Start-ups led by Nigerians rank high in Bloomberg firms to watch

July 17, 2025

76 8 minutes read

Start-ups led by Nigerians rank high in Bloomberg firms to watch — tech Startups funding.jpg

Bloomberg’s inaugural list of African startups highlights companies developing innovative solutions to the continent’s many challenges.

Investors fled Africa last year as interest rates in developed nations peaked, leading to a 22% drop in funding. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump’s tariff war has upended markets and is likely to keep venture capital firms from focusing on the region, but that hasn’t hobbled the expansion plans of local startups, including ones backed by the Gates Foundation and Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd.’s co-founder, Joe Tsai.

More than 2,000 applications submitted from Senegal to Ethiopia, and Morocco to South Africa, revealed innovative initiatives: a company that makes refrigerators that can operate without electricity, a device that tests soil quality to improve planting, a robot that saves power, and a firm that uses large language models to bring health care to non-English speakers in East Africa.

And the startups are:

ANDA, Angola

Anda, founded by Tati, an ex-Goldman Sachs Group banker, and Nurhmann, the former CEO of the Mercedes-Benz Angolan unit, is a motorcycle e-hailing service that also provides financing to its drivers. That helps the service providers create assets and wealth.
The startup has received funding from a family office in France and counts Asia Paper Markets as a strategic investor.

ANKA, Ivory Coast

Anka, backed by Alibaba Group Holdings co-founder Joe Tsai, says it’s the commerce aggregator for entrepreneurs. The company’s platform helps businesses find buyers, ship their products — in partnership with DHL — and get paid in a continent where central banks keep tight control on foreign-exchange transactions.
Buyers can use any method to pay, and Anka’s clients can withdraw in Africa using mobile-money services. The company says it will become profitable soon.

DODAI, Ethiopia

The Japanese founder of Dodai, Yuma Sasaki, once traveled to Paris with a round-trip ticket and no money — to experience being homeless and relying on begging to survive. Why? He says he likes to experience new and chaotic environments. That is also why he says he likes to operate in Africa, which comes with its own set of challenges including poor infrastructure and complicated regulations.
Sasaki set up an assembly plant in Ethiopia, which ended five decades of control over its currency last year, to produce electric scooters and three-wheelers. The company has secured about $7 million from Japanese funders Nissay Capital and Inclusion Japan, along with auto parts company Musashi Seimitsu.

ENVISIONIT DEEP AI

Envisionit Deep AI aims to provide radiology services to the under-15 population in the world’s youngest continent. The startup is using AI to make up for the lack of pediatric radiologists — it takes 14 years to qualify — in Africa.
Pediatric radiologist Jaishree Naidoo started the company with Terence Naidu and Andrei Migatchev in 2019 and got the backing from investors including Founders Factory Africa and New GX Ventures.

ESHANDI, Zambia

EShandi says it aims to tackle one of sub-Saharan Africa’s greatest challenges: lack of banking infrastructure.
The company, which Chilufya Mutale co-founded in 2019, offers microloans, payments, investments and insurance services, focusing on small businesses. Established in Zambia, it now also operates in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Kenya. Its investors include Enygma Ventures, which backs African women entrepreneurs, and Geneva-based Inoks Capital.

FLUX, Kenya

Flux last year sold Africa’s first carbon dioxide removal credits based on the practice of using crushed basalt to absorb the climate-warming gas. Founder Sam Davies, a former officer in the British army, is in the process of raising $5 million in seed funding. The startup also counts Germany’s Carbon Drawdown Initiative as an investor.

FREEZELINK, Ghana

More than a third of food in Africa is wasted because of poor cold storage infrastructure, according to the Rockefeller Foundation. That’s the gap on which Freezelink, a so-called cooling-as-a-service, is looking to capitalize. The startup, which received a grant from the now-gutted US Agency for International Development, is seeking to raise $3 million to build solar-powered cold storage facilities in Ghana.
Founded by Owusu Akoto, who’s worked with companies including Diageo and Unilever and has an MBA from the Imperial College in London, Freezelink says dairy is the most common product it transports and is expanding its pharma distribution business.

IGNITE POWER, Rwanda

The Kigali-based company provides solar-powered systems for homes and to help farmers run their irrigation systems. The renewable-power startup is in the market for Series D funding and has raised $78 million so far.

IIDENTIFII, South Africa

With many African countries lacking a formal identification measure, businesses struggle with fraud, identity verification and compliance. Iidentifii says it’s able to cut down on fraud and make it easier for people to verify their identity through taking simple selfies on a mobile phone.
Based in South Africa’s Cape Town, the company has secured clients including Standard Bank, Africa’s biggest lender by assets, and managed to raise $15 million from investment firm Arise, plus additional backing from US tech entrepreneur Bill Spruill and Sanari Capital.

