23 startups laying the groundwork for Africa’s AI growth
Artificial intelligence (AI) remains one of the tipping points in 2025. Across Africa, the conversation shifted from adoption to ownership as startups trained new models, engineered data pipelines, and built hardware that reflects the realities of low-connectivity environments and scarce compute. Africa’s biggest constraint in AI development was not talent but the lack, or complete absence of, infrastructure. There are too few data centres, power constraints, insufficient regional datasets, and limited representation in global language models. Yet the founders leading this new wave have embraced those challenges. Africa’s AI movement has shifted from consumerism to foundational building. Startups are building language models that understand local context, while others are integrating the technology in hardware tools to improve efficiency, sovereignty, and innovation. How we selected them We used a framework which relies on four pillars: The “Builder vs. Wrapper” filter A startup must own core elements of its system. It must have proprietary models, datasets, hardware, or core infrastructure. If a product simply calls an OpenAI or Anthropic application programming interface (API), it does not qualify. Automatically, this disqualifies “AI-powered” startups and generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) wrappers. Ground truth test Startups must be generating or curating original data, especially in contexts where African ground-truth data is scarce. This includes dialectal audio (Lelapa AI), drone imagery (Charis UAS), medical scans (RxScanner), and infant cry datasets (Ubenwa). Contextual architecture The technology must be built for Africa’s infrastructure constraints. This includes offline-capable models, TinyML architectures, and compute-efficient systems optimised for low-connectivity settings and low-cost hardware. Ecosystem stack segmentation Our list reflects balance across the AI stack: Layer 1: Infrastructure (compute, MLOps, deployment rails) Layer 2: Model and data builders (language models, vision models, biologically inspired models) Layer 3: AI-based deep-tech applications solving mission-critical African problems Over 2,400 African startups are building AI infrastructure or leveraging existing systems to engineer their own AI-based infrastructure as of 2024, according to an AfriLabs report. It is not possible to list them all. TechCabal selected the startups named here through independent research and conversations with people familiar with Africa’s AI ecosystem, and did not rely on the AfriLabs report for the specific names. This list prioritises startups building infrastructure from scratch (Layer 1); startups training or fine-tuning models using proprietary datasets (Layer 2); and startups building AI-based hardware (Layer 3). Here are 23 companies that represent the strongest examples of African AI infrastructure builders. Layer 1 — Infrastructure from scratch Cerebrium (South Africa) Founders: Michael Louis and Jonathan Irwin. Jonathan Irwin, CTO (left), Michael Louis, CEO (middle), and Elijah Roussous, a founding engineer (right)/Image Source: Cerebrium Founded in 2021, Cerebrium is building Africa’s most significant serverless AI infrastructure platform. Its custom runtimes and GPU optimisation layer allow engineers to deploy machine learning models with near-instant cold start times. This is foundational work, reducing reliance on global cloud providers and giving African developers a compute-efficient alternative tailored to their environments. The startup is becoming a critical backbone for regional AI deployment. Synapse Analytics (Egypt) Founders: Ahmed Abaza and Galal El Beshbishy. L-R: Ahmed Abaza and Galal El Beshbishy/Image Source: Wamda Founded in 2018, Synapse Analytics built Konan, a platform that helps large companies, especially banks and financial institutions, run their machine‑learning models in the real world. Kona gives data teams one place to put models into production, monitor how they behave, catch problems early, and update them safely, so the AI systems behind credit scoring, fraud checks, and risk models stay accurate over time. Fastagger (Kenya) Founders: Mutembei Kariuki, Jude Mwenda, and Stephanie Njerenga. Mutembei Kariuki, Fastagger CEO/Fastagger Founded in 2019, Fastagger is an edge-AI engineering startup. Its TinyML models run on low-cost devices and smartphones without relying on the cloud. This approach supports offline deployments in rural and low-connectivity environments. Self-described as an “edge AI infrastructure partner for telcos,” the startup allows telecom companies to layer AI services like credit scoring and fraud detection directly onto user devices, reducing cloud costs and improving service in areas with uneven connectivity. Fastagger is proving that Africa can set the global benchmark for lightweight, efficient model design. Awarri/N-ATLAS (Nigeria) Founders: Silas Adekunle and Eniola Edun (Awarri). Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, listening to an Awarri staff member/Image Source: Awarri N‑ATLAS, developed with Awarri as a core technical engine, also straddles Layer 1 and Layer 2. As a model project, it is an open‑source multilingual and multimodal large language model (LLM) and speech stack fine‑tuned on hundreds of millions of tokens of localised data, including Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo and Nigerian‑accented English. It is also built with a text LLM (on Llama‑3‑class weights), and automatic speech recognition (ASR) models adapted to local speech collected via programmes like the national initiative, 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT), and LangEasy. As infrastructure, N‑ATLAS is positioned as a national digital public good: checkpoints on Hugging Face, APIs, and software development kits (SDKs) that make it Nigeria’s language layer for chatbots, call-centres, citizen services, media transcription and accessibility tools, reducing dependence on foreign black‑box LLM APIs and giving local builders a shared foundation to extend. Lelapa AI (South Africa) Founders: Pelonomi Moiloa and Jade Abbott. L-R: Jade Abbott and Pelonomi Moiloa/Image