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How African Startups Are Navigating the Global Market

June 16, 2025

How African Startups Are Navigating the Global Market

With 54 countries, 1.3 billion people, and a new continental free-trade pact (AfCFTA) unlocking a potential $3.4 trillion market, startups are urgently seeking ways to scale beyond local borders.

Mobile connectivity is surging – for example, mobile phone penetration is expected to exceed 613 million users by 2025, enabling digital services to reach new customers.

African startups raised about $3.2 billion in 2024 (only a modest 7% decline from 2023), a sign that global investors still see opportunity on the continent. Remittances from the diaspora also underscore global ties: Africans received roughly $100 billion in remittances in 2022.

Taken together, these trends show both the demand and the funding fuel for African entrepreneurs who aim to play on the world stage.

How African Startups Are Navigating the Global Market in Key Industries

1. Fintech

Africa’s financial technology startups are leading the continent’s global push. Fintech has long dominated tech funding – even after a funding dip in 2023, it rebounded sharply in 2024, securing about $1.4 billion (around 60% of all African tech equity funding) across 131 deals.

Global payment platforms are expanding services internationally: for example, Nigeria’s Flutterwave launched a cross-border Send App in the U.S. and Canada in mid-2023, allowing users to send money to and from 34 countries.

Founder Olugbenga Agboola said the app tapped into Africans’ strong diaspora ties: “No matter where we find ourselves as Africans, we remain tied to our homes,” he explained, noting that people “seek measures…to support, appreciate and stay connected with our loved ones”.

Similarly, Pan-African Chipper Cash partnered with Block (Jack Dorsey’s fintech company) to facilitate cross-border payments in 40 African countries.

Visa is also active: it recently invested in African startups from Tunisia and Morocco (Konnect and Paytic) as part of a new global payments network, and launched a fintech accelerator for African startups in 2023.

These moves show international financial giants backing African fintech companies to open new markets.

However, expanding cross-border comes with challenges. Regulatory fragmentation is a major hurdle: one analysis warns that with “54 countries, 54 rulebooks” the cost of compliance can eat up over 20% of revenue for African fintechs operating continent-wide.

Currency volatility is another issue – about 60% of African startups report revenue erosion due to local currency devaluations, and remitting funds can be costly. Yet despite these obstacles, many fintechs stay aggressively global.

Partnerships help: Flutterwave inked a five-year deal to use Microsoft’s cloud platform, and has collaborated with European open-banking firm Token.io for U.K. and EU payment access.

Investors see the upside: the Africa-focused fintech sector still outpaces many other regions and is expected to reach tens of billions in revenue in the coming years.

In short, African fintech startups are leveraging strong mobile adoption and diaspora demand while navigating foreign markets through partnerships, even as they contend with regulatory and currency headwinds.

2. Agritech

Technology-driven agriculture is another key frontier. African farmers feed much of the population, and digital tools can help overcome challenges like low productivity and climate risk.

Yet agritech startups remain underfunded: in 2024 just 30 agritech companies raised about $89 million (only ~4% of total African startup equity funding).

Even so, companies are expanding regionally. A leading case is Apollo Agriculture (Kenya), which raised $10 million in January 2024 to fuel its expansion across Africa.

Apollo uses data and finance to help smallholder farmers buy inputs and increase yields, and its CEO noted that the new funding “unlocks the potential to serve 400,000 additional farmers”.

Apollo already operates in multiple countries (with offices in Kenya, Zambia, and the Netherlands) and had raised over $64 million by late 2023.

This kind of fundraising shows how agritech startups tap global impact investors (Apollo’s round was led by Swedfund and ImpactConnect). They also partner with government programs and NGOs to gain market access.

Nonetheless, growth can be hard. Infrastructure gaps (like cold storage and transport) and capital scarcity slow expansion. Given the modest funding, many agritech firms focus on proof-of-concept and then form alliances with larger players – for example, co-ops or agricultural processors – to reach new markets.

The opportunity is huge: global agritech is a multi-billion-dollar market. For startups that master cross-border farming tech, such as precision farming or supply-chain platforms, there is the potential to tap growing demand not just in Africa but in other emerging markets as well.

3. Healthtech

Healthcare technology is a growing area as well. African healthtech startups are targeting problems like pharmacy access, diagnostics and supply-chain management. In early 2024, for example, Egyptian startup Yodawy raised $10 million to expand its online pharmacy service.

Yodawy lets patients order and receive medicines via a mobile app and connects doctors and insurers to pharmacies. Likewise, Lapaire (based in Côte d’Ivoire) secured $3 million in funding to grow its network of eyecare clinics across multiple African countries.

These investments came from a mix of local and international backers (Africa-focused funds and global impact investors), reflecting confidence in scalable health solutions.

Partnerships with global organizations are common. Dawa Mkononi (Tanzania) built a digital marketplace for pharmacies and drew investment from Sanofi’s Impact Fund among others.

Governments and NGOs are also keen on digitization: many African countries are launching national e-health initiatives and Electronic Medical Record systems that startups can plug into. At the same time, healthtech startups must adapt to stringent regulations around patient data and medical approvals.

