Of late, Africa has fast become the global tech hub on technological innovation. For example, over the recent decade, the number of technology startups on the continent has been on the rise due to a young, vibrant population, fast-rising internet penetration, and a growing culture of entrepreneurship. African tech companies are fast-growing and start to draw international interest to their developments in fintech, e-commerce, agritech, and creative tech. This paper shall outline some of the most innovative technology companies that have emerged from Africa and share insights on one of the singular players within the continent’s technology ecosystem: Khofi Benson Studios.
1. Flutterwave (Nigeria)
Launched in 2016 by Olugbenga Agboola and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Flutterwave has remained one of the major fintech companies in Nigeria. This startup gives businesses an easy way of processing payments across the continent. Flutterwave is a company that has built one of the largest payment infrastructures to support cross-border transactions in more than 30 African countries. Flutterwave has also secured major funding from top global investors and key financial institutions, besides affirming it as one of the most valuable fintech startups in Africa. No doubt Jumia straddles the needs of both small businesses and conglomerates alike, making the processes of payment not stressful and hence contributing in no little measures to the digital economy of the continent.
2. Jumia (Nigeria)
Many have described this company as the “Amazon of Africa.” In 2012, Jumia was founded by two ex-McKinsey colleagues, Jeremy Hodara and Sacha Poignonnec. With an active presence and operations running in more than ten African countries, Jumia is truly the marketplace of everything electricity, fashion goods, groceries, and home appliances. The largest e-commerce platform throughout the region brings online shopping really to a mass market. The 2019 IPO listing on the New York Stock Exchange was a gigantic step in Jumia’s growth and a pointer to increased interests by international investors in tech companies from Africa. Nevertheless, logistical challenges and market volatility are holding Jumia back, even if it is still one of the heavyweight main players in e-commerce in Africa.
3. Khofi Benson Studios (Ghana)
If at all there is any evidence, then it is of how this marriage of sorts between technology and creativity works to find a repository somewhere in Africa. Khofi Benson Studios is a digital media, virtual reality, augmented reality, and 3D animation firm located in Accra, Ghana. It applies the latest technologies in delivering great digital experiences breathtaking enough to capture and amaze the audience from both locally and globally. While placing a focus on storytelling and culture representation, the Khofi Benson Studios has been able to evolve as one of the fastest-growing media production conglomerates, renowned for this touch that technological commitment places in the evolving commitment to African storytelling. The work the studio has been able to do continues to pride itself not just in entertaining but also in the abilities to educate and inspire the African creative tech space.
4. M-Pesa (Kenya)
M-Pesa is a money deposit, withdrawal, and transfer service by mobile. What it literally represents is the single most dramatic innovation in the world of mobile money and financial inclusion in Africa since its advent in 2007. Today, M-Pesa is able to assist literally millions—most not only in Kenya but in quite a few more African nations—deposit, withdraw, and transfer money with the help of a mobile. Whether M-Pesa answered a vital demand in society or just managed to successfully sell a high-cost system of transferring money is always debatable because it has been very instrumental in inculcating financial inclusion and economic empowerment and providing the local populous with a secure and approachable way of transacting, saving, and, yes, even accessing microloans. And with the great success it has achieved, M-Pesa has spurred mobile money activity around other countries and therefore has emerged as a model for digital financial services.
5. Twiga Foods, Kenya
Based in Kenya, Twiga Foods is a startup cofounded by Grant Brooke and Peter Njonjo in 2014 to try and bring innovation into the agricultural supply chain in Africa. This company has digital platforms connecting smallholder farmers to urban retailers, hence changing the inefficient and non-transparent food supply chains in cities across Africa. Twiga Foods is harnessing technology to bring down the great amount of food waste through innovations within the supply chain, bringing down the cost of food and, at the same time, unlocking reliable market access for farmers. With the lots of funding already raised internationally, the startup is on the right trajectory to prove the business model in Kenya before expanding the operation in the whole of Africa. Long-term, this will help Twiga Foods enhance food security and economic growth in Africa by reducing the inefficiencies that characterize the agricultural sector in the continent.
6. Yoco (South Africa)
Yoco is a South African fintech founded in 2015 by Katlego Maphai, Carl Wazen, Lungisa Matshoba, and Bradley Wattrus. It offers point-of-sale systems and payment processing to small businesses. It is the prospect of allowing African entrepreneurs to get on with their jobs, cutting through all the red tape naturally associated with doing business. Over 150,000 small businesses in South Africa are now using the friendly point of sale systems provided by Yoco. Most of them were fully cash businesses before they became clients. Yoco democratizes access to payment technologies and is therefore excruciatingly important for the holistic economic development of Africa.
7. Andela (Nigeria)
Andela is a Nigerian-based company founded and incorporated in 2014 by three friends: Jeremy Johnson, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, and Christina Sass. Andela focuses on creating a network of technology leaders on the African continent by pairing up the brightest software developers with the world’s leading tech companies. In other words, it aims to fit in any software developer identified, trained, and nurtured into any company in the world that desires his or her service, mostly providing local talent with a first step toward international assignments. The company is already doing very well, having raised funds from some major investors, including the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Andela is also an innovative company in terms of pairing up talent with opportunities, which, in and of itself, has gone a great deal toward closing the skills gap and ideally placing Africa as a growing hub of tech talent.
8. Paystack, Nigeria
Though founded in 2015 by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, Paystack has since continued to make more inroads with core efforts in support of digital payments within Africa. Exactly, Paystack helps businesses to accept payments from both online and offline platforms through its platform, providing a variety of payment channels. This rapid growth and success caught the attention of global giant in payments, Stripe, which acquired Paystack in 2020 for $200 million. For the acquisition, this represents a very great deal of validation and recognition for African startups showing real global potential and for African tech innovations in particular.
The African tech space is vibrant and changing rapidly, with a flurry of startups that constantly look at local market challenges in an innovative way for new solutions. More so, it is not only sparking economic growth in the respective countries but also drawing global attention towards the African fintech, e-commerce, and agritech companies on the frontier. Conglomerates, the likes of Khofi Benson Studios, are beginning to question, through a fusion of technology and creativity, the frontiers of possibility in telling African stories afresh.
As Africa continues to move along with digital transformation, the future of entrepreneurship in tech looks brighter. With an increasing talent pool and investment inflows like never before, coupled with the innovation spirit being perpetuated by startups, African tech companies will form the vanguard of this next wave of global technological advancement.
