Africa’s fintech revolution is reaching new heights in 2025, with innovative companies solving critical financial challenges across the continent. From cross-border payment solutions to banking-as-a-service platforms, these pioneering fintechs are creating powerful B2B infrastructure that’s changing how businesses operate across Africa.
While consumer-facing apps often grab headlines, the B2B fintech sector represents the backbone of Africa’s financial transformation. These companies are building essential payment rails, creating access to previously inaccessible markets, and enabling millions of businesses to participate in the digital economy.
This comprehensive guide examines 16 African fintech companies with significant B2B components that are reshaping the business landscape. We’ll analyze their innovative solutions, market reach, and how they’re tackling Africa’s unique financial challenges.
The Rise of B2B Fintech in Africa
Africa’s financial landscape is undergoing a profound transformation. While only 34% of adults across the continent have bank accounts, mobile money adoption has soared to over 70% in many regions. This digital-first approach to finance has created fertile ground for innovative fintech solutions that bypass traditional banking limitations.
B2B fintech companies are particularly vital in this ecosystem. They’re building critical infrastructure that enables businesses of all sizes to participate in the digital economy. From payment processing and cross-border transfers to lending and banking-as-a-service, these companies are creating the financial rails that power Africa’s economic growth.
Several factors make Africa uniquely positioned for B2B fintech innovation:
- Fragmented Markets: With 54 countries and numerous currencies, cross-border business has historically been challenging. B2B fintechs are building bridges between these fragmented markets.
- Infrastructure Gaps: Traditional banking infrastructure remains limited in many regions. Fintech companies are creating digital alternatives that leapfrog physical limitations.
- Mobile-First Population: With over 650 million smartphone users across Africa, mobile-based financial solutions can reach previously unbanked populations and businesses.
- Regulatory Innovation: Many African countries are implementing progressive fintech regulations, creating favorable environments for innovation.
As we examine the leading B2B fintech players across Africa, we’ll see how they’re addressing these unique challenges and opportunities to create solutions that would be impossible in more established markets.
Cross-Border Payment Innovators
Cross-border payments remain one of Africa’s most significant financial challenges. Traditional banking routes are expensive, slow, and often unreliable. A new generation of fintech companies is tackling this problem head-on, creating faster, cheaper, and more transparent ways for businesses to send and receive international payments.
Nala: Connecting Africa to the World
Country: Tanzania (with operations in EU, UK, US)
Nala began as a consumer-focused payment app but has evolved into a powerful B2B player through its Rafiki platform. This B2B payments infrastructure allows remittance companies and global enterprises to make payouts to all banks and mobile money services across 11 African markets.
What makes Nala unique is its comprehensive coverage of 249 banks and 26 mobile money services throughout Africa. For businesses looking to send funds to African partners, employees, or customers, Nala provides a single integration point that simplifies what would otherwise be a complex web of different payment systems.
Nala’s B2B platform demonstrates how consumer-facing fintechs can leverage their payment rails to create valuable business solutions. By solving the infrastructure challenges of cross-border payments, Nala enables global companies to easily operate across African markets.
LemFI: Powering Global Diaspora Remittances
Country: Nigeria (with operations in North America and Europe)
LemFI has established itself as a remittance powerhouse, facilitating money transfers to emerging markets across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. With over 2 billion dollars in annual transaction volume in 2023, the company has now scaled to process 1 billion dollars in monthly payment volume.
For businesses that need to move money into African markets, LemFI provides essential infrastructure. Their focus on diaspora communities has created efficient payment corridors that businesses can leverage for their own operations.
LemFI’s rapid scaling demonstrates the massive demand for reliable cross-border payment solutions. As more global companies engage with African markets, services like LemFI become critical enablers of business growth.
Yellow Card: Cryptocurrency Solutions for Business
Country: Pan-African
Yellow Card takes an innovative approach to cross-border payments by leveraging cryptocurrency and stablecoin technology. While the company serves over 1 million African consumers, its B2B focus has grown significantly, now working with 30,000 businesses across the continent.
