As technology advances at a very high rate across the world, Nigeria is one of the beneficiaries. Besides, as Africa’s tech startups aim to create disrupting industries, they are looking forward to mushrooming across major ecosystems one of them being Lagos.
The startup ecosystem in Nigeria experienced a spring of advanced technology firms especially between 2015 and 2016 and Kobo360 and PayStack are great examples. The country has also spent millions of dollars to become an ICT hub in Africa.
Nigeria is home to e-commerce heavyweights like Konga and Jumia, and has birthed some of the best known startups in the continent, and here are 10 of them.
1. Kobo360
The tech startup gives truck owners an opportunity to put their vehicles to work, and Kobo360 aims at improving their experience by getting the trucks constantly busy thereby enhancing business flow.
Kobo360 was established in 2016 by Obi Ozor and Ife Oyedele and uses real-time technology and data to decrease logistic frictions which in turn empowers rural farmers to improve their living standard and earn more by decreasing farm wastage and ensuring that manufacturers reach their markets flawlessly.
Kobo360 has managed to partner with various funders such as TLcom Capital Partners, International Finance Corporation, Verod Capital Management, Y Combinator, Western Technology Investment, and Oded David O.D.
In 2018, Kobo360 received funding of nearly $1.2 million from Nigerian based Future Limited and Western Technology Limited and aims to expand its operations across Nigeria as well as to other countries such as Togo, Ghana and Code D’Ivore.
2. Farmcrowdy
Farmcrowdy was established in 2016 as a pioneer digital platform in Nigeria for agricultural activities. This startup aims at taking care of the needs of a common farmer and to ensure that they get a good return that can improve their living standard.
For instance, it provides farmers with funding, farm inputs, improved seeds, training on improved farming techniques, and providing a market where farmers can sell their farm produce. In other words, Farmcrowdy walks with the farmer from land preparation to the sale of their produce.
Today, Farmcrowdy has done a lot to the rural farmers, encouraging them to cultivate more which in turn increases food production and security, not only in Nigeria but across Africa. Since its founding, the company has so far financed nearly 25,000 farms from scratch, cultivated more than 16,000 acres of land across Nigeria, and empowered nearly 11,000 small-scale farmers.
3. Thrive Agric
Through the understanding that food security is very important in the world, Ayodeji Arikawe established Thrive Agric, an investment platform that the public can feel free to fund agricultural operations such as crops to livestock.
If an individual decides to finance a single farm for $236, he or she will be earning a 15% and 20% interest in just 6 and 9 months respectively.
How amazing! Thrive Agric found its way to Nigerian’s hearts in 2017 and has so far supported over 4,000 farmers with crowd-sourcing models, funds small scale farmers and helps them to sell their farm produce effortlessly during harvest.
What makes Thrive Agric stand out is that it has a mobile application that records all the important data about the farmers and their farm operations.
This app provides coordination of soil condition, weekly satellite images, farms and crops planted as well as any other important analysis that would be helpful when predicting weather conditions and yields.
Through this app, farmers across Nigeria can receive automated messages based on the crops they have planted.
4. Pledre
Pledre is another outstanding startup that aims at taking learning to a higher level. Demilade Odetara cofounded Pledre as an online tool where organizations and schools can customize their own learning management systems.
It is user-friendly and anyone can create their own school and make it as interactive as possible, and both teachers and students can engage in lectures with notes, topics, chats, and videos and feel like they are in a physical classroom.
Pledre prides itself with a fully functional library, multiple classrooms, forum, personal notes, live video chat, and third-party application integrations to ensure that learning experience is on top of the world.
5. Paylater/Carbon
Paylater was established in 2016 as an application for providing loans of up to 7,000 naira in a matter of seconds without the need to have any form of security.
With time, Paylater advanced and started offering higher loans of up to one million naira and is continuing to launch amazing features that could pose a threat to banks as well as other loan apps.
What makes this startup standout is that it supports money transfer, payment of bills and recharging airtime on any network at low costs. Interestingly, it generates income as Nigerians earn as much as 15.5% yearly when they invest their money on this app.
6. Paystack
Paystack was established by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi and was launched in 2016 as a payment process platform that makes it easier for businesses across Nigeria to collect their payment.
It has received nearly $1.3 million funding from both international and local investors such as Comcast Ventures, Tencent and Ventures Platform.
According to statistics, Paystack has been operational for two years now and has processed nearly 15% of Nigeria’s online payments and in October 2018, it processed a record payment of 10 billion naira.
The startup is aiming to expand across Africa and Ghana is the most likely country to benefit next from this startup.
7. Zedvance
Zedvance was established by Adebayo Amzat with the aim of providing financial security to the Nigerians as it provides credit facilities without collateral.
Zedvance aims at financing people that work in corporate sectors across Nigeria, who could benefit from a loan of up to 5 million naira and repay comfortably within 18 months. Zedvance is advancing and is also aiming at considering non-salary earners and small business persons across Nigeria.
8. Flutterwave
Flutterwave left many people’s mouths wide open in 2017 as it disrupted financial sectors in Africa and as we speak, there are various international payment transfer tools like TransferWise that rely on this fintech to complete funds transfer in several African countries.
Through Flutterwave, Africans can build global businesses that can flawlessly make and accept payment, not only across Africa but also around the world. Many countries have embraced this startup which has offices spread across Lagos, Accra, Nairobi, Johannesburg and San Francisco.
Since its establishment, Flutterwave has successfully processed nearly $2.5 billion in 100 million transactions and more to that, it has partnered with fifty banks across its market to ensure that movement of money is flawless.
9. Mines.io
Mines.io was founded in 2014 by Kunle Olukotun and Ekechi Nwokah with an objective of drawing data analytics in financial sectors across Africa.
Undeniably, data is very crucial to the accurate credit rating and financial inclusion and Mine.IO helps financial institutions to have a better understanding of customer’s behaviours and personalize their banking experiences as a way of generating additional revenue.
The breakthrough of Mine.IO can be traced in 2018 when it received $13 million from different investors such as Velocity Capital, TPG’s The Rise Fund, Western Technology Investments, NYCA partners, First Ally Capita, X/Seed Capital, Trans Sahara Investments, Singularity Investments, Persistent Capital, and the Bank of Industry.
10. Prepclass
Prepclass was established by Ogunlana Olumide and Obanor Chukwuwezam and launched fully in 2018 with a funding of $100,000 from Venture Gardens Group and Africa Network.
The aim of this startup was to improve learning by connecting potential learners with highly skilled tutors in Nigeria. In other words, Prepclass provides learners with potential tutors who can take their learning experience to a higher level when learning anything they wish to, be it Chinese, Phonetics, grammar structuring or English language.
Interestingly, Prepclass helps tutors and students to plan for physical learning based on their respective place and time.
Prepclass prides itself with Prep-test that provides a platform for tutors to create their own content and upload it in the form of images, text, and audio-visual. With that, students can download the app and once they register, they can use the content uploaded for learning.
So what do you think? Did we leave anything out? or you wish to add more? Let me know in the comment box below.