Source: MIT Technology Review Lelapa is both a Layer 2 model builder and a Layer 1 language infrastructure provider. On the model side, its research team trains InkubaLM, a small multilingual language model built from scratch on roughly 2.4 billion tokens spanning five African languages plus English and French, and curates Inkuba‑Mono and Inkuba‑Instruct datasets for low‑resource African languages that others can pretrain and fine‑tune on. On the platform side (Layer 2), Lelapa turns its models into usable infrastructure through Vulavula, a multilingual API that offers speech recognition, translation, sentiment analysis and intent detection for African languages and code-switching. It packages its own models into tools like Transcribe, Converse, Analyse and Translate, with SDKs and hosting built in, so other African startups don’t need to rebuild the language stack from scratch. Lelapa uses Cerebrium to reduce cold-start times. Intella (Egypt) Founders: Nour
Read MoreCAC to shut down unregistered PoS operators from January 2026
Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has ordered all point-of-sale (PoS) operators to register their businesses before January 1, 2026, or risk having their terminals seized. The move marks the government’s most forceful attempt yet to formalise an industry that has grown rapidly but unevenly, and it places renewed pressure on fintech companies to tighten compliance across their agent networks. In the public notice dated December 6, 2025, the CAC said it had observed “the rising number of PoS operators running without registration,” describing the trend as a violation of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA 2020) and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s agent banking regulation. “This reckless practice often enabled by some fintech companies puts Nigeria’s financial system and citizens’ investments at risk. This must stop.” “Effective 1 January 2026, no PoS operator will be allowed to operate without CAC registration,” the Commission said. In April 2024, TechCabal reported that the Nigerian government mandated all PoS agents to register with the CAC as part of regulatory efforts to improve transparency and reduce fraud. The crackdown follows months of policy shifts that show regulators are increasingly concerned about the size, reach, and vulnerability of Nigeria’s agent banking ecosystem, which boasts an estimated over 1.9 million PoS agents. PoS terminals processed ₦10.51 trillion in Q1 2025, a 301.67% increase from the previous year, according to data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS). With PoS terminals now serving as the primary cash access point for millions of Nigerians, the CAC’s action signals a coordinated push to close compliance gaps. In August, the CBN ordered that all Point of Sale (PoS) terminals be restricted to a 10-metre radius of their registered address. The CAC is now directly targeting PoS operators, an industry previously overseen almost entirely by the CBN and the fintech companies that deploy agent banking terminals. It said security agencies will enforce compliance nationwide, and unregistered PoS terminals will be seized or shut down. Fintech companies enabling unregistered operators will be reported to the CBN and placed on a watchlist, it added. The directive intensifies the regulatory spotlight on fintechs, many of which have aggressively expanded their agent networks over the past five years. There were 8.36 million registered PoS terminals, with 5.90 million active/deployed as of March 2025. Fintech-led agent networks have been at the centre of conversations about fraud, KYC, and weak oversight.
Read More10 exciting African AI products launched in 2025
Across Africa, artificial intelligence (AI) has evolved from the experimental phase of generic text generators into an engine shaped by the continent’s unique realities. 2025 saw a push toward large language models (LLMs) that understand the nuances of our markets, languages, and infrastructural challenges. As AI investment rose, governments in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and other African countries also announced roadmaps to integrate AI into key sectors of the economy, and operators began building and activating new data centres across the continent, including MTN and Airtel. With each upgrade, Africa’s AI ambitions to leverage the technology for economic growth and social development in key sectors move closer to reality. Now, the continent is buzzing with AI products and prototypes that reflect different aspirations, and these are the exciting ones launched this year. Gebeya Dala (AI app builder, Ethiopia) Launched by Gebeya, an Ethiopian software company, in October 2025 and founded by Amadou Daffe and Hiruy Amanuel, Gebeya Dala is an AI app builder designed for the African context. Cofounder Daffe built this platform after realising that most global vibe coding tools are laced with language barriers, payment challenges, and device constraints. Gebeya Daya solves this by being a mobile-first platform that lets users describe the kind of app they want in plain language, including local languages like Hausa, Swahili, Amharic, or Arabic, and then automatically generates full-stack code. What makes it fun is that app creation is not limited to trained developers. A user can tell the AI they want an app to track local crop prices in any supported language, and it will generate a fully functional app optimised for low-data environments and can even integrate features like mobile money payment gateways. Curation AI (Authentication and opinion intelligence, Nigeria) Curation AI was launched in late November by MYai Robotics, an artificial and robotics engineering firm founded by Kayode Aladesuyi. This tool emerged as a response to the deluge of misinformation, deepfakes, and synthetic media content spreading across social platforms. Curation AI is an engine for real-time content authentication, built to scan news, videos, audio, and social media posts instantly, flagging AI-generated content and manipulation before users even have the chance to share them. Curation AI also has an ‘opinion intelligence’ engine that tracks live sentiment across the web, giving