By Konstantin Makarov | From TECH.CO
Not so long ago, the entire continent of Africa was written off by the business world as a place too risky to invest in. However, mobile technology has completely changed the African narrative.
Africa is now the world’s second largest mobile phone market and is setting the worldwide pace for mobile-based product innovation. The fastest-growing African companies tend to operate in the information and communications technology space, and they cater to an increasing demand for mobile services, digital entertainment, and cloud computing.
Here are five tech companies leading Africa’s economic renaissance:
- PesaPal: PesaPal is a Kenyan company that enables users to shop, pay bills, buy mobile phone credit, and complete school fee transactions online. Dubbed “Africa’s version of PayPal,” PesaPal expanded into Malawi in 2014 and announced that it next planned to target 400 million consumers in Nigeria, Ghana, and Zambia. The company’s success in the online transaction space clearly illustrates the evolving habits of African consumers and typifies how convenience-driven technology can impact consumers and expand market outreach.
- MXit: Namibia-based MXit started out as a simple instant messaging app, but it’s since evolved into a full-blown social network that boasted a peak of 27 million users. The company is giving Facebook a run for its money in particularly developed markets such as South Africa. MXit’s localized social media principles cater to African demographics and create many unique mobile advertising opportunities. Its domesticated approach highlights the extent to which technology can be used to penetrate growing and unique markets.
- iROKOtv: In the 1980s and 1990s, African television was mostly dominated by westernized programming. But with the growing popularity of Nollywood, Nigeria’s movie industry, the tide has recently turned toward African-created entertainment. A Nigerian company called iROKOtv noticed this trend and enabled the digital distribution of African programming. In 2013, the powerful platform secured $8 million in funding from a New York hedge fund, thus signaling serious investment potential in this industry.
- Ushahidi: When we think about tech innovation, we too often think about business and profiteering. Kenya’s Ushahidi is a good example of how innovation can be used as an agent of social change without necessarily targeting the double bottom. The company developed open-source software that collects and maps data for use in civic initiatives and crisis situations. Activists used this software for election monitoring in Kenya, Mozambique, and the U.S., and response teams used it following a disastrous earthquake in Haiti.
Wyzetalk: South Africa’s Wyzetalk is ushering in a new age of institutional collaboration through cloud solutions. The company is developing new ways of forming synergistic relationships and has received funding from the African venture capital funds Invenfin and Savannah Fund — indicating much potential for growth.
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