The report reveals that most African fintechs operate in the payments & remittances, lending & financing, and business administration segments.

African fintechs raised $2.7 billion between July 2021 and June 2023, according to a report published on August 21 by Disrupt Africa, an information platform specializing in Africa's tech ecosystems.

Over a third of the amount was raised by Nigerian fintechs, according to the report titled Finnovating for Africa: Reimagining the African financial services landscape 2023.

Since June 1, 2015, when Disrupt Africa began tracking funding injected into the African tech ecosystem, 540 fintechs from 25 African countries have raised $3.63 billion. Except in 2022, where they fell slightly below $1.5 billion, the funds sustained an upward dynamic. This year, however, the curve is expected to dip as the global venture capital market slows down. In H1 of 2023, African fintechs raised just over $600 million, and more than half of this amount was raised by a single company–the Egyptian firm MNT-Halan.

The report further reveals that the number of African fintechs grew by 17.7% between July 2021 and June 2023, standing at 678. Nearly 40% of them, however, were launched between 2019 and 2021.

Many countries spurred the increase, but the biggest actors were Egypt and Nigeria (where the number of fintechs grew by 66.7% and 50%, respectively, between July 2021 and June 2023).

Three countries account for nearly 70% of fintech

Disrupt Africa has identified fintechs operating in 25 African countries. The number of fintechs per country ranges from just one in countries such as Algeria, Burkina Faso, and Mali, to 217 in Nigeria. However, three countries (Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya) account for 67.7% of all fintechs on the continent.

Regarding the sector of activity, the 2023 report found that 29.4% of active fintechs in Africa operate in the payments and remittances segment, 19.3% in lending & financing, 12.5% in business administration, 10.2% in investment, 8.4% in insurance, 5.8% in personal finance, 5.5% in blockchain, and 2.4% in security and identification.

In Africa, of all startups, fintechs are the ones that benefit the most from incubation and acceleration programs. Out of the 678 fintechs identified on the continent, 315 or 46.5% of them took part in such programs.

When it comes to gender equality, Africa’s fintech industry still has a long way to go. According to the report, only 14.6% of the fintechs active on the continent have a woman in the founding team, and 7.7% are led by one. This puts fintech startups behind start-ups operating in the e-commerce, healthcare, education, logistics and recruitment & human resources sectors.

On another level, the report highlights that fintech startups are now the African startups most likely to be the target of acquisitions, due in particular to their good development prospects; 26 acquisitions were recorded in this segment of the African tech ecosystem between June 2021 and July 2023, compared with just 7 between June 2019 and July 2021.