users an instant snapshot of what the world actually thinks about a topic at any given moment. This means that brands, media houses, public policy institutions, or even everyday users can monitor what people are actually saying online in real time, rather than relying on outdated datasets. YarnGPT (Multilingual AI dubbing and speech technology, Nigeria) Built by Saheed Ayanniyi in February 2025, a Nigerian AI engineer who began experimenting with machine learning models during his undergraduate years at the University of Lagos, YarnGPT is an AI tool that translates videos, generates voiceovers, and converts written content into audio with Nigerian-sounding voices. Ayanniyi built the model by extracting audio and transcripts from local movies to create a dataset that understands the rhythm and intonation of Nigerian speech. The result is a text-to-speech and translation engine that “yarns” them with the correct local cadence. Its standout feature is video translation, which allows users to upload an English-language video and dub it into Yoruba, Igbo, or Hausa in minutes. It also includes a URL-to-audio conversion tool that turns a written news article into a podcast. The service also offers an API for developers building voice agents or voice-powered features. Get The Best African Tech Newsletters In Your Inbox Select your country Nigeria Ghana Kenya South Africa Egypt Morocco Tunisia Algeria Libya Sudan Ethiopia Somalia Djibouti Eritrea Uganda Tanzania Rwanda Burundi Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Central African Republic Chad Cameroon Gabon Equatorial Guinea São Tomé and Príncipe Angola Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Namibia Lesotho Eswatini Mozambique Madagascar Mauritius Seychelles Comoros Cape Verde Guinea-Bissau Senegal The Gambia Guinea Sierra Leone Liberia Côte d’Ivoire Burkina Faso Mali Niger Benin Togo Other Select your gender Male Female Others TC Daily TC Events TC Scoop Subscribe YesCheff (Interactive cooking, Nigeria/UK) For anyone who has ever tried to pause a YouTube cooking video with flour-covered hands, YesCheff is the kitchen assistant you didn’t know you needed. Launched in October 2025 by product designer Deji Ajetomobi, YesCheff lets users search for any delicacy, fetch the best YouTube tutorial, transcribe it, and then reorganise the content into a structured recipe. This reorganisation includes the meal overview, ingredients, steps, tools, calorie count, serving sizes, and even potential allergens, all powered by a mix of Google’s API, YouTube transcript tools, and OpenAI. YesCheff makes the cooking experience interactive, allowing users to move through each cooking step with adjustable timers, heat indicators, serving-size controls, and ingredient checklists that reveal nearby grocery stores if something is missing. JobPilot AI (Careers, Ghana) JobPilot AI was launched in April 2025 by Kelvin Agyare Yeboah and Anthony Gudu as an AI-powered career companion that combines job listings, resume building, and interview coaching into a single dashboard. It has an AI Interview Simulator that creates a real-time simulation where a user can speak to a panel of AI judges who grade confidence, technical accuracy, and delivery on the spot. It also generates Applicant Tracking System (ATS)-friendly resumes and cover letters and uses AI-assisted matching to help users discover job opportunities that align with their skill sets. It has a community forum where users can swap advice, share experiences, and strengthen their professional networks. SmartSkin Africa (AI skincare analysis and recommendation, Ghana) SmartSkin Africa was launched in November by Accessplus Communications Limited, a Ghanaian telecommunications and ICT service provider, led by Kelvin Boateng. The platform uses AI to deliver personalised skin analysis and skincare guidance tailored to African skin types. Users upload a selfie on the platform, and the AI examines up to 15 skin parameters, including acne, uneven skin tone, dark spots, pigmentation, hydration levels, wrinkles, dark circles, and overall skin firmness. After the assessment, SmartSkin Africa generates a tailored skin report along with product
Read MoreHow Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa rewrote the continent’s digital rulebook in 2025
In 2025, African governments rewrote the continent’s digital rulebook at an unpecedented pace. Across artificial intelligence (AI), crypto markets, telecoms, fintech, digital taxation, data regulation, and digital lending, lawmakers and policymakers introduced sweeping new frameworks that will define how innovation evolves over the next decade. Some of these laws aim to protect consumers after years of regulatory gaps. Others seek to position countries as digital-economy hubs amid global technological acceleration. But nearly all have ignited fierce contests for power, raised questions about implementation capacity, and sparked anxieties that regulation may begin to suffocate the very sectors it seeks to shape. TechCabal’s coverage of 2025 offers a panoramic view of this continent-wide regulatory awakening. Nowhere was the momentum more intense than in Nigeria, where lawmakers pushed through or attempted to push through more technology-related bills than any other African country this year. Yet the trend was visible across the region: Kenya formalised its first licencing regime for crypto and stablecoins, tightened data rules, and launched an AI strategy; South Africa advanced a national AI framework, modernised empowerment rules for telecoms, and strengthened cybersecurity obligations. These reforms signal a clear continental trajectory: African states want more control, more structure, and more visibility into fast-growing digital sectors. But the rush to regulate is accompanied by an equally strong concern: could this new era of big laws slow innovation before it fully takes off? Nigeria’s bid to reshape the digital economy No single document captured 2025’s regulatory ambition more than Nigeria’s Digital Economy Bill. The draft law would empower the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) with authority over virtually every pillar of the digital economy: AI, cloud services, platforms, cybersecurity, digital public infrastructure, data-driven services, and even open-data governance. Supporters see the bill as an overdue attempt to centralise Nigeria’s fragmented digital-policy landscape and create modern, globally aligned standards. Proponents argue that stronger NITDA powers could accelerate policy responses and better align innovation with national development priorities, particularly in digital public-infrastructure efforts such as identity, payments, and data-exchange frameworks. They believe that Nigeria, an economy where the digital sector contributes over 11.18% of GDP, requires a coherent governance backbone to catch up with global peers. But critics argue that the bill risks consolidating too much power in a single agency. