Four startups – Opay, Andela, Flutterwave, Tradedepot – top the charts
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Four startups – Opay, Andela, Flutterwave, Tradedepot – garnered a total $880 million in 2021 to grab the leaderboard in a total $1.7 billion fund windfall that came to Nigeria, the top startup investment destination in Africa.
Across the continent, a total $4.2 billion was raised by startups, with 11 picking up over $1.7 billion, more than 40 per cent, according to figures compiled by startup fundraising database The Big Deal.
Another data released by the United States embassy in Nigeria shows that African startups raised more than $2.9 billion from which Nigerian startups alone got $1.7 billion.
The four biggest players in Nigeria raised more than $100 million each on a continent that attracted investment from well-known investors such as Softbank, a Japanese firm that has invested in Alibaba, Uber, and other well-known entities.
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Before this year, only two African startups had ever received $100 million in a single round – Andela and OPay, per Nairametrics which reported the headline funds in Nigeria.
Opay – $400m
OPay, fintech focusing on Africa. Raised $400 million in a fresh round of funding. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led this round, which valued the company at $2 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Opay says it handles around 80 per cent of bank transfers among Nigerian mobile money providers and 20 per cent of non-merchant point-of-sale (POS) transactions.
Andela – $200m
Andela, global tech startup that recruits remote engineering teams for firms. Raised $200 million in Series E funding at a valuation of $1.5 billion.
Softbank Vision Fund 2, the venture capital arm of Japanese company SoftBank, led the round.
Engineers from over 80 countries spanning six continents currently work for Andela. The startup has helped thousands of engineers get jobs with prominent tech companies like GitHub, Cloudflare, and ViacomCBS.
Flutterwave – $170m
Flutterwave, African payments fitech. Raised $170 million in a Series C round, putting it at over $1 billion.
Avenir Growth Capital in New York and Tiger Global, a hedge fund and investment firm also based in the United States, led the round.
Flutterwave said over 290,000 companies utilise its platform to make payments in 150 currencies via a variety of payment methods – including local and international cards, mobile wallets, bank transfers, and Flutterwave Barter.
Tradedepot – $110m
TradeDepot, Africa’s premier B2B eCommerce and embedded finance platform.
Secured $110 million in an equity and debt investment round to enable delivery of Buy-Now-Pay-Later services to five million small and medium-sized businesses and to expand merchant platform throughout the continent.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, led the Series B equity investment.
The new funding will speed up the distribution of this service to more merchants, enhancing consumer goods brand penetration and driving prosperity in one of Africa’s most important industries.
Nigerian tech startups raise $1.7b
Nigeria got $1.7 billion or 60 per cent of total money raised by tech startups in Africa in 2021, US Ambassador Mary Beth Leonard disclosed at the Nigeria Tech Summit on December 20, per Nairametrics.
She noted that three tech unicorns – OPay, Flutterwave, and Interswitch – are born and bred by Nigerian talents and with proper support, there is enormous potential to do even more.
Her words: “Africa-based tech startups have raised more than $2.9 billion. Nigerian startups, which are creating new products, services, and platforms, raised $1.7 billion of this total or about 60 per cent of it.
“Africa boasts a total of seven tech ‘unicorns’, or companies valued at over $1 billion.
“I find it very exciting to note that three of these companies – OPay, Flutterwave, and Interswitch – are born and bred of Nigerian talent. We firmly believe that Nigeria, with the proper support, has enormous potential to do even more.
“The U.S. Mission will continue to do its part to support Nigeria’s burgeoning tech scene and encourage the creation of enabling environment necessary to foster a sector that will, in turn, launch still more global businesses and contribute to a more prosperous future for all its citizens.
“I also want you to know that our commitment and support to such key populations within Nigeria was not hindered by the pandemic. We continued to recruit and promote Mandela Washington Fellows.
“We were thrilled this October when Vice President Osinbajo took the time to engage our most recent cohort of Nigerian fellows, encouraging Nigerian youths to get involved in political processes and effect changes in their communities.”