Category : StoryLab

In 2016, a small group of Nigerian technologists and entrepreneurs set out to solve what felt like an invisible but deeply frustrating problem – “African businesses could not move money easily”. Not within the continent, not across it, and certainly not beyond it. For a continent with talent and trade

Across Africa, millions of households remain excluded from both reliable energy access and formal financial systems. This double exclusion has historically limited productivity, slowed educational progress, and perpetuated cycles of poverty. In response, a new generation of enterprises has emerged to bridge these gaps by leveraging technology, mobile money, and

The LifeBank story is not merely about a startup; it is about the power of one entrepreneur’s vision to reshape healthcare access across Africa. Giwa-Tubosun, inspired by her personal encounters with maternal health challenges, built LifeBank as both a business and a mission. Today, the company stands as one of

In less than a decade, Zipline has transformed from a Silicon Valley robotics pivot into the world’s leading drone logistics company, reshaping how essential goods are delivered in some of the hardest-to-reach communities. What began as an experimental effort in Rwanda in 2016 has since evolved into a multinational logistics

Andela has gone from a bold experiment in Lagos to one of Africa’s most recognized technology companies, reshaping the way the world perceives African talent. What began in 2014 as a fellowship program to train and place software developers quickly grew into a global talent marketplace connecting skilled engineers from

Chipper Cash has grown from a bold idea sketched by two African students in the U.S. into one of the continent’s most influential fintech startups, redefining how millions send and receive money across borders. It emerged at a time when African consumers and businesses faced fragmented, expensive, and unreliable payment

Paystack has evolved from a scrappy Lagos startup to one of the most influential fintech companies in Africa, redefining how businesses accept and process payments across the continent. It emerged at a time when Nigerian merchants faced broken digital infrastructure: payment integrations were slow, expensive, and riddled with failure. By

In 2015, South Africa had more than 1.3 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), yet fewer than 7% of them could accept cards. The barriers were steep—long application processes with banks, high transaction fees, prohibitive hardware costs, and a system that favored large retailers over street-side vendors and micro-businesses. This

In the mid-2010s, Africa’s e-commerce and fintech sectors were buzzing with optimism. Internet penetration was climbing, smartphone adoption was accelerating, and a young, tech-savvy population was eager for innovative solutions that could make life easier. Among the bold startups that emerged during this wave was Lipa Later, a Kenyan-born fintech

In 2019, Nigerian scientist Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong founded 54gene to tackle a glaring global health inequity: Africa’s vast genetic diversity was barely represented in global research, with less than 3% of genomic data coming from the continent. The mission was clear — build Africa’s first large-scale genomic database, revolutionize drug