and mind-blowing innovations. Many start-ups in Africa have made waves in the past year despite Corona. They have attracted local and international interest. Several African companies are on our watchlist for being continuously innovative in providing solutions. They have provided more jobs and birthed wealth and growth. These people took giant leaps to drive the continent’s economic growth.
While not waiting for government intervention, Entrepreneurs continent-wide have developed ways to address these problems and continued to make huge waves in their fields of work. Some businesses that have stood out include:
Flutterwave
The first African Business to watch is Flutterwave was launched in 2016 in Lagos by the CEO, Olugbenga Agboola, who has raised USD 234.7 million with more than 40 investors. It has its offices in Lagos and San Francisco. The company offers money transfers and payments and has between 251 – 300 employees. Flutterwave boasts of 290,000 businesses using the platform – evident in data traffic that shows activity from 11 African countries. The company offers 250 different currencies as payment options.
Flutterwave’s billion-dollar valuation is a landmark achievement for Africa, and so its annual revenue of USD 51 million.
Gro-intelligence
Agriculture is the backbone of many African economies and industrial sectors, with over half of the world’s unused arable land on the continent and a large youthful workforce; sadly, less than 5% of prominent commercial banks’ loans go to the agricultural sector. Gro-Intelligence is an African business to watch because it impacts an industry that could change the whole continent and world as food security is essential.
The founder of Gro-intelligence, Sara Menker, offers a remedy by providing a software platform that gives crucial data on the economy and agriculture. The big data company links food, climate, trade and agricultural data, highlighting the best opportunities in the sector and helping companies make intelligent choices on investment.
The company has offices in Nairobi and New York and has raised USD 115.3 million with ten investors. It has had a revenue of over USD 9 million since the beginning of 2021, making it one of the most innovative African businesses.
Read more about the African businesses here
Ovamba Solutions
Ovamba is an African business to watch because it provides short-term capital to small and medium-sized enterprises via mobile phone technology. Traditional banking may not address small businesses’ financial needs, so Ovamba solutions partners with banks to meet these credit needs. Ovamba’s sole algorithm analyses various data types to measure risk.
Viola Llwellyn and Marvin Cole created the business from their kitchen in 2013. Their goal is to empower small African companies with access to finance through mobile technology.
