African Unicorn Startups – Africa Tech Digest

Recently, global engineering talent outsourcer Andela reached the highly exalted status as a unicorn startup – a startup with a valuation of $1-billion or more. Andela joins an exceedingly exclusive group as one of Africa’s 5 startup unicorns currently operating. The first startup in Africa to achieve a ten-figure valuation was Jumia. The Nigerian-founded company is now a pan-African retail leader and an e-commerce powerhouse, but its valuation dropped below $1-billion in 2019 due to its volatile share price. Interestingly, 4 of 5 current unicorns are from Nigeria – the African country that saw the most VC investments in 2020, according to Statista. The other unicorn is from Senegal, which doesn’t even chart on Statista’s list of top African country’s for VC. Another interesting t...

Wave, a Senegal-based mobile money provider have raised $200-million in a Series A round of funding, reports Tech Crunch. The investment marks the largest-ever Series A funding round for a fintech startup in Africa, and it values Wave at around $1.7-billion. No other startup company in Africa has managed to raise such an amount in a Series A round. OPay, likewise a fintech solution provider, managed to raise $400-million in the continent’s largest-ever venture capital investment during a Series C round. Interswitch follow OPay with its $200-million investment from Visa also during Series C funding. The latest round by Wave was jointly led by four big-name backers, starting with Sequoia Heritage – an endowment-style fund and a separate entity that operates independently under the S...

Tag: African Unicorn Startups

Africa’s 5 Unicorn Startups – Which Has the Highest Valuation?

Wave Closes Largest Series A Round for an African FinTech at $200-Million