10 Tech Startups in Nigeria and What they do

Nigeria’s startup atmosphere experienced a unique spring of new technology, with the likes of PayStack, Kobo360 and many more coming on board and there are tons of tech startups in Nigeria. Millions of dollars also rolled into the country, and Nigeria is appearing to become Africa’s next ICT hub after Kenya.

However, of the scores that cropped up, I’ve highlighted 10 that has kept mouths opened, and businesses awake through disruptive technologies. Feel free to leave comments in our “leave a reply” section below, especially if there are any other tech startups that we should consider profiling.

1. Kobo360

Kobo360 takes logistics to a whole new level with its online platform that centralizes haulage operations for cargo owners, truck owners drivers, and cargo recipient, beginning with Nigeria.

The tech startup allows truck owners to put their vehicles to work, while Kobo360 ensures a seamless business flow that gets the trucks continuously busy.

Founded by the duo of Ife Oyedele and Obi Ozor in 2016, the technology startup uses real-time data and technology to reduce logistics frictions, therefore empowering rural farmers to earn more by reducing farm wastages and helping manufacturers of all sizes to reach their markets.

2. Farmcrowdy

Farmcrowdy started out in 2016 as Nigeria’s pioneer digital platform for agricultural activities. The startup empowers rural farmers by providing them with funding, improved seeds, farm inputs, training on modern farming techniques and provides a market for the sale of their farm produce.

By this, Farmcrowdy enables the farmers to cultivate more acres, leading to increased food production and security in Africa. The company has so far empowered more than 11,000 small scale-farmers across Nigeria. Over 16,000 acres of land has been cultivated under Farmcrowdy’s system, with over 25, 000 farms financed from scratch.

3. Thrive Agric

Ayodeji Arikawe, the founder of Thrive Agric also goes the way of agricultural production. Starting out with $20,000 funding from Ventures Platform, the agritech provides an investment platform where the public can fund agricultural operations, be it livestock or crops.

Thrive Agric became prominent in 2017 and has since supported more than 4,000 farmers with the crowd-sourcing model, helping small-scale producers with access to finance, best practices and link up with buyers during harvest.

The startup has a handy tool (a mobile application), where data of farmers and farm operations are recorded. Farmers also receive automated SMS based on crops they are planting. The app provides coordinates of farms and crops planted, weekly satellite images, soil condition, and other analysis are taken to ensure right predictions on weather conditions and yield.

ALSO, READ;

4. Pledre

Pledre is perhaps one of the most innovative edtech Nigeria has produced. Cofounded by Demilade Odetara, the online tool provides schools and organizations with their own customized learning management systems.

It operates on a simple system that allows anyone to create their own school where students and teachers can engage in lectures with topics, videos, notes, chats and contents like they would in a physical classroom.

The online schools, which could be to augment a physical school or a stand-alone online learning centre, can operate on its own domain. It has a fully functional library, forum, multiple classrooms, live video chat, personal notes, and 3rd party application integrations, all to ensure a seamless learning experience.

5. Paylater

Paylater started out in 2016 as an instant loan app that provides credit facilities of ₦7,000 or ₦10,000 within minutes, without collateral. It is a subsidiary of a Lagos-based financial service company, One Finance.

It wasn’t long for Paylater to start offering higher loans, and users could access up to a million naira. But it doesn’t stop there. The company launched new exciting features almost every month, posing real threats to banks and other loan apps.

Users could recharge airtime on any network, pay bills for all your favorite services and transfer money, all at the lowest possible cost. They could also earn up to 15.5% per annum when you invest with its investment platform, Payvest.

6. Paystack

Arguably one of the most successful fintech startups in Nigeria, Paystack is a payment process platform that simplifies payment collection by businesses. It launched on a full scale in 2016, with $1.3 seed funding million from local and international investors, including Tencent, Comcast Ventures, and Ventures Platform.

The fintech, founded by Ezra Olubi and Shola Akinlade, has managed to become the processor of nearly 15% of all online payments in Nigeria. It recorded a mind-blowing monthly processed payment of 10 billion naira in October 2018.

Before last year ended, the startup announced a new $10.2 million round of funding from investors including Stripe, Visa and China’s Tencent. With this, it hopes to enter new markets across Africa, starting with Ghana.

7. Zedvance

Zedvance was founded by Adedayo Amzat to deepen financial inclusion across Nigeria, by providing increased access to credit facilities, without burdensome restrictions.

Its primary market includes salary earners in the corporate sector, where an individual could access up to ₦5 million loans, with a flexible repayment period of up to 18 months. Zedvance has managed to maintain the lead in this niche.

8. Flutterwave

The year 2017 was Flutterwave’s year as the fintech disrupted Africa’s financial sector with it’s continental and cross-country payment processing product. Up till now, some international payment transfer tools such as TransferWise rely on Flutterwave to complete funds transfer to African countries.

The tech startup made it easier for Africans to build global businesses that can make and accept any payment, anywhere from across Africa and around the world. Its offices are spread across San Francisco, Lagos, Nairobi, Accra, and Johannesburg.

So far, the company has processed up to $2.5b in 100 million transactions. It also partners 50 banks across its market to enable seamless movement of money.

9. Mines.IO

Mines.IO milks the untapped juice of data analytics in Africa’s financial sector. Ekechi Nwokah and Kunle Olukotun founded the tech company in 2014 while executing an artificial intelligence research project at Stanford University. It came on the premise that data is essential to financial inclusion and accurate credit rating.

It helps banks to gain deeper insights into customers’ behavior, and personalize customers banking experiences to generate additional revenue. It also mines data for payment processing companies, retailers and mobile operators.

10. Prepclass

Prepclass Co Founders, Chukwuwezam Obanor and Olumide Ogunlana

Nigeria’s edtech space can’t be discussed without significant reference to Prepclass. The company connects potential learners with skilled tutors across Nigeria. The approach is to provide tutors for basically anything a client may wish to learn, be it English language and grammar structuring, phonetics, or Chinese. Teachings are also designed to take place physically at the child/learner/tutee’s comfortable home and time.

Prepclass also offers an app called ‘Prep-test’ which was developed to provide tutors with a platform where they can upload contents created by them as text, image, audio-visual. Learners are able to download the app, which is available on Android google play store, sign up by registering and use the contents provided to learn and study.