Three African fintech firms have been named among the most innovative in the world according to a list produced by auditors KPMG and H2 Ventures.
The trio of Africa fintech companies that have been recognized for their innovative approach and technology are Cellulant from Kenya, ThisIsMe from South Africa, and Nigeria’s Wallet.ng, according to the 2018 KPMG FinTech100 report.
KPMG is one of the four major global auditing companies, and H2 Ventures is fintech, data and artificial intelligence-focused venture capital investment firm based in Australia.
The annual report, which is in its fifth year, divides companies into two sections. The first is the ‘Top 50’ – established fintech firms around the globe, ranked based on innovation, capital raising activity, size and country, and the second profiles the ‘Emerging 50’ fintech startups.
All three African firms are listed in the ‘Emerging 50’ category, which recognizes exciting new companies that are at the forefront of innovative technologies and practices and are often pursuing new business models, according to Techmoran.
The list of the best fintech innovators from around the world is representative of 36 countries and includes firms that have raised a combined $52 billion in capital, according to the report.
Kenyan digital payments solution firm Cellulant was one of the three African firms in the report, catering to a market of 40 million people across 11 African countries.
The biggest African tech investment of the first half of this year involved Cellulant. The company raised $47.5 million in its Series C round in May, according to Quartz.
The funding round was led by The Rise Fund, an impact investment fund run by U.S.-based private equity group, TPG Growth. Endeavor Catalyst, Satya Capital, Velocity Capital and Progression Africa also participated.
The most popular tech sector for investment in Africa remains fintech, while health-tech and agritech are the next most popular sectors, according to WeeTracker.
Another of the African firms included in he KPMG list was ThisIsMe, an online verification startup which aims to bring trust into transactions through proprietary, true identification technology that combined artificial intelligence, bio-metrics, machine learning and tamper detection, according to Businesstech.
With offices in Cape Town and San Francisco, the platform enables businesses to reduce fraud, automate security checks, improve on-boarding and increase revenue while providing an on-demand, seamless customer experience.
In 2016, two years after it was established, the firm raised a $2.5 million funding round that allowed it to focus on international expansion, Ventureburn reported.
Nigeria’s Wallet.ng is the third firm mentioned in the report, providing a digital payments product that allows users to make payments, transfer funds, pay bills and withdraw from ATMs using their mobile phone number, according to Pulse.
The mobile platform makes transactions fast, convenient, reliable and accessible for both businesses and consumers. The startup took part in last year’s Nigerian leg of the Seedstars World competition for seed-stage startups in emerging markets.
