2024 was the year of African fintech. Fintechs remain the most funded startups in the African technology ecosystem, get 35% of total funds raised in the first half of 2024. The sector also welcomed two new unicorns: Moniepoint and Tyme Bank.
While the year has been marked by record successes in fintech, it’s worth taking a look at emerging fintech companies with potential for global reach. This article highlights four key fintech product categories to watch in 2025. Each category lists two or three startups to watch and their products.
Credit Card Company—Allawee, Monapp
Although card payments have become the second most popular payment method in Nigeria, the adoption of credit cards is yet to gain momentum. Only 2% of Nigerians have a credit card. As the Nigerian government plans to increase consumer credit adoption to 50% by 2030, several fintech startups have launched to offer credit solutions to their customers.
Allocated: Launched in 2023, Allawee Technologies Limited is a licensed Digital Money Lender (DML) offering credit cards to Nigerians.
In December 2024, it partnered with Providus Bank, Mastercard and Remita to launch its credit card offering. The card allows users to get credit equal to 30-90% of their net income, up to a maximum of ₦1,000,000 ($605). Customers can use the credit card to make payments like regular debit cards. They can shop online or pay on hardware terminals such as ATMs and PoS devices. Users have up to four months to repay their debts in up to three installments.
MONAPP: While credit card giant American Express has launched into Nigeria to cater to luxury travelers, restaurants and hotels, MONAPP, a Nigerian financial technology company, is targeting a niche audience: commercial transportation. MONAPP provides easy access to credit, through its credit cards, to commercial drivers for vehicle maintenance and emergency repairs. Many drivers work under hire-purchase agreements, which leaves them with limited funds for unscheduled vehicle maintenance.
Contactless payments – Cash Africa, Karla, TAP
Although contactless payments are still in the early stages of adoption in Nigeria, startups and banks are preparing for its adoption. Nigerian banks like UBA and Providus have been issuing contactless cards – capped at 30,000 naira – to their customers over the past three years. As more NFC-enabled phones and a likely shift in user behavior could drive the adoption of contactless payments, startups like Cash Africa, Karla and TAP are positioning themselves first in the market.
FAUCET: Launched in 2017 by Olamide Afolabi, Michael Oluwole and Kabir Yabo, Touch and Pay Technologies, the YCombinator-backed startup supports payments for mobility services in Lagos via its NFC-enabled Cowry cards. The fintech is solely responsible for accepting payments on Lagos’s intra-city transportation system, including Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), a popular metro public-private partnership, and Lagos’s ferries and rail services. The startup claims its Cowry card is used for 500,000 daily travel payments by 3.8 million users in Lagos.
Cash Africa: Launched in 2023, CashAfrica is building an API that allows banks and fintechs to offer customers a contactless payment option in their banking apps. While working to integrate with banks, the fintech has a mobile application, Cash Mobile, which allows users to transact using the Tap-to-Pay feature on their mobile phones.
Karla: Karla is a contactless payment platform based in Nigeria that allows you to make fast and secure payments with your mobile device or contactless card. It allows you to link your preferred payment method to the Karla app, then use your device or card on participating merchants’ contactless terminals to transact quickly and securely.
Payment infrastructure: Zone, Keyrails, Hub2
The rise of African cross-border trade has led to a demand for robust payment infrastructure, with robust anti-fraud measures and compliance with KYC/AML regulations. New startups across the continent are rising to the occasion.
Area: In 2022, Areaa Nigerian payments infrastructure company, has separated from its parent company, Appzone, after securing a payment switching and processing license from the Central Bank of Nigeria. The startup has become Africa’s first licensed payments infrastructure company powered by blockchain technology.
Zone claims that more than 15 of Africa’s leading banks and fintech companies, including Access Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, United Bank of Africa, Fair Money, Baxi and Kongapay, use its network to process payments.
In August 2024, the company in partnership with the Nigerian Interbank Settlement Scheme (NIBSS) to introduce blockchain technology in point-of-sale (POS) terminal payments. The partnership will allow participating financial institutions to view the blockchain ledger that contains all recorded transactions, helping banks reconcile transactions, quickly resolve disputes, reduce customer wait times and reduce chargebacks and other point-of-sale fraud.
Keychain: Launched in 2023, Keychain is a global payments infrastructure company that provides payment channels for cross-border transactions between businesses and users in the United States, Africa and China. The startup enables transparent, non-pre-funded first and third party international payments via SWIFT and local banking rails, all initiated directly from a USDC treasury.
HUB2: Launched in 2019 by Ashley Gauzere, an Ivorian fintech, HUB2 wants to become the “Stripe of French-speaking Africa”. The Payments Aggregator allows fintechs to collect payments and payments across the marketplaces they operate in through a unified payments infrastructure API.
HUB2 enables fintech companies to collect mobile money, bank transfers, card payments and cryptocurrencies through a single API. It operates in six French-speaking countries – Senegal, Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo and Cameroon – and serves clients like Zeepay of Ghana, NALA of Tanzania, Onafriq of SA and Djamo, the Ivorian neobank backed by YC.
Escrow services – Aje, intermediary
In 2022, social commerce in Africa and the Middle East was estimated at $9 billion. However, as more Africans embrace online shopping, social commerce has become a hotbed of fraud and scams. Startups like Midddleman and Aje have become important in reducing the lack of trust on social media platforms.
Intermediate: Launched in 2023 by Omolara Sanni and Adeola Owosho, Intermediate is an escrow service that acts as a safe deposit to collect and hold payments from customers until customers confirm that the products they have received are satisfactory.
To initiate a transaction on Midddleman, the seller creates an escrow. The platform then sends the buyer a payment prompt via SMS and email, including bank account details, a unique “release code” and a “dispute link”. Buyer’s funds are held securely until the transaction is completed. Once completed, the buyer sends the release code to the seller, triggering the release of funds. In case of unsatisfactory delivery, the buyer uses the dispute link to initiate a claim. Middleman facilitates dispute resolution to ensure a fair outcome.
Aje: Launched in 2022 by Ifeoluwa Wole-Osho, Aje provides deposit services like Midddleman but uses blockchain-secured deposit. The startup offers escrow payments as well as tools such as multi-currency wallets, dispute resolution systems and an integrated marketplace, catering to both local and cross-border transactions. The startup claims to have onboarded over 7,500 users and facilitated over 1,000 secure deposit transactions.