Four African startups make CNBC top 200 global fintech list

Nigerian fintech startups, Opay and Kuda, South Africa’s Yoco and Egyptian’s Fawry made a debut on CNBC’s list of top 200 global fintech companies. Together, CNBC and independent market research firm, Statista, partnered to compile a comprehensive list of companies building innovative, tech-enabled, and finance-related products and services.

The partnership set out to list the top fintech companies using a clearly defined methodology identifying how various different companies performed against a set of key performance indicators, including total number of users, volumes, and revenues.

To facilitate the research, CNBC issued a public call for nominations in March, giving eligible fintech the chance to share more information on their business model, revenue, transaction volumes, and other key data.

The selected companies were classified into nine categories which include: Neobanking, Digital Payments, Digital Assets, Digital financial planning, Digital Wealth Management, Alternate Financing, Alternate Lending, Digital banking solutions, and digital business solutions.

Nigeria’s Kuda debuted in the Neobanking category, while Egyptian’s FinTech’s startup, Fawry, South Africa’s Yoco and Nigeria’s Opay made the digital payment’s category.

Kuda

Founded in 2019 by Babs Ogundeyi and Musty Mustapha, Kuda allows users to manage their finances, make payments, save money, and perform various banking activities through a mobile app. In July 2023, the Fintech company celebrated a significant milestone after surpassing six million customers within Nigeria, just 4 years after its launch.

Opay

OPay is a mobile-based platform for payments, transfers, loans, savings and other essential services for every individual. Founded in 2018, Opay aims to provide users with a convenient and integrated platform for various financial activities and services. The startup currently boasts over 10+ million registered app users and 500,000 agents in Nigeria.

Fawzy

Fawry offers financial services to consumers and businesses through different channels and locations. Through Fawry you can pay your mobile, landline and utilities bills, donate money, renew your car licence and more. The Egyptian company was founded in 2008 but by Ashraf Sabry, the current CEO, Mohamed Okasha, Managing Director and Magda Habib.

Yoco

Yoco is a payments and software company that offers small businesses in South Africa an easy way to accept card payments. Founded in 2015 by Katlego Maphai, Yoco processes over $2 billion annually, and is the payments provider for over 200 000 merchants.

The fintech space has gone through a tumultuous period. Companies have seen their valuations slashed, funding is scarce, and businesses are cutting back on staffing and other costs in a bid to keep investors happy. However, innovation is continuing to happen. Several firms are developing tools to help customers budget in more effective ways and predict what their future financial situation might look like.