Based on a survey and questions asked of a number of technopreneurs, investors, tech analysts, and tech fans, these are the Nigerian startups to watch. There are more than 100 Nigerian startups. These are businesses that are based on and focused on Nigerians.
Crunchbase, the most popular database of private and public companies, lists 241 companies as Nigerian startups. Weetracker’s The Base, which offers a similar service, lists 107 startups that are based in Nigeria and owned by Nigerians. On the other hand, Techpoint’s base record shows that more than 710 Nigerian startups have been registered. There are, in fact, a lot of Nigerian startups trying to solve problems and do cool things.
We talked to more than a dozen technopreneurs, investors, tech analysts, and tech fans to find out about some of the startups to watch this year. We ask them: “Which new businesses get you excited? Which new businesses do you want to watch in 2022? As expected, their answers were all different and included both well-known and less well-known tech startups. They listed companies in fields like fintech, edtech, renewable energy, mobility, and logistics.
Despite some setbacks, Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem is making progress. The techosystem in Nigeria has developed rapidly since 1996 when the country’s first ISPs were granted operating licences. To the point where the country has created its own biggest online payment solution named Interswitch.
Interswitch’s success in becoming a unicorn after more than 15 years suggests that the emergence of the next such company is more likely than not to occur in the near future.
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Here is a list of the foremost Nigerian startups in Nigeria.
uLesson
Sim Shagaya is the founder lesson with a secured seeding funding of $3.1 million dollars from TLcom Capital. The founder also established well-known tech businesses such as dealday and one of the famous e-commerce websites in Nigeria Konga.com
uLesson platform targets students in secondary education and beyond who would be able to take advantage of personalised learning, practice tests, and a comprehensive analysis dashboard to evaluate their academic progress.
Everybody in the edtech industry is keeping an eye on the startup because of its model and the fact that the founder provides solutions worth investing in.
Gradely
Gradely is a new edtech company that was started in 2019. It’s like uLesson because it targets high school students, but what makes it different is that it uses data analytics and algorithms to make learning adaptable. It is possible for teachers and parents to keep track of their children’s grades with gradely.ng. As of today, Gradely has been deployed in 60 schools, raised about $35,000 in seed funding, and is currently part of the Facebook Accelerator 2019 Cohort. Besides co-founding Gradely and serving as executive director of retail at Riby Finance, Boye Oshinaga is the CEO of Gradely.
Overwood Capital
To put it simply, Overwood Capital is not a technology company per se but rather one that is enabled by technology. is a tech-enabled, risk-first financial services provider that opens up “high-yield investment instruments to average individuals.
According to Overwood Prospectus that shows that in two years before its official launch in January 2020, it got 491 new users, did 321 transactions worth about 100 million Naira, and got 625,347 Naira worth of interest. The firm was founded by Dr Tayo Oyedeji, who is both the CEO and the head of investments.
Bamboo
The mission of Bamboo is to provide Nigerians with access to global investment opportunities, mainly in the American stock market.
The Bamboo platform is wealth and digital investment platform. Bamboo was founded by Yanmo Omorogbe and Richmond Bassey and offers product such as Stocks, Exchange Traded Funds, and Fixed Returns. Bamboo has over 400,000 registered users and is helping African build actual wealth.
reQuid Technologies
reQuid has been called the Amazon of secure investment. The idea is to consolidate all of your agricultural holdings into a single location for simple monitoring and sale.
Since its beta launch in September 2019, more than 1,000 people have signed up for reQuid. Also worth noting is that reQuid won the first-ever X-Kathon, which was put on by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). They got 5 million as the grand prize. Last year, reQuid also came in second place at the first Zenith Bank Hackathon and won 6 million as a prize.
Rise
Cashestate, a platform that lets users invest naira in dollar-denominated assets and earn income on the same, started in November 2018; the following year, it rebranded as Rise Vest.
Rise allows users to invest in US venture capital, real estate, stocks, and Eurobonds, whereas Cashestate only allowed users to engage in dollar-denominated real estate investments.
Eleanya Eke Urum is the CEO and founder of Rise Vest. She is also the co-founder of BuyCoins and a former financial analyst for PwC. The startup has so far received $62,000 in pre-seed capital, which is equivalent to approximately $22.5 million as of today.
Chaka
Chaka gives customers access to the NASDAQ, the New York Stock Exchange, and the Nigerian Stock Exchange, among others the startup launched in 2019 and has become the first Fintech company to receive SEC’s First Fintech License, the Digital Sub-Broker/Sub-Broker Serving Multiple Brokers through a digital platform license. With Chaka, both domestic and international investors have equal access to the global stock market.
WeMove Technologies
The transportation industry is a key focus for WeMove.co, a technology firm. WeMove, which was co-founded in 2017 by Celestine and Chima Ezeokoye and Majid Tokurah, has now started in Zambia. This brings the total number of countries in which it operates to four, joining Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana.
Their platform assists transportation firms in managing their fleet of vehicles, allows users to locate and rent any vehicle they desire, and connects vehicle owners with potential renters.
WeMove also collaborates with related industries like the tourism industry, which stands to gain from a well-oiled transportation network. Rally is a platform that helps businesses reward their employees with perks like cheap vacations.
Neohaul Technologies
Haulr is an artificial intelligence-driven platform that monitors trucking operations in real-time to improve coordination between supply chain parties, reduce losses due to cargo theft, and save transportation costs. Haulr, founded in 2018 and directed by Bright Williams, placed second at the first-ever Zenith Bank Hackathon, and it is now a member of the 2019 class of Facebook Accelerator.
