More than $1.1bn has been invested in FinTech companies in Africa since 2014, with EY observing Sub Saharan Africa’s unique demographic and economic composition as a magnet for FinTech investment.
Payments & Remittances companies have been involved in the lion’s share of FinTech deals in Africa capturing 39.8% of transactions, followed by Marketplace Lending companies which completed 17.3% of deals between 2014 and Q3 2019. Combined, these two subsectors have captured almost three fifths of all FinTech deal activity in the region.
Africa’s large unbanked population combined with, mobile money accounts surpassing bank accounts in the region, according to the IMF, has attracted international investors such as Mastercard to the subsector. Mastercard most recently invested $56m in pan-African E-commerce giant Jumia Group in Q2 2019, which Jumia has called a strategic partnership to grow e-commerce operations and support the digital transformation of Africa.
JUMO is a South African FinTech platform enabling partners to offer mobile payments, savings, lending and insurance products to consumers in Africa. The company raised $52m in a funding round led by Goldman Sachs in September to 2018, to fund its expansion into Asia. This is the largest mobile payments deal in Africa to date.
Other subsectors that have been attractive to investors include WealthTech, InsurTech, Real Estate, Blockchain & Cryptocurrencies, Data & Analytics, RegTech and Funding Platforms.
The data for this research was taken from the FinTech Global database. More in-depth data and analytics on investments and companies across all FinTech sectors and regions around the world are available to subscribers of FinTech Global. ©2019 FinTech Global
