With a population of over 1.2 billion people here are Africa’s Most Innovative Companies 2019
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With a population of over 1.2 billion people here are Africa’s Most Innovative Companies 2019 TechAmbassador May 6, 2019·11 min read

With a population of over 1.2 billion , Africa is home to three unicorns, or private companies with a valuation of more than $1 billion. The List of the companies making the most profound impact on both the tech industry and community with a variety of innovations to thrive in today’s Africa Changing Ecosystem. A brief Read on how these companies are creating the future today, plus their mission and aim. Hope you get inspired by these Entrepreneurs & founders in their businesses.

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KENYA+

SAFARICOM

Safaricom is a leading communications company in Kenya with the widest and strongest coverage. The home of the famous Mobile Money service- M-PESA and is a listed Kenyan mobile network operator headquartered at Safaricom House in Nairobi, Kenya. It is the largest telecommunications provider in Kenya, and one of the most profitable companies in the East and Central African region. CEO: Robert Collymore (1 Nov 2010–) Headquarters: Nairobi Founded: 1993 Number of employees: 5,500

Great innovation Brands: M-Pesa; Masoko; Songa; M-shwari; M-Pesa1Tap, Fuliza and now Ndoto Zetu to help the communities. the largest telecommunications provider in Kenya.

Cellulant

Digital Payments in Africa, by Africans, for Africa is a leading Pan-African payments company providing a one-stop digital payments platform. Cellulant’s belief in providing solutions to everyday challenges across Africa has led to digitizing payments end to end for various value chains and as a result, providing increased transparency and broader reach within a single mobile commerce platform for financial sector players. Cellulant is on a mission to build the number 1 payments business in Africa; led by values-driven entrepreneurial-minded people. This is aimed at fixing Africa’s payments problems by connecting 700M mobile users to payments that power their daily lives. Today, Cellulant’s payments platform spans 1 in 10 Africans, with 2.5 million doing monthly transactions. Cellulant’s coverage extends to 50% of banks in Africa and 17 million unbanked farmers in Africa. Cellulant debuted operations in Kenya and Nigeria in 2004 and has grown to operate across 11 African countries, including Zambia, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Uganda, Botswana, Mozambique, Malawi, Rwanda and a combined team of up to 350 people.

Ushahidi

Ushahidi develops free and open source,software for information collection, visualization, and interactive mapping.Ushahidi, which means “testimony” in Swahili, was initially a website developed to map reports of violence around the 2008 Kenyan election. The company has since evolved to become a tech non-profit that specializes in developing f ree open-source software for data collection, visualization and interactive mapping. Ushahidi started as an ad-hoc group of Kenyan bloggers hammering out code in a couple of days from various locations, trying to figure out a way to gather more and better information about the 2008 post-election violence in Kenya. Ushahidi’s mission is to build and use technology to help marginalized people raise their voice, and those who serve them to listen and respond better.

BRCK

Launched in 2013, the original BRCK is a rugged router designed for harsh environments with limited connectivity and power. The company has since rolled out further products: the Kio Kit for use in educational institutions; the enterprise-grade SupaBRCK; and the BRCK Moja — which can be used as a free public WiFi hotspot.

SENDY

Sendy was launched in Kenya in 2014 with the mission to build partnerships that unlock new possibilities for businesses and individuals. The Kenya-based company is a delivery platform that connects businesses and individuals with drivers of all vehicle types making deliveries simple and transparent using a cutting edge, user-focused technology. When customers place delivery requests through the platform, Sendy dispatches these orders in real time to the closest available Sendy Partner Drivers. At Sendy, we believe delivery can move people, and even whole communities, forward because delivery unlocks potential, powers growth, and opens up a world of new possibilities.”

Eneza Education

Eneza Education is working in Kenya, using simple mobile technology, to build an educational ecosystem. Eneza’s mission is to spread quality educational tools to the most remote schools in Kenya and eventually, the world. In Kiswahili, “eneza” means “to reach” or “to spread.” We are a dedicated team of individuals who share the same goal of giving students access to quality study material aligned to local content using the most common form of technology in Kenya, the mobile device. Eneza Education aims to make 5 Million students in rural Africa smarter by leveraging low cost mobile technology. We’re a virtual tutor and teacher’s assistant that uses high quality educational content for students and relevant data, tips and resources for teachers, all on a simple mobile phone. We’ve currently reached over 2,100,000 offline users at 8,000+ schools in Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana. Are you interested in bringing Eneza to your country? Contact us: BD@enezaeducation.com.

Twiga is on its way to being Africa’s largest grocer. We’re using a mobile-based, cashless, business-to-business (B2B) supply platform to access distribution into the millions of small and medium size vendors in African urban markets. links farmers and vendors to fair, trusted, modern markets. Providing a complete supply chain in Kenya for quality produce in urban areas, with over 18000 farmers connected to the network.