But the opportunity is clear: Africa carries a large share of global disease burden with limited healthcare infrastructure, so digital tools for telemedicine, diagnostics, and supply chains have enormous potential.

An oft-cited projection notes telemedicine in Africa could become a $1.5 billion opportunity.

In practice, healthtech entrepreneurs often start by addressing urgent local needs (e.g., pharmacy access or clinic efficiency) and then scale outward, sometimes even partnering with Western healthtech firms to co-develop solutions for multiple markets.

4. Edtech

Education technology is also gaining traction, especially as digital learning becomes critical post-pandemic. African edtech startups are not yet as well-funded as fintech, but some are making global moves.

A notable example is the 2024 merger of Kenya’s Eneza Education with Pakistan’s Knowledge Platform.

Eneza had built a mobile-based learning platform reaching millions of low-income students; Knowledge Platform brings gamified content and reach in South Asia. Together, they aim to serve over three billion young people across emerging markets.

As Eneza’s CEO Wambura Kimunyu explained, “With over three billion young people across emerging markets, this collaboration will fuel education equity for a sustainable future.”.

The deal also drew support from Safaricom (which had partnered with Eneza on SMS-based lessons) and global donors like UNICEF and Oxford University Press, highlighting how African edtech links with international partners.

Smaller edtech firms – from coding academies to language-learning apps – similarly look outward. Many are targeting not just African students, but global learners and enterprises (for example, selling corporate training courses internationally).

Investors (such as Owl Ventures, USAID-backed funds and African VC firms) are beginning to see Africa as a hotbed for scalable edtech innovation.

Challenges remain: schools in many regions still lack stable internet, and monetization models must adapt to lower-income users.

But as continent-wide exams move online and digital literacy grows, African edtech startups are poised to expand regionally and even serve overseas markets with tailored content (just as they now do by partnering with Asian and European content providers).

5. E-commerce

E-commerce startups are key to linking African goods and consumers with the world. The AfCFTA itself is creating a bigger internal market, and external markets are following suit.

In 2024, one of Africa’s largest e-commerce moves was a cross-border merger: Kenyan B2B e-commerce platform Wasoko merged with Egypt’s MaxAB, creating a massive distributor across North and East Africa.

This consolidation – combining Wasoko’s reach in Kenya and beyond with MaxAB’s Egyptian base – illustrates how companies are scaling continent-wide.

On the retail side, some platforms like Jumia (founded in Nigeria) have even listed on European stock exchanges and looked to serve African communities abroad.

New startups like Egypt’s TradeHub are explicitly focused on exports: TradeHub’s online marketplace helps local manufacturers showcase products to global buyers, handle RFQs (requests for quotes), and manage cross-border logistics.

This bridges African producers with wholesalers and retailers worldwide. Others focus on specific goods – from fashion to cosmetics – often using social media and diaspora networks to sell overseas.

Still, African e-commerce entrepreneurs face hurdles: international shipping costs, foreign payment gateways, and competition from cheap imports.

They often overcome these by partnering with global logistics firms and payment providers, or by specializing in products where Africa has unique advantages (like certain agricultural or artisanal goods).

Opportunities and Challenges

African startups are navigating the global market by leveraging regional integration, mobile connectivity, diaspora demand, and international partnerships.

The opportunities are vast: a youthful population, rising internet adoption, and trade deals like AfCFTA open doors. As one analysis noted, mastering cross-border expansion today could make tomorrow’s market leaders.

But the challenges are real. Infrastructure gaps, fragmented regulations, and uneven funding create obstacles.

For example, dealing with dozens of different currencies and import rules can add up to twice the usual global trade costs. Accessing growth capital often requires courting investors in Europe, the U.S. or China who may have limited local insight.

Talent can be in short supply as many skilled workers migrate abroad. Startups mitigate these risks through local partnerships (e.g., working with domestic banks or telcos) and by raising mixed funding (grants, equity, debt).

Despite headwinds, African entrepreneurs are proving adaptable. They tailor products to local contexts first, then scale regionally. International investors and corporations – from Visa and Microsoft to global VC funds – are increasingly placing bets on African innovators.

In 2024 alone, fintechs like Konnect and Paytic drew strategic investments from Visa, while health and agri startups won backing from development funds.

These partnerships not only provide capital but also market access and credibility. Ultimately, success often comes down to blending local market knowledge with global best practices.

Conclusion

The story of how African startups are navigating the global market is one of innovation, persistence, and collaboration.

Across fintech, agritech, healthtech, edtech and e-commerce, entrepreneurs are finding ways to expand beyond their borders: raising international capital, teaming up with global partners, and adapting offerings to new audiences.

Opportunities like the African Continental Free Trade Area and a booming mobile economy create fertile ground. Obstacles like regulatory fragmentation and currency volatility remain, but African founders continue to learn and adapt.

For global investors and local entrepreneurs alike, the era ahead promises both challenges and great potential – the startups that master cross-border growth today are often described as “the giants of tomorrow.”

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