The term “unicorn” was first coined in a 2013 Techcrunch article by Aileen Lee, founder and managing partner of Palo Alto’s Cowboy Ventures. To identify American software companies valued at $1 billion or more by private investors or public markets and less than 10 years old.
Nowadays, the global VC & tech community widely accepts that a ‘unicorn’ as a privately-held tech startup, irrespective of its founding date, sector of operations, and regional focus, worth $1 billion or more on paper. In the African tech ecosystem, there are currently seven unicorns.
The List of African Unicorns Today
Interswitch
Founded in 2002 in Nigeria, Interswitch is the oldest African unicorn. It began as a nationwide transaction switching platform and has evolved to offer various digital payment and commerce solutions, including online payment gateways, interbank transaction switching, and third-party card processing. Despite IPO plans in 2016, the company remains privately held.
Flutterwave
Founded in 2016, Flutterwave, a Nigerian API-driven platform, aggregates payment gateways across Africa, enabling merchants to accept card and alternative payments easily. Initially targeting global enterprise customers, it has diversified its offerings with products like the Flutterwave Store, Flutterwave Capital, Disha (a creator economy platform), and more.
OPay
Co-founded in late 2017 Co-founded in late 2017 by Opera, makers of the data-lite internet browser, and Balder Investment, an entity controlled by Chinese billionaire (and Opera Chairman & CEO) Yahui Zhou, OPay is a mobile payments platform that began operations in Nigeria in 2018.
OPay, a mobile payments platform operating in Nigeria, initially focused on motorcycle taxi ride-hailing (ORide) but shifted its focus to payments after a legislative ban on commercial motorbike taxis. It now offers payment & money transfer services, airtime top-ups, loans, savings, and more.
Wave
Piloted in 2016 and fully launched in 2017, Wave is a full-stack digital mobile money wallet initially focused on Francophone Africa. It provides free or low-cost financial services, including money transfers, bill payments, and airtime top-ups. Wave has become Senegal’s largest mobile money provider.
In Senegal, its first market, it has already beaten out the telcos to become the country’s largest mobile money provider, and today the majority of Senegal’s adult population uses Wave every month.
When considering the competition between banks, telcos, and fintechs for the future of financial services across the African continent, Wave is perhaps the top fintech to watch in the mobile money space.
Andela
Founded in 2014, Andela started as a remote-engineering-as-a-service platform, connecting global companies with technology talent in emerging markets. In 2019, it shifted focus to placing experienced, senior engineers and transformed into a talent marketplace.
And in 2020, the company moved away from its in-house, full-time employee model to become a talent marketplace that places external tech talent without prior Andela training or a pre-existing Andela relationship.
Chipper Cash
Launched in 2018, Chipper Cash is a cross-border, peer-to-peer money transfer platform. Apart from money transfers, it offers bill payments, airtime top-up services, virtual cards, stock market investing, crypto trading, and more.
According to the company’s website, it has over 5 million users, processes over $1.5 billion quarterly, and has issued over 300,000 virtual cards.
MNT-Halan
MNT-Halan was created in 2021 as a result of a share swap merger between two entities founded by Egyptian serial entrepreneur Mounir Nakhlar: ride-hailing & delivery platform Halan and microlending holding company MNT.
The merger happened after MNT’s 100% consolidation of Raseedy, the first interoperable digital wallet licensed by the Central Bank of Egypt. (And Raseedy lives on as Halan Cash.)
Today, MNT-Halan, an African unicorn derives most of its revenue from lending — over $300M in 2022, it says — and has since shut down its ride-hailing operations.
With over $2 billion in disbursed loans and a variety of digital payments and e-commerce services, the company is a prominent player in the market. And within this short period. MNT-Halan has grown to become an African unicorn.
It’s important to note that the valuation of these African unicorns is based on historical paper valuations, and current market conditions may affect their present valuations.
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