NIGERIA+

ANDELA

Andela is an African company that identifies and develops software developers. The company launched operations in Nigeria in 2014, to help global companies overcome the severe shortage of skilled software developers and has offices in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and the United States developers operate as dedicated remote team members. They work using your software development tools, adhere to your SDLC processes,

Founded: 21 May 2014, Number of employees: 1,458 (November 2018), Number of locations: 5

Flutterwave is a payment technology company focused on helping banks and businesses provide seamless and secure payment experiences for their customers. On a mission to build payments infrastructure to connect Africa to the global economy. We do this by building technology, tools, and infrastructure for businesses and banks who want to provide a more seamless and secure payments experience for their customers. Founded in 2016 by a team of African finance and technology veterans from Standard Bank, PayPal, Google Wallet amongst others. Flutterwave has grown to become one of the fastest growing payments companies in the world. Since inception Flutterwave has processed close to $2 billion in payments and 25 million transactions across over 33 African countries where it currently operates. It has attracted significant investment from experienced Fintech investors such as Ycombinator Continuity Fund (investors in Stripe), Greycroft (investors in Braintree and Venmo), Greenvisor Capital, Omidyar Network, and Glynn Capital amongst others. In 2017 Flutterwave was named Africa’s best fintech company at the Apps Africa Innovation Awards.

iROKOtv is a web-based platform that provides free and paid-for Nigerian films on-demand.iROKOtv is your number one destination for some of the best loved Nigerian and Ghanaian films online; bring you the best of both Nigeria’s Yourba and English entertainment . founded in Nigeria.

Paga is a financial institution that allows to send money, pay bills and receive payments easily from your mobile. Paga is the #1 money transfer and payments service in Nigeria. Send and receive cash, pay bills,merchants and buy airtime — All from your phone, online or at a Paga agent! With 10 million users.

JUMIA

Jumia is the leading internet platform in Africa, which offers easy online and mobile shopping, travel, classifieds and services platform. By providing technology to connect customers to businesses, Jumia simplifies life with easy-to-use applications and smart solutions across the continent’s internet sector. Jumia is the parent group of nine companies in more than 30 African countries. Its network of companies includes Jumia, Jumia Market, Jumia Travel, Jumia Food, Jumia Deals, Jumia House, Jumia Jobs,Jumia Car and Jumia Services. Jumia Services provides a complete e-commerce fulfillment platform through a network of our own-managed and third-party warehousing, order processing, and logistics service providers. Jumia Services combines the capabilities of our own and carefully selected 3PL partners onto one seamless service offering, thereby offering the best services available in each of our markets through a one-stop-shop service interface. now set to IPO on NYSE.

SOMALIA+

Gulivery

Gulivery developed a mobile app that allowed people to order meals and groceries from restaurants and supermarkets, and have them delivered to their doors by the startup’s delivery partners. The startup was launched in 2017 in Somalia, after husband and wife Deeq Mohamed Hassan and Sado Ali Baroot moved back to Hargeisa from London and realised there was a huge gap in the market. It swiftly expanded to the capital Mogadishu, and has now added e-hailing services, allowing users to access safer, cost-effective and moreconvenient transportation solutions.

Farm Africa

Farm Africa is an innovative charity that reduces poverty by unleashing African farmers’ abilities to grow their incomes in an environmentally sustainable way. focused on eastern Africa. Today we operate in Uganda, as well as continuing our programmes in Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia.

CAMEROON+

AppsTech

AppsTech is a leading global provider of enterprise software solutions. We provide implementation, training and application management services for companies around the globe. AppsTech is an Oracle Platinum Partner AppsTech is an SAP Partner AppsTech is a PearsonVue Testing Center, Motto: we make business run smarter Global

(us. Africa. Europe)

WeCashUp is a Universal Payment Platform that enables e-merchants to accept Cash, Mobile Money, Cards and Crypto payments via 1 single API. a Panafrican Payment Gateway used by online merchants to accept all types of payment solution available in Africa. Our mission is to help online merchants process Cash, Mobile Money, Bank account and Card payments With our universal payment method, WeCashUp, online merchants will do more business online at a significant panafrican scale. Today, the African market is fragmented geographically. We will unify it digitally.

Njorku is a technology based platform for career and recruitment services in Africa. Njorku — Launched in March 2011, the Njorku job search engine helps users find careers across Africa. Active in seven countries, the platform offers free and unlimited access to hundreds of thousands of job listings. The company h as already raised seed funding from a business angel in France and a Canada-based technology company.

SOUTH

AFRICA+

Price Check — As the largest price comparison site in South Africa and Africa as a whole, PriceCheck considers the prices of thousands of products. In May it faced 100,000 other entrants to win the International “App of the Year” at the BlackBerry Live conference in Florida.