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) already claim overlapping mandates in fintechs, crypto companies, etc. Giving NITDA regulatory primacy across undefined “digital economy” areas could deepen jurisdictional clashes, raise compliance costs, and produce years of legal ambiguity. Startups worry about a future in which innovation requires navigating multiple layers of approvals from agencies that are not yet aligned. In early November 2025, lawmakers promised to take the bill through third reading before transmitting it to the president before the end of the year. If signed, implementation would unfold through a series of NITDA regulations between 2026 and 2029. The real battles, over interpretation, enforcement, and jurisdiction, are likely yet to come. Overhauling a 22-year-old telecoms law In April 2025, Nigeria began updating one of its oldest tech laws: the Nigerian Communications Act (2003). With 5G, IoT, satellite connectivity, cybersecurity threats, and platform-driven markets reshaping the telecommunications landscape, most stakeholders agree the law is overdue for revision. The NCC’s proposed overhaul aims to modernise quality-of-service rules, tighten consumer-protection mechanisms, and create space for innovation through regulatory sandboxes. The new framework also prioritises competition enforcement and improved reporting by operators. These signals suggest a regulator attempting to become more agile and better equipped for a networked, hyper-digital era. Still, industry concerns persist. Smaller ISPs fear more burdensome reporting obligations and potentially costly licencing requirements. Stakeholders warn that if the NCC expands its scope too far into digital-platform oversight, regulatory overlaps with NITDA or the NDPC could weaken enforcement coherence. With consultations ongoing, the new law is unlikely before 2026—but the debates of 2025 underscored the reality that telecoms regulation can no longer be separated from the wider digital-economy debate. EVs, cross-border digital rules, and the implementation gap Nigeria’s Electric Vehicle Bill, with fines of up to ₦500 million for unlicensed importers, illustrates how governments are extending oversight into new growth areas. But with limited charging infrastructure and power-grid weaknesses, analysts fear the sector could be over-regulated before it scales. South Africa’s 2025 tech-policy shifts In 2025, South Africa moved to modernise its telecoms empowerment rules and strengthen its cybersecurity and online safety ecosystem. An amended ICT policy direction sought to “modernise” Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE), South Africa’s transformation framework that uses a scorecard and codes of good practice to expand Black ownership, control, skills, and participation in the economy, and links these outcomes to access to state and certain private-sector opportunities, by introducing an Equity Equivalent Investment Programme (EEIP) as an alternative to the strict 30% local ownership requirement for some licences. This represents a pivotal shift: global players like Starlink, cloud providers, and satellite-internet companies may find it easier to enter the market through approved investment commitments rather than share-equity transfers. But the reform has sparked heated debate. Supporters say it opens South Africa to new digital infrastructure and foreign investment. Critics warn it risks diluting empowerment goals and giving global tech giants a lighter compliance route. The tension between transformation and global competitiveness remains a defining feature of South Africa’s digital-policy landscape. Alongside existing laws like the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), South Africa’s data protection law, and the Cybercrimes Act, 2025 saw strengthened cybersecurity and online safety regulations. Authorities introduced updated obligations for platforms to protect users, improve breach-notification protocols, and implement stronger security-by-design measures. These reforms raise the compliance bar for digital businesses operating in South Africa, especially foreign platforms that historically treated African markets with lighter governance. Robust cyber-resilience is no longer optional. Kenya’s broader digital-regulation wave Kenya’s digital-policy activity in 2025 extended far beyond the crypto sector, touching taxation, data rights, telecoms regulation, and the country’s long-term AI
Read MoreSimple tricks to make your MTN, Airtel, Glo and 9mobile data last longer
Table of contents How to save mobile data on MTN Nigeria How to save mobile data on Airtel How to save mobile data on Glo Nigeria How to save mobile data on 9mobile (now T2) Saving mobile data became serious for me the day my bundle disappeared before noon. I had bought a fresh plan the night before and felt safe. By the next morning, my apps weren’t working. I rechecked my data balance, hoping it was a mistake. It was not. My data had quietly slipped away. That moment made me realise what was eating my bundle. I checked my settings, reviewed my apps, and even searched online groups where people shared hidden USSD codes and tricks. That was when it clicked. Data does not just vanish. Your phone, your habits, and the network you use all play a part. This article shows you how to make your bundle last longer and how to get better value on MTN, Airtel, Glo, and 9mobile. How to stop your phone from wasting data Saving data starts with your phone settings. These controls work on MTN, Airtel, Glo, and 9mobile, and they give you the quickest results. 