With 3 billion dollars in annual processing volume, Yellow Card demonstrates how blockchain technology can solve traditional banking limitations in Africa. For businesses facing currency volatility or cross-border payment challenges, stablecoin-based solutions offer a compelling alternative.
Yellow Card’s growth reflects the increasing acceptance of cryptocurrency as a legitimate business tool in African markets, particularly for solving complex cross-border payment challenges.
Grey: Banking for Remote African Workers
Country: Nigeria (with global services)
Grey addresses a specific but rapidly growing segment: Africa’s remote workforce. The company helps African freelancers and remote workers secure bank accounts in the UK, EUR, and US without physically being present in those countries.
With over 1 million registered freelancers, Grey enables businesses to easily pay their African talent in preferred currencies. This solves a significant pain point for the growing number of global companies hiring remote workers from Africa.
Grey’s focus on this niche demonstrates how specialized financial solutions can address specific business needs within the broader cross-border payment ecosystem.
Waza: Specialized B2B Payment Infrastructure
Country: Nigeria
Waza represents a pure-play B2B payments fintech, focusing exclusively on business payment and liquidity solutions. With 8 million dollars in recent funding, the company is expanding its B2B payment network across Africa.
Waza’s dedicated focus on business payments allows it to create specialized solutions for the unique challenges African businesses face when transacting with each other across borders. As intra-African trade continues to grow, platforms like Waza will become increasingly important.
Financial Infrastructure Providers
Beyond payments, a new generation of African fintechs is building the core financial infrastructure that enables businesses to offer and access sophisticated financial services. These companies provide the technological foundation upon which other businesses can build.
Miden: Banking-as-a-Service Platform
Country: Nigeria
Miden exemplifies the Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) model that’s gaining traction across Africa. This Y-Combinator backed startup allows companies to embed fintech features and financial services within their own offerings while providing the infrastructure and ensuring regulatory compliance.
Led by a team of ex-bankers who understand the compliance challenges of financial services, Miden has already issued over 100,000 cards through its platform. This demonstrates the demand for embedded financial services in the African market.
Miden’s BaaS approach enables businesses without financial expertise to offer banking services, expanding the reach of digital financial products across Nigeria and beyond.
Mono: Open Banking Revolution
Country: Nigeria
Mono began as an open banking platform but has evolved to offer payment solutions powered by its core infrastructure. Their notable product, OWO, enables payments directly through WhatsApp, leveraging Africa’s high WhatsApp penetration to create new payment channels.
As another Y-Combinator backed company, Mono is building the data connectivity layer that allows different financial systems to communicate. This infrastructure is essential for businesses that need to access customer financial data securely and efficiently.
Mono’s evolution shows how infrastructure-focused fintechs can expand into adjacent services once they’ve established their core platform.
Selcom: Tanzania’s Payment Powerhouse
Country: Tanzania
With 23 years of operation, Selcom represents one of Africa’s most established payment companies. The company powers payments and agency banking for over 100,000 merchants and agents in Tanzania, creating a vital financial network.
Selcom’s recent acquisition of a bank to launch Neo Bank (Selcom Pesa) demonstrates how payment infrastructure companies can expand into full banking services. For businesses operating in Tanzania, Selcom provides essential payment rails that connect to customers across the country.
Selcom’s longevity proves that fintech innovation in Africa isn’t just a recent phenomenon – established players continue to evolve and expand their service offerings.
Moniepoint: Nigeria’s Billion-Dollar Business Banking Solution
Country: Nigeria
Founded in 2015, Moniepoint has grown into one of Africa’s fintech unicorns, achieving a 1 billion dollar valuation in 2024. The company provides comprehensive financial services tailored specifically for businesses.
Moniepoint’s rise to unicorn status demonstrates the massive market opportunity for B2B financial services in Africa. By focusing on the unique needs of Nigerian businesses, the company has created a specialized platform that addresses local challenges.