Snapplify is a content and media technology solutions provider which focuses on distribution and mobile publishing. Snapplify, a digital publishing provider, enables publishers & retailers to sell content via branded mobile apps including rich media and interactive content. Snapplify is a leading global edtech company focused on content distribution, mobile publishing and innovation for digital education. Our responsive and interactive e-learning solutions are already being implemented in hundreds of schools. Snapplify for Education, a suite of products for digital reading and e-learning, is transforming classrooms by empowering teachers and students to teach and learn, digitally

Naspers is a multinational media and internet group with technology investments and operations in more than 130 markets.Naspers is a multinational media company with principal operations in electronic media and print media. founded in 1915 in Stellenbosch, South Africa to produce a Dutch language newspaper. have invested in, acquired and built leading companies and brands in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. These include Media24, MultiChoice, Showmax, takealot (Africa and South Africa), letgo and Movile (the Americas), Tencent (China), Avito and Mail.Ru (Russia), Flipkart, ibibo, MakeMyTrip and redBus, (India), eMAG, Kreditech, and Delivery Hero (Europe), and dubizzle in the Middle East). OLX PayU, and SimilarWeb are global brands, operating and providing services in many of our countries and markets.

YOCO

Yoco, the #1 mobile card reader for South African small & medium businesses.Yoco is an African technology company that builds tools and services to help small businesses get paid, run their business better, and grow. We believe that by opening up more possibilities for entrepreneurs to be successful, we can help create more jobs, enable people to thrive and help to drive our economy forward. Process Credit Card Payments and start your business empire with yoco. https://www.yoco.co.za/za/

UGANDA+

Cars Classifieds in Uganda, the first cars classifieds website in Uganda. Buy and sell online your new and second hand used cars, motorbikes and trucks in Uganda with CarKibanda.

Mara Group is a pan-African multi-sector business with extensive operating experience in both African and international markets. Mara Online is a family of web and mobile platforms that allow users to communicate, interact and collaborate. Sometimes referred to as Africa’s answer to Skype, the May launch of the company saw a chartered jet fly over Silicon V alley with a Mara-branded banner that read, “It’s Time For Africa.”

ETHIOPIA+

Ethiojobs.net is the premier e-recruiting service in Ethiopia, which has so far provided a world-class recruitment service. It has so far managed to build a human resource bank consisting of no less than 300,000 CVs creating the most comprehensive pool of CVs in Ethiopia. Ethiojobs.net is dedicated to bridging the gap between employers and job seekers. Driven by a team of qualified staff members and utilizing sophisticated computerized database system, ethiojobs.net is devoted to upholding high industry standards and providing superior recruiting platform to its clients.

Gebeya

Gebeya, launched in 2016 which aims to graduate 5,000 students in Ethiopia over the next five years. The startup also launched in Kenya in January of 2017, and has since expanded to Silicon Valley, the UK, Djibouti and Senegal. The startup trains individuals in software

development and entrepreneurship, and then helps place them in relevant jobs. It has now partnered IFC and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) to implement the Digital Gender-Ethiopia Programme, which will provide training to 250 female software developers and seed funding to 20 female entrepreneurs whose digital business ideas will be supported by Gebeya. the brainchild of CODERS4AFRICA, aims to provide tech professionals in Africa with the training they need to advance in their careers and become a part of the growing tech industry on the continent.

RWANDA+

Yubeyi.com is an online shopping website dedicated to Rwandans who does not want to spend their time crossing all towns looking for stuff Yubeyi is Rwanda’s online shopping destination, you can buy from our range of selection of categories like computers, mobile phones, Electronics, Fashion and many more and get all shipped to your place or your office without wasting your time and crossing all shops

Fortune of Africa

Fortune of Africa is a website dedicated to providing up to date information on business, tourism and investment in Africa. Making Africa visible to the world! Forget the years of Africa being a dark continent. We are illuminatin g every country on the continent on our website because Africa is a place where great opportunities lie. Forget the years of Africa being a dark continent. We are illuminating every country on the continent on our website because Africa is a place where great opportunities lie. Follow us on www.fortuneofafrica.com

ARED GROUP

Founded in 2013, ARED is a Platform as a Service company based in Rwanda with operation in Uganda. We developed a Smart Business in a Box solar kiosk, app and software platform that empowers mostly women and people with disabilities using a micro franchise business model.We offer key services on the kiosk such as internet WIFI, intranet solutions for offline users, and phone charging services to be the first one stop shop platform on the African continent.With our app, we offer additional services such as airtime, mobile money, prepaid electricity, and tax payment services to create a one-stop shop center for our customers. On our intranet network, we offer branding capabilities for companies, data collection, and user analytics. We are the only one stop shop solar kiosk on the African market.

GHANA+

Easiest way to rent, buy & sell property in Ghana, meQasa is working toward an efficient housing search experience in Africa primarily for prospective tenants. We aspire to be the source of reliable information on housing in Africa. We collaborate with brokers, owners and tenants to create complete and dynamic property profiles. We advertise online all adequately profiled properties that are vacant. meQasa facilitates communication and meetings between prospective tenants and owners or their representatives. meQasa is Ghana’s leading online real estate marketplace showcasing thousands of property available for rent or purchase — both residential and commercial — from across the country.

Business directory / customer reviews, Makolapapa is a Ghanaian online portal that seeks improve customer service.This we do by encouraging honest customer reviews for all business that exist on our platform. Businesses on our platform do benefit from our reach (traff ic) as well as gaining proper business insights. Voice of the Ghanaian Customer| An Online Review Platform for every Ghanaian customer who wants to share their experiences with other customers. You deserve it.

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