1. Use your phone’s built-in data saver Your phone already has tools that help you cut down on background data. On Android, you can turn on Data Saver in Settings > Network and internet > Data Saver. On iPhone, the option is called Low Data Mode. Once it is on, your apps stop using data quietly in the background. This is typically found under Settings > Mobile Data/Cellular/Service > Mobile Data Options > Data Mode Some apps still need steady access, so you can allow a few important ones, like WhatsApp or your bank app, to bypass Data Saver. This is found inside the same menu under Unrestricted data. Battery Saver also helps because it forces many apps to slow down their background activity. So you save data and keep your phone on for longer. 2. Control how your apps behave Many times, the apps on your phone use more data than you expect. You can check this in your Data Usage settings. Once you see the apps consuming the most data, turn off their background access if they are not important. You can also reduce notifications from apps that constantly refresh. This small change helps your data last longer. Another key step is making sure updates only happen on Wi-Fi. Set your Play Store or App Store to update apps on Wi-Fi only. Do the same for WhatsApp, Telegram, and similar apps so they do not auto-download large photos and videos on mobile data. 3. Reduce how much your browsing and streaming consume Streaming uses plenty of data. Download content on Wi-Fi and watch it later. If you must stream, lower the quality inside each app. You can also use browsers that compress data. Opera Mini is popular because it reduces the size of pages and images. Chrome has a data-saving mode too. For maps, download offline maps so you can navigate without using your bundle. These simple fixes give you stronger control over your data and help your bundles last much longer. How to save mobile data on MTN Nigeria Saving data on MTN works best when you combine the right phone settings with the cheaper, personalised bundles MTN hides inside its menus and promotions. 1. Use MTN’s official tools and codes MTN gives you different ways to monitor your data. You can check your usage through the myMTN NG app, the USSD code, or Zigi on WhatsApp and Telegram. The official code for buying data is *312#, and you can check your balance with *323#. MTN also advises you to use Lite versions of apps and turn off Background App Refresh to reduce how much your phone consumes in the background. 2. Take advantage of personalised and hidden bundles MTN users save the most when they stop depending on the standard plans in the *312# menu. According to the YouTube channel, Kidkes, they point out that MTN reserves its best Naira to Gigabyte offers for personalised sections like Data4Me and Pulse. This is why many users visit social media groups and forums to exchange USSD codes that unlock cheaper bundles. MTN sets the segments, but the community spreads the codes that help people find the highest value plans. Vetted promotional codes Some of the widely shared MTN offers include: 4GB for N1000 (Monthly): Access via specialized codes, such as *312*65*3# 2GB for N200 (Weekly): Access via specialized codes, such as *312*65*2# These codes depend on eligibility, region, and availability, but I have used them repeatedly. Your best strategy is to keep checking “offers” inside the MTN app and test the popular codes circulating online until you find the ones your line accepts. 3. Pick targeted bundles that match your usage If most of your data goes into social media, MTN has small, focused plans like the Ayoba Weekly Plan (40MB for N50) and the All Social Daily Plan (200MB for N100). These plans help you reduce how much of your main bundle gets consumed. You can also choose MTN monthly plans that come with a large All Night Streaming allowance, such as 2GB of night data. Using this night window for heavy tasks like big downloads, system updates, and long streaming sessions lets you stretch your main data during the day and get more value from what you paid for. How to save mobile data on Airtel You can save a lot of data on Airtel by choosing bundles that match what you actually use and by looking for non-standard promotional codes shared online. 1. Use Airtel’s standard plans the right way The main code for buying Airtel data is *312#. Through this menu, you will see daily, weekly, and monthly plans. Airtel’s biggest savings feature sits inside its Smart Data Plans. These plans split your data into different parts so your heavy activities do not drain your main balance. For
Read MoreCapitec VRP lets South Africans make recurring payments directly from bank
Stitch, one of South Africa’s largest payments fintech startups, has partnered with Capitec Bank, the country’s largest retail bank by customer base, to allow customers to automate recurring payments for services like Netflix, deliveries, and bills, using Variable Recurring Payments (VRP), a smarter form of direct debit. “With Capitec Pay variable and recurring payments now available across our partner network and live with Stitch, clients gain more control and visibility over their ongoing payment commitments,” said Chris Zietsman, Executive Head of Capitec Business Payments. “We’re expanding Capitec Pay’s everyday uses, like grocery checkout and delivery – while keeping rates affordable for merchants.” Capitac Pay VRP is one of South Africa’s first large‑scale, API‑driven recurring payment options, letting banked consumers pay for digital services directly from their accounts and reducing reliance on risky cash‑on‑delivery models. Instead of manually approving a payment every time a bill is due or an order is placed, customers only need to set up Capitec Pay once. Users authorise a specific merchant, such as a delivery app, and define a maximum spending limit. Once established, future payments within that limit occur automatically in the background without requiring further action. Commercial banks like FNB, Absa, and Standard Bank use the traditional DebiCheck system for recurring payments. While that system works similarly, Capitec is the