Africa’s two greatest, albeit sluggish, economies proceed to dominate the Monetary Occasions’ rating of the fastest-growing African firms with greater than half of the 130 firms listed from South Africa and Nigeria.
The presence of 79 companies from the 2 nations — South Africa alone accounts for 51 — displays the dimensions and entrepreneurial depths of each economies. Extra negatively, it additionally hints at how tough it has been for firms from smaller nations to construct a continental presence in what remains to be a extremely fragmented panorama.
The FT rating, compiled along with analysis firm Statista and now in its fourth 12 months, is backward wanting, rating companies in response to the compound progress fee between 2020 and 2023.
As a result of many fast-growing firms are privately held and don’t publicly disclose detailed monetary knowledge, a rating equivalent to this could by no means declare to be full. However the screening course of (see methodology, beneath), which requires senior executives to log out on submitted figures, ensures that the listing presents a significant snapshot and places a concentrate on companies not usually within the highlight.
Stéphane Bacquaert, managing associate at Adenia, a non-public fairness agency specialising in Africa, stated the fragmentation of Africa’s 54 economies, a lot of them tiny by international requirements, introduced actual hurdles.
“You take care of totally different currencies, totally different authorized environments and, regardless of the political efforts to attempt to combine the areas, the fact is that you just don’t function the identical method in Côte d’Ivoire as in Senegal,” he says. “These are very two totally different markets, as are Kenya and Tanzania,” he provides, referring to east African neighbours with very totally different enterprise environments.
Of the highest three ranked firms, all Nigerian, just one, second-placed PalmPay, operates in additional than three nations. Omniretail, an embedded finance and B2B enabling platform, which got here in first place for the second 12 months operating, operates in solely two nations outdoors its Nigerian base, Ghana and Ivory Coast.
Even TymeBank (ranked 29), a South African neobank that attracted a $150mn funding from Brazil’s Nubank in 2024 valuing the group at $1.5bn, has needed to look outdoors the continent for progress. TymeBank has exported its mannequin, which depends on recruiting prospects from associate stores, to the Philippines and Vietnam.
Leslie Maasdorp, chief govt of British Worldwide Funding, the UK’s growth finance establishment, says TymeBank — through which it has an funding — was proof that African companies may “go international with world-leading and inclusive enterprise fashions”. However Maasdorp additionally factors out that simply 4 African nations dominate within the fintech sector, with Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa accounting for 90 per cent of funding in 2024.
Iyin Aboyeji, co-founder of Future Africa, which invests in early-stage companies, says it’s not mandatory to construct a pan-African presence given the alternatives in key economies, notably Nigeria and South Africa. “Most firms which have gone into unicorn standing have accomplished so with out going by that ache,” he says, referring to companies — two of which he co-founded — that achieved a market capitalisation of $1bn principally by publicity to Nigeria.
Ylva Lindberg, govt vice-president at Norfund, the Norwegian Funding Fund for creating nations, says the setting for investing in African start-ups has been tough within the aftermath of Covid.
“Each the funding setting and the exit setting have been powerful,” she says, citing sharp foreign money depreciations, notably in Nigeria, but additionally in Kenya and Egypt, larger rates of interest in superior economies and rising sovereign debt burdens.
“Actual threat in lots of rising markets [including Africa], tends to be decrease than the perceived threat,” she provides. “However if you see uncertainty rise, that’s when perceived threat turns into extra distinguished and residential bias kicks in.”
Nonetheless, Norfund continued to make bets on the continent. This April it co-led a $20mn fairness funding spherical in Omniretail, the Norwegian fund’s first foray into African fintech.
“Many microenterprises don’t have entry to finance or distribution in any significant method,” Lindberg says, including that Omniretail helped clear up that drawback for tens of hundreds of shoppers. “A Nigerian girl turned up at Omniretail with a automotive, a driving licence and no job,” she says of 1 buyer, who’s now the chief govt of her personal small enterprise with seven workers and a fleet of 5 autos.