As one of Nigeria’s fintech success stories, Moniepoint shows how serving business customers can lead to substantial growth and valuation.
Industry-Specific Financial Solutions
Some of Africa’s most innovative fintechs are focusing on specific industries, creating tailored financial solutions that address unique sectoral challenges.
M-Kopa: Asset Financing at Scale
Country: Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana
M-Kopa has pioneered a unique approach to asset financing, offering smartphones and other “productive assets” through flexible digital micropayments. With 400 million dollars in annual revenue and a 30,000-strong sales team, the company serves 5 million underbanked Africans.
For businesses targeting smartphone users in Africa, M-Kopa provides a potential partnership avenue. Their asset financing model enables consumers to access technology they couldn’t otherwise afford, creating new customer segments for businesses.
M-Kopa’s 250 million dollars in funding demonstrates investor confidence in this innovative approach to asset financing.
Moove: Revolutionizing Mobility Financing
Country: Nigeria (with global expansion)
As an Uber-backed mobility fintech, Moove provides vehicle financing specifically for ride-hailing and delivery app drivers. With a 750 million dollar valuation and 115 million dollars in annual revenue, the company serves over 20,000 drivers.
Moove’s B2B relevance comes through its partnerships with mobility companies like Uber. By solving the vehicle financing challenge, Moove enables platform companies to expand their driver networks more rapidly.
This specialized focus demonstrates how sector-specific financial solutions can unlock growth in particular industries by addressing their unique capital requirements.
Rise: Global Investment Access
Country: Nigeria, Kenya
Rise has built an investment platform that helps Africans make global investments, serving over 600,000 users. Their recent acquisitions of Chaka (Nigeria) in 2023 and Hisa (Kenya) in 2024 show ambitious expansion plans.
For financial advisors and wealth management firms, Rise offers potential partnership opportunities to reach African investors. The platform solves the historically difficult challenge of accessing global investment opportunities from African countries.
Rise’s growth highlights the increasing demand for sophisticated investment products across Africa, moving beyond basic financial services.
SME-Focused Platforms
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) form the backbone of African economies, yet they’ve been traditionally underserved by financial institutions. Several fintechs are now focusing specifically on this vital segment.
Swahilies: Empowering Small Businesses
Country: Tanzania, Zambia
Swahilies provides an app that helps SMEs record transactions, manage inventory, and build credit scores to access financial services. With over 10,000 SMEs on the platform (10% paying users), the company is gaining traction despite being in an early stage.
Swahilies’ approach addresses a critical challenge for African SMEs: lack of financial records that prevents them from accessing credit. By helping businesses digitize their operations, Swahilies creates pathways to formal financial services.
Their recent 200,000 dollar funding round will support continued growth in this essential market segment.
Microcred: Digital Finance for Inclusion
Country: Nigeria
Microcred focuses on financial inclusion across Africa and China, with particular attention to serving SMEs with digital financial services. The company recognizes that small businesses require different financial products than individuals or large corporations.
By creating tailored services for small businesses, Microcred helps address the significant SME financing gap across Africa, estimated at over 330 billion dollars annually.
PayUp: Alternative Banking Solutions
Country: Nigeria
PayUp aims to deliver lower-cost and more scalable alternatives to traditional banking, creating solutions specifically designed for businesses seeking banking alternatives. This approach recognizes the limitations and high costs of conventional banking services for many African businesses.
For companies frustrated with traditional banking options, PayUp provides potential solutions that leverage digital infrastructure to reduce costs and increase accessibility.
SpacePointe: Retail Technology Solutions
Country: Nigeria
Servicing both African and North American markets, SpacePointe provides retail technology solutions for businesses. Their focus on retail technology addresses the digital transformation needs of merchants and retailers across Nigeria.
By providing technology solutions specifically for retail businesses, SpacePointe helps merchants participate in the digital economy and access modern financial services.
