Nigerian startups have continued to set the pace, taking giant strides in the African tech industry. Nigeria has multiple unicorns under its roof; Flutterwave, Interswitch, Opay and Andela. Nigeria’s booming digital payments companies facilitated transactions for the unbanked (Opay) and gateways (Interswitch and Flutterwave) and are each worth more than $1 billion.
On the back of 2020’s global pandemic, the Nigerian tech industry received added attention from users and investors. Many people had to come to terms with the technology around them during the lockdown. Some Nigerian universities also adopted e-earning. Businesses and workplaces adopted online spaces. Stripes’ $200 million acquisition of Paystack in October was a major moment for Nigeria’s tech space.
In March 2021, Flutterwave’s total disclosed funding was $225m. This came after the company announced a strategic partnership with Visa and Worldpay. Flutterwave had earlier raised $20m Series A in 2018, and in 2020 the company announced a $35m Series B. According to recent data, the company’s Series B round was closed at $40m.
In August 2021, Opay raised $400million, led by Softbank, making it Nigeria’s latest unicorn with a $2 billion valuation. Andela attained unicorn status in September 2021 after raising $200 million from investors. Andela is a Nigerian startup that connects African software engineering talent to global companies. It is based in New York and is now valued at 1.5 billion.
An honourable mention is Main One, the communications services company led by Funke Opeke was acquired by Equinix for $320 million.
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