first to use this specific new technology. VRPs are expected to spread as open banking matures in South Africa, with PayShap, Capitec Pay, and fintechs like Stitch highlighted as early building blocks. For now, Capitec is the notable bank with a public VRP‑style API product, while other banks are more focused on DebiCheck improvements and broader open‑banking roadmaps rather than named “VRP” offerings. “We’re excited to work with the Capitec team to bring this important solution to the South African market,” said Junaid Dadan, President and Co-founder at Stitch. “VRP gives Capitec customers more control over the way they make recurring payments, and helps businesses to streamline collections – especially where there are complex requirements. This will have a major impact on the market, and we’re excited to offer this to all our enterprise clients in South Africa.” Read: South Africans ditch cash and cards for digital payments, new report shows
Read MoreChowdeck hits nearly $1 million in Black Friday food delivery sales
Until Jumia introduced its first nationwide sales campaign after it launched in 2012, Black Friday was not a retail tradition in Nigeria. Since then, the once-foreign concept has grown into one of the country’s most anticipated online commerce moments. Black Friday deals have now extended to online food delivery platforms like Chowdeck, which drove ₦1.4 billion ($975,909) in sales during its Black Friday event that ran from Friday, November 28, to Monday, December 1, according to data tracked on its live dashboard. The company rolled out discounted meals, free delivery vouchers, and city-specific flash drops in prices across Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan, and other cities. This year’s four-day event blew past its internal target to double orders from 2024 when it hosted its first Black Friday event. By 9:08 pm West African Time (WAT) on Friday, November 28, it had already fulfilled 51,000 orders, more than double its 2024 sales volume. At the end of the event on Monday, December 1, it recorded 182,74 orders generating ₦1.4 billion ($975,909) in revenue and covering over 727,000 kilometres, the highest the company has logged during a promotional window. The performance reinforces the company’s recent momentum. In October, Chowdeck crossed over 1 million monthly orders across Nigeria. “Our daily order volumes in Nigeria has grown from an average of approximately 30,000 daily orders a few weeks ago to over 40,000 daily orders presently and still increasing day on day,” Femi Aluko, Chowdeck Co-founder and CEO posted on X in November 3 after the company reached the milestone. “This milestone reminds us of what is possible when people believe in what we’re building.” Get The Best African Tech Newsletters In Your Inbox Select your country Nigeria Ghana Kenya South Africa Egypt Morocco Tunisia Algeria Libya Sudan Ethiopia Somalia Djibouti Eritrea Uganda Tanzania Rwanda Burundi Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Central African Republic Chad Cameroon Gabon Equatorial Guinea São Tomé and Príncipe Angola Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Namibia Lesotho Eswatini Mozambique Madagascar Mauritius Seychelles Comoros Cape Verde Guinea-Bissau Senegal The Gambia Guinea Sierra Leone Liberia Côte d’Ivoire Burkina Faso Mali Niger Benin Togo Other Select your gender Male Female Others TC Daily TC Events TC Scoop Subscribe Nigeria’s online food-delivery market was valued at $1.04 billion in 2024, with projections to reach $2.49 billion by 2033 at a CAGR of 10.3%, according to IMARC Group. Chowdeck launched in October 2021, entering a market where food delivery was widely seen as unprofitable and difficult to scale. By 2023, regional competitors, like Bolt Food, Jumia Food, and OFood, either exited or downsized operations. But the company built a logistics-first model around geolocation, demand batching and rider incentives, allowing it to grow quickly in dense cities. Two forces explain the acceleration. First, Nigeria’s digital access has reached critical mass. The country had about 107 million internet users at the beginning of 2025, nearly 45% of its population. This gives delivery apps enough scale to push user-acquisition, including campaigns during Black Friday. The second is continuous investment, which strengthened the platform infrastructure. In 2025, Chowdeck acquired point-of-sale startup Mira to integrate payments and merchant tools. In August, it raised $9 million Series A funding led by Novastar Ventures to expand quick-commerce offerings like groceries and essentials. Chowdeck’s closest competitor, Glovo, also ran Black Friday deals from November 28 to 30, offering discounts and free delivery, though it did not disclose order volumes or revenue for the period. Discounts appeal to residents in urban centres because it reduces the cost and effort of preparing meals or buying household essentials, providing a convenient alternative to grocery shopping and cooking. Delivery companies have also invested heavily in logistics, in-app navigation, and restaurant partnerships, enabling them to manage high order volumes efficiently. Together, these factors allow platforms like Chowdeck to turn temporary promotions into record-breaking sales. Why food delivery is winning in Nigeria When Jumia Food was the major player in the sector, Nigeria’s food-delivery sector had limited reach and inconsistent reliability. The COVID-19 lockdown exposed these gaps and created new demand, opening the door for a new wave of players that emerged from 2021, including Glovo and Chowdeck. Chowdeck’s founding story underscores the moment. “I tested positive for COVID on the 31st of December, 2020,” Aluko shared on the company’s website. “I spent the entire January 1 looking for food vendors to deliver food to me but the available food delivery providers didn’t deliver during public holidays. I eventually found one after many hours and ended up paying 4x the regular amount.” His experience mirrored the frustrations of many urban Nigerians and signalled an opening for more reliable on-demand delivery services. Online delivery has continued to thrive even as Nigerians lose more of their income to rising food, fuel, and