Disrupt Africa – an African based site looking at innovative happenings in the world of Tech in Africa, has released the Finnovating for Africa publication. This publication mirrors the activities of the Fintech wetland across the scope of the African continent over the last few years. With the report presented, ebbing joy can flow from the discovery that the African space is seeing an unprecedented growth of startups, each unique with services, and diversifying to meet various needs.
As a free-of-charge premier edition of the publication, the report is offered as part of an open-sourcing initiative to partner with African Fintech giants like Flutterwave, GreenHouse Capital, JUMO, Abjel Communications, Paga, MFS Africa, Paga, DEMARS, Quona Capital. This report captures the slow but steady growth and major developments that have brought the African Fintech space to where it presently is.
“We’re very pleased to continue our drive to make data around the African startup landscape accessible for all, and are excited to present this open-source edition of Finnovating for Africa, together with our fantastic parts. We hope this report unlocks the fintech landscape for all those interested – it has certainly been a busy and stimulating space to watch these past 2 years, in spite of the pandemic-induced challenges facing businesses and economies alike”. That was Gabriella Mulligan – co-founder of Disrupt Africa speaking.
Speaking on the slow-but-steady growth, Tom Jackson – Disrupt Africa’s co-founder has this to say: “we might not be witnessing the same levels of explosive growth in terms of new startups launching in the fintech space as we have seen before, but instead we are seeing the increasing maturity of the fintech ecosystem in Africa. Startups are building out their solutions foe the benefit of their customers, expanding to new markets and raising millions of dollars in capital. It is an exciting time to be involved in African fintech, whether you are an entrepreneur, investor, traditional financial institution or customer.
What the Figures Presented look like?
Although the 17.3% growth to 576 Fintech Companies is a sort of slowed down process, considering what the figures gave last 2 years, still; between 2017 and 2021, there has been a 89.4% increment which is something to smile about.
Another characteristic of the new Fintech Companies that indicates Africa’s progress, is the diversity which most of the startups are pursuing. This 2021, 143 out of the 576 fintech startups are multi-category, representing 24.8% of the total (an increase from the 73 companies by 14.9%) in 2019. Recall that the basic aim of Fintech, is to tackle financial inclusion of the “unbanked and underbanked population”, so if there is a constant influx of Fintech companies who join the diversifying group, it is something commendable.
In terms of acquisitions and investments, African Fintech are more likely to get acquired or raise funding than any other field. The amount of funding raised by African Fintech is growing. Presently, the funding this field has raised for the first 6 months of 2021 alone, is double of what it had as its total in 2020. In the last decade, one of the most cherished moments in the African Fintech space, was the acquisition of Paystack by Stripe.
All these wins do indicate that the future of Africa is fintech.
