Tech companies in Nigeria have continued to stand out among African start-ups with six companies leading the pack in the list of companies to receive over $161 million funding from foreign and local investors in the second quarter of 2022.
This has been made possible as young Nigerians have continuously set up innovative companies that have succeeded in meeting one need or the other across the continent.
According to a report by Renaissance Capital on the Africa Tech and Fintech industry, with the sum of $678 million raised by Nigerian Start-ups in 107 different deals between January and April this year, the country accounted for 31% of the total funds raised by African tech companies in the four months, which stood at $2.2 billion.
The funds have been channelled towards boosting businesses which range from finance, waste recycling and disposal, logistics to blockchain technology.
Six Nigerian companies led the pack in Q2 2022 by sealing very lucrative business deals
Interswitch
The fintech company prides itself as one of Africa’s largest fintech companies. Interswitch secured a $110 million deal in May 2022 in a joint venture deal with LeapFrog Investments and Tana Africa Capital to increase its presence across Africa with its digital payment services.
Umba
Digital banking startup, Umba raised $15 million in a Series A funding round in April 2022, a move which brought its total fundraising to $17.5 million.
The investors involved include venture capital firm Costanoa Ventures, Lux Capital, Lachy Groom, co-founder of Monzo, Tom Blomfield and a host of other investors.
The company planned to expand its services to Egypt, Ghana, and Kenya.
ZirooPay
ZirooPay, a mobile POS payment systems developer based in Lagos and Helsinki raised $11.4 million Series A round in April 2022.
The funding round was led by Lagos-based venture capital company, Zrosk Investment Management, existing investors, Nordic Venture Fund and a retinue of other private funding partners.
Leatherback
Leatherback, a Start-up focused on the provision of financial services secured its first external investment in April with a $10 million pre-seed funding from Zedcrest Capital, a leading pan-African principal investment firm.
Afriex
Afriex, another big player in the Nigerian fintech industry currently valued at $60 million also closed a $10 million Series A deal in April to expand its blockchain money transfer platform.
This latest funding deal was backed by Sequoia Capital China and Dragonfly Capital with participation from Goldentree, Stellar Foundation, and Exceptional Capital, among others.
OnePort 365
Oneport 365, a big player in the logistics industry focusing mainly on digital freight forwarding raised $5 million in seed funding in April.
According to the company, it aimed to expand its market into other African countries and also push end-to-end digitization of freight management in Africa.