living costs. However, urban realities: work, long traffic, unreliable power, and limited time are making cooking more inconvenient as city dwellers now see delivery as a time-saving option. The current strides in the food delivery sector is evidence of this demand. Foodpod, citing Paystack data, notes that food delivery grew significantly at 187% CAGR between 2021 and 2024. New entrants that launched at the height of this boom quickly found traction by serving kitchens and restaurants. Alongside peers such as FoodCourt, Chowcentral, Heyfood, and MANO, they broadened consumer awareness and deepened demand for fast delivery. From just 319 users at launch in October 2021, Chowdeck grew to 17,900 users in 2022, 250,000 in 2023, and over 1 million by 2024. Additionally, while Jumia Food once operated in three cities with roughly 80 couriers, Chowdeck alone now deploys more than 20,000 riders completing over 40,000 daily orders. Recommended Reading: Nigeria’s ride-hailing graveyard and the network effect
Read MoreWhy Nigeria’s startup ecosystem needs more corporate buyers
With startup funding slowing globally and foreign investors becoming more cautious, industry leaders are calling for a fundamental shift in how innovation is financed, scaled, and absorbed in Africa. The message, repeated across panels, keynote speeches, and informal conversations at the MTN Cloud Accelerator Demo Day in Lagos on November 28, 2025, was that Nigeria needs more corporate buyers like commercial banks, mobile network operators (MNOs), etc., fewer silos, and a more collaborative innovation culture. While startups have long been praised for their agility and ingenuity, their path to scale remains steep. Infrastructure costs are high, regulations are complex, and access to markets, especially enterprise markets, is often gated. Corporations in telecom, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs), and pharmaceuticals, on the other hand, sit on large customer bases, distribution networks, and infrastructure. Yet they have historically remained risk-averse, operating in silos and depending heavily on internal Research and Development (R&D) rather than open collaboration. At the demo day, which marked the graduation of 20 early-stage startups from MTN’s 12-week Cloud Accelerator program, speakers argued that Nigeria can no longer afford this divide. For Africa to build globally competitive companies, corporates must begin acting not just as mentors or sponsors, but as buyers, partners, and acquirers of startup innovations. The era of transactional corporate–startup relationships is ending The clearest articulation of this shift came from Babalola Oyeleye, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at MTN Nigeria. Speaking during a panel, he described the traditional corporate–startup dynamic as “highly transactional,” with corporates simply consuming solutions rather than co-creating them. “But now, co-creation is what we need,” Oyeleye said. “Corporates have assets, infrastructure, customer access, and distribution. Startups have agility. If we collaborate deeply, engage customers together, conduct research together, and develop products together, we shorten our time to market.” This breakdown of silos, he argued, transforms startups from mere vendors into partners that can execute rapid, experimental innovation on behalf of corporates, effectively becoming outsourced R&D engines. Victor Asemota, an African tech ecosystem expert and founder of SwiftaCorp, an African software and technology services group, offered a global comparison to highlight what is missing in Nigeria. “In Silicon Valley, 98% of all mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity comes from corporations,” he explained. “Google alone accounts for more than half of that. African corporations have not played that role. Many try to build everything internally instead of acquiring solutions proven by startups.” Asemota’s observation points to a structural weakness in Nigeria’s innovation economy: startups build great products but rarely find local corporate acquirers or large-scale buyers. This forces many to rely on foreign markets, foreign investors, or, in some cases, relocation. The consequence? Local ecosystems lose talent, Intellectual Property (IP), and long-term value. For Lynda Saint-Nwafor, MTN Nigeria’s Chief Enterprise Business Officer, the goal was to build the kind of environment where startups do not merely learn, they plug directly into corporate infrastructure that can help them scale. “Acceleration is more than technology,” she said in her keynote. “It requires exposure, structure, and clarity. Startups integrated into MoMo, enabling payments without complexity. They plugged into Chenosis, shortening development cycles. And through structured workshops, they gained investor readiness, product design, customer experience, founder wellness, and go-to-market frameworks.” Still, the panelists acknowledged that this shift will not be easy. Corporate risk aversion remains a major barrier. Oyeleye explained that most corporates are hesitant to invest in early-stage innovation because they must choose between funding proven businesses or uncertain bets. “Corporates already have functioning businesses. When you have limited capital, you ask yourself: do I invest in something uncertain or double down on what already works?” he said. But with Nigeria’s demographic boom, infrastructure challenges, and evolving consumer behaviors, corporates must rethink this posture. The companies that participate in innovation today, he argued, will be the ones that dominate tomorrow’s markets. Speakers at the event warned that the ecosystem pays a high price for fragmentation. Startups struggle to access critical assets. Corporates reinvent the wheel. Regulators move slowly because stakeholders fail to present unified positions. And innovation becomes slower and more expensive than it needs to be. Asemota pointed out that corporates can offer startups something more valuable than money: regulatory leverage. “When corporates collaborate with startups, they bring regulatory support that founders cannot afford alone,” he said. “This is one of the biggest values of corporate–startup partnerships.”