Not all fast-growing firms succeed. A number of firms, together with a couple of which have appeared on earlier FT-Statista rankings, have run into bother, or gone out of enterprise. This highlights the issue of protecting momentum going, says Yasmin Kumi, CEO and founding father of Africa Foresight Group, which seeks to remodel medium-sized African companies into international champions.
Jumia, as soon as recognized hyperbolically as “the Amazon of Africa”, has sharply scaled again its enlargement plans, a transfer mirrored in a a lot diminished share value. Elsewhere, Gro Intelligence, as soon as heralded as a pioneer in agritech and knowledge analytics, went bust final 12 months.
Greg Schwebig, founder and chief govt of Africaworks (ranked 5), which presents shared workplace area in eight African cities, agreed that the worldwide setting had turned towards the continent’s start-ups. “The entire start-up funding growth occurred when there was extra liquidity within the developed world and money moved to the creating world together with Africa,” he says. “Now if you will get a T-bill at 5 per cent, individuals suppose why would I put money into Africa?”
Buyers, he provides, additionally must hedge for foreign money threat, both by choosing firms with greenback income or ones that may rapidly alter costs. Africaworks had an asset-light mannequin and isn’t depending on exterior financing, he says.
Lindberg at Norfund says the FT-Statista rating highlights that, regardless of the extreme macro issues, there stays a lot innovation and problem-solving on the continent. “The entrepreneurial spirit in Nigeria particularly is formidable; there’s a way that something is feasible.”
That extends to different nations within the rating, equivalent to Kenya (which has 12 of the fastest-growing firms), Mauritius (with 9) and Morocco (with seven). Firms from Ghana to Uganda and from Egypt to Zambia are additionally represented.
Fintech continues to dominate the listing, accounting for one-fifth of the businesses within the rating.
The total report accompanying the rankings will publish on June 5, 2025.
Methodology
Africa’s Quickest-Rising Firms 2025 lists 130 firms, ordered by the best compound annual progress in revenues (CAGR) between 2020 and 2023.
Utility section
By means of analysis in firm databases and different public sources, Statista recognized hundreds of firms in Africa as potential candidates for the FT rating. These firms had been invited to take part within the analysis by put up and e mail. The mission was marketed on-line and in print, permitting all eligible firms to register by way of the web sites created by Statista and the Monetary Occasions.
The appliance section ran from October 1, 2024 to January 31, 2025. The submitted income figures needed to be licensed by the chief monetary officer, chief govt or one other member of the corporate’s govt committee.
Standards for inclusion within the listing
To be included within the listing of the Africa’s fastest-growing firms, an organization needed to meet the next standards:
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Income of not less than US $100,000 generated in 2020 (1);
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Income of not less than US $1.5mn generated in 2023 (1);
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An unbiased firm (not a subsidiary or department workplace of any variety);
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Headquartered in an African nation (2);
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Income progress between 2020 and 2023 that was primarily natural (ie “internally” stimulated).
(1) Worth equal in native foreign money for firms not reporting in US {dollars}. For the rating a conversion of all figures to US {dollars} was carried out utilizing yearly common trade charges for 2020 and 2023. The CAGR supplied has been computed based mostly on reporting foreign money.
(2) All nations within the African continent had been eligible to take part.
Analysis and high quality assurance
All knowledge reported by the businesses was processed and checked by Statista. Lacking knowledge entries (worker numbers, addresses and so on) had been researched intimately. Firms that didn’t fulfil the factors for inclusion within the rating had been omitted.
The minimal CAGR required to be included within the rating this 12 months was 8 per cent.
Disclaimer
The rating of Africa’s Quickest-Rising Firms 2025 was created by a posh process. Though the search was very intensive, the rating doesn’t declare to be full, as some firms didn’t need to make their figures public or didn’t take part for different causes.