KLASHA, Nigeria

Foreign-exchange transactions in Africa can be a challenge. Currency volatility, dollar shortages and fragmented payment systems are constant complaints for small companies. That’s where Klasha says it comes in: The company offers a cross-border payment solution connecting African nations and Asia, mainly China. Transactions take less than two days to complete.
The company, backed by American Express Ventures, has also attracted investments from Greycroft and Seedcamp.

KOOLBOKS, France

Co-founder Ayoola Dominic, a pharmacist by training, says the idea for Koolboks was “sparked by cooling boxes at French campsites.” The potential is massive because as many as 600 million people — about the size of the combined population of the US and Indonesia — don’t have access to electricity in Africa.
The startup manufactures about 2,400 refrigerators a year that use solar power and water to keep the device cool for as many as four days, even without sunlight.
The company, which is seeking to raise $23 million in equity and debt financing, focuses on small businesses in Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda, and has helped women entrepreneurs generate regular income, Dominic says.

MEDBOOKS, Kenya

Medbooks uses language models to provide a platform for hospitals, pharmacies and laboratories to store patient data, book appointments, and track payments and insurance claims in five countries. Patients get information in their preferred local language. Co-founded by Polly Okello, a pediatric nephrologist, the startup is backed by Kenyan re-insurer Zep-Re and the Gates Foundation.

PLENTIFY, South Africa

What is a HotBot? It’s a small box that connects to an electric geyser and uses artificial intelligence to learn user behavior and heat water — even making sure there is hot water during power cuts.
On a continent that struggles with regular outages, lacks grid infrastructure and faces high electricity prices, this robot helps consumers cut costs and use power efficiently. The company managed to raise funding in a round led by E3 Capital last year.

PRICEPALLY, Nigeria

The startup connects consumers directly with farmers in Nigeria, where postharvest losses can be as high as 50%, because of scant storage and cold-chain infrastructure.
Pricepally says it also helps farmers by analyzing consumption data, which helps reduce wastage. The company’s backers include a former top Unilever executive, David Mureithi, in its $1.3 million seed-funding round.

REVNA BIOSCIENCES

Revna Biosciences says it tailors treatments based on individual genetic profiles. Co-founder Derrick Akpalu, former principal clinical research scientist at Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon group, and Preetivi Ellis, a physician in Ventura County, California, say that the lack of genomic data in Africa is a stumbling block in developing treatments.
The startup, which received a grant from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, counts a Nigerian financier of female-led companies as an investor.

ROLOGY, Egypt

The data is stark. Nigeria has about one radiologist for every 2 million people. That compares with almost 10 per 100,000 in the UK.
The Egyptian startup is looking to tap that gap using AI and 182 radiologists in the UK, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Rology, which has operations in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kenya, is in the market to raise $3 million for Series A funding and will use the proceeds to expand in Nigeria, Africa’s most-populous nation, and in Ghana.

SWIFTVEE, South Africa

The startup says it’s able to help more than 249 million women in Africa who keep livestock as a primary form of financial security. Co-founders Russel Luck, a lawyer, and Christine Nel, a lawyer specializing on cryptocurrency regulation, are helping monetize cattle by connecting the farmers to a global market.
The startup, backed by South Africa venture capital funds, has raised $2 million in seed funding.

THALIA PSYCHOTHERAPY, Kenya

More than 116 million Africans live with mental health conditions, a daunting figure on a continent where many lack access to even basic primary health care.
Thalia Psychotherapy works with local health facilities in Kenya and provides them with necessary technology, systems and professional support so they can double up as mental health centers. The startup is backed by MIT Solve and the Gates Foundation, among others.

THRIVE-AGRIC, Nigeria

ThriveAgric says it helps small-scale farmers boost production by more than 300%, through farm-mapping and providing a one-stop platform to farmers that includes connecting them with transporters, buyers and financiers.
An alumnus of startup accelerator Y Combinator, the company says it serves 800,000 farmers across Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda, and plans to increase this number to 10 million by the end of 2027.

UJUZIKILIMO, Kenya

UjuziKilimo says its SoilPal product takes the guesswork out of farming. After measuring how much fertilizer and water a field needs, using a handheld sensor, growers get a text message that tells them what to do and even suggests the most suitable seeds. The $3,500 device can cut fertilizer use by almost a third, while increasing output threefold.
That’s a big win in sub-Saharan Africa, home to 30 million small-scale farms. It’s already caught the attention of Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and the Google Impact Fund, which have invested in the Nairobi-based startup.

UNCOVER, Kenya

Uncover produces skin care that’s suitable for people with melanin-rich skin — a group the company says was long marginalized from the beauty industry with limited clinical testing and development. The company also offers education around holistic skin care for women. Its investors include IgniteXL Ventures and EQ2 Ventures.
Prior to founding Uncover, Sneha Mehta worked in finance and consulting, at McKinsey, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and the World Bank, among others. Co-founder Jade Oyateru has 15 years’ experience in the fast-moving consumer goods industry and e-