Read MoreSamuel Frank on entering the VC industry and investing in climate tech
In November, Samuel Frank, an investment associate at Sahara Impact Ventures, an Africa-focused VC firm with a climate and gender lens, sat before a room of students eager to break into Africa’s venture capital industry or improve their understanding of the sector. In a few minutes, he would judge their final presentations and offer pointed feedback on how to improve. For Frank, it was a full-circle moment. Just months earlier, in April, he had been on the other side of the table, presenting his own final project in the same course. There’s rarely been a more compelling time to pursue a VC career in Africa. Local firms are raising larger funds, specialised VC training programmes are multiplying, and a growing cohort of young professionals now sees venture capital as an appealing gateway into tech and finance. But while interest has surged, job openings have not. Most African VC firms manage relatively small funds, often under $20 million, and, due to fund economics, only around 20% of that capital can be used for operations. After salaries, rent, travel, and events are covered, very few firms have room to hire large teams. The result is a brutally competitive job market where many find it difficult to break in, especially those without industry relationships or direct access to the tight-knit networks that shape hiring in African VC. For this week’s Ask an Investor, I spoke with Frank, who is one year into his role at Sahara Impact Ventures. After recently breaking into the VC industry himself, he shares advice for people hoping to follow a similar path, the misconceptions he held before entering the sector, the skills required to land a role, and how his firm invests in and supports startups. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. What drew you to venture capital, and why not traditional finance, operating, or a startup role? My first role in finance was at an investment advisory firm, and I was supporting the finance and operations teams of startups. Besides doing all of that, I was also involved with helping them set up their data room, communicate with investors, prepare board meeting memos and board packs, and even help them with preparing their pitch decks and investment memos. Every single time, I was really curious to find out: who are the people giving these guys money? As that question just kept ringing in my head, it led me to find out about a particular book called Venture Deals. I took the course based on the book first. It was a very short course, and then I read the book. That opened me up to the industry of venture capital, and after reading the book, I understood more of what’s happening in the VC space, and that piqued my interest in wanting to work there. How did you get your current job, and what were the things that you think you did that made you stand out? I think working with startups helped. However, I already had the skill set to work in VC, from deal sourcing to analysis to what goes on around portfolio support and things like that. I had those skills, and so it was to find the opportunity because roles in venture capital are so limited. Some people think they need basic financial skill sets or technical skills in finance, but how you’re able to tailor them to the industry you want to work in is really important. Whether it is to know how to do powerful presentations or Excel spreadsheets, or work around a model, it’s how you tailor those skill sets to fit the industry you want to work in. Has your view of VC changed since you started working in VC? Was there any misconception you had before joining? Get The Best African Tech Newsletters In Your Inbox Select your country Nigeria Ghana Kenya South Africa Egypt Morocco Tunisia Algeria Libya Sudan Ethiopia Somalia Djibouti Eritrea Uganda Tanzania Rwanda Burundi Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Central African Republic Chad Cameroon Gabon Equatorial Guinea São Tomé and Príncipe Angola Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Namibia Lesotho Eswatini Mozambique Madagascar Mauritius Seychelles Comoros Cape Verde Guinea-Bissau Senegal The Gambia Guinea Sierra Leone Liberia Côte d’Ivoire Burkina Faso Mali Niger Benin Togo Other Select your gender Male Female Others TC Daily TC Events TC Scoop Subscribe There are some views that have changed. I thought VCs, especially in Africa, were looking to do 20–25 deals every year, but I’ve realised that everybody’s doing three, four, five, six, or seven deals a whole year. Another thing that has changed is the fact that when I think about exits for VCs, it was always just about IPOs. But now, working in the space, I understand a lot more about secondaries and self-liquidating instruments. Now, I see a lot of VCs who are just finding ways to ensure that they’re able to return the fund. Everyone is concerned about being able to raise more money after you’re done with your first or second fund, because being able to raise more is about whether you’re able to return the money you have raised previously. I thought that due diligence is extremely critical in the VC industry, especially at the early stage, but I have noticed since coming in that quite a number of these investors are not so eager about due diligence for pre- and seed investments, keeping all the due diligence for Series A. It has caused a wide gap between companies that raise pre-seed and companies that raise Series A. Because of that long timeline of no due diligence, companies are suffering now. By the time they want to raise a Series A, all of the things that they could have set up by the time they were raising pre-seed and seed are not set up, and then they have to start afresh for Series A, and it becomes a tougher problem. Another misconception is that a lot of people
Read More100 million cards later, Verve looks towards contactless payment and tokenisation
Verve, a payment card scheme operated by Nigerian fintech company Interswitch, is expanding its contactless payment products and introducing tokenisation as it hits 100 million cards issued across Africa, 16 years after it launched. Verve will now deepen its focus on next-generation payment technologies, especially contactless payments, which it believes will enable faster tap-and-go transactions at terminals. The implementation of tokenisation is expected to provide added security for online and digital payments by reducing the risk of fraud and data compromise, the company said in a statement. “This milestone is more than a number; it represents millions of people across the African continent who have become empowered to participate in the digital economy,” said Vincent Ogbunude, managing director of Verve International. “It belongs to every customer who believed in an African home-grown card scheme and every institution that partnered with us to make it scalable.” The move reflects a broader trend of Nigerian fintechs increasingly turning to contactless technology as consumers demand faster and more secure transactions. Fintech platforms like PalmPay and Moniepoint have made similar moves, partnering with AfriGO, Nigeria’s domestic card scheme, to roll out a contactless payment scheme. Verve hit 100 million cards off the back of partnerships with banks and fintech companies that have helped the scheme extend access to individuals, small businesses, students, and corporate customers. The company said it saw growth across ATM withdrawals, point-of-sale transactions, online purchases, and mobile payments. The company said these partnerships make it easier for African consumers to access global digital services without relying on foreign-currency cards, while supporting financial inclusion among previously underbanked communities. Verve said it will continue to invest in infrastructure and security, including chip-and-PIN technology and advanced fraud-prevention systems, as it scales transaction volumes across both physical and digital channels. The company said it will also continue strengthening partnerships with banks, fintech platforms, and merchants to expand acceptance online and offline.
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