The Future of African B2B Fintech
Emerging Trends in African B2B Finance
Several key trends are shaping the future of B2B fintech across Africa:
- Embedded Finance: Following Miden’s lead, more companies are integrating financial services directly into non-financial products and platforms.
- Blockchain Adoption: Yellow Card’s success with cryptocurrency demonstrates growing acceptance of blockchain solutions for business payments and transfers.
- Banking-as-a-Service: The infrastructure approach pioneered by companies like Mono is enabling more businesses to offer financial services without becoming banks.
- Industry Specialization: From Moove’s focus on mobility to SpacePointe’s retail solutions, sector-specific financial services are emerging as a major trend.
- Pan-African Expansion: Many of these fintechs are expanding beyond their home countries, creating truly continental solutions.
Challenges and Opportunities
Despite remarkable progress, several challenges remain for African B2B fintechs:
- Regulatory Fragmentation: Each country has different financial regulations, creating complexity for companies operating across borders.
- Infrastructure Limitations: Internet connectivity and power supply remain inconsistent in many regions.
- Trust Building: Businesses may be hesitant to adopt new financial technologies without established track records.
- Talent Competition: The demand for experienced fintech professionals exceeds supply in many African markets.
However, these challenges also present opportunities. Companies that can navigate regulatory complexity, build reliable services despite infrastructure limitations, establish trust, and develop local talent will have significant competitive advantages.
Conclusion: Africa’s Fintech Momentum
The 16 companies profiled in this article represent just a fraction of the exciting B2B fintech innovation happening across Africa. From payment infrastructure and cross-border solutions to specialized industry platforms, these companies are building the financial backbone of Africa’s digital economy.
What makes Africa’s fintech revolution particularly remarkable is how it’s leapfrogging traditional financial infrastructure limitations. Rather than replicating Western banking models, African fintechs are creating entirely new approaches that address local challenges and leverage mobile technology.
For businesses operating in Africa or looking to enter African markets, understanding this evolving B2B fintech ecosystem is essential. These companies are creating the financial rails that will power business growth across the continent for years to come.
As investment continues to flow into African fintech (over 3 billion dollars in 2023 alone), we can expect even more innovation and expansion from these companies. The transformation of Africa’s financial landscape has only just begun.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which African countries are leading in B2B fintech innovation?
Nigeria clearly dominates the B2B fintech landscape, with 10 of the 16 companies profiled here based in Africa’s most populous nation. This reflects Nigeria’s large market size, strong technology ecosystem, and progressive financial regulations. Tanzania is emerging as another significant hub, with companies like Nala, Selcom, and Swahilies creating innovative solutions.
How are African B2B fintechs addressing cross-border payment challenges?
Companies are using multiple approaches to solve cross-border challenges. Nala provides comprehensive connectivity to banks and mobile money services across multiple countries. Yellow Card leverages cryptocurrency to bypass traditional banking limitations. Grey focuses specifically on helping remote workers receive international payments. This diversity of approaches shows there’s no single solution to Africa’s cross-border payment challenges.
What role does mobile money play in Africa’s B2B fintech ecosystem?
Mobile money remains fundamental to Africa’s fintech infrastructure. Many B2B solutions integrate with mobile money platforms to reach customers and businesses that don’t have traditional bank accounts. Selcom’s agency banking network and M-Kopa’s digital payment system both leverage Africa’s high mobile money adoption rates.
How can international businesses leverage African B2B fintech solutions?
International businesses can use these platforms to facilitate payments to African suppliers, employees, or partners through companies like Nala, LemFI, or Yellow Card. They can also leverage specialized services like Grey when hiring remote workers from Africa. Understanding these fintech platforms is essential for any international business looking to operate effectively across African markets.
What’s the future of embedded finance in African markets?
Embedded finance is gaining significant traction, as demonstrated by Miden’s Banking-as-a-Service platform. We can expect more non-financial companies to integrate payment, lending, and insurance features directly into their products and services. This will create new revenue streams and enhance customer experiences across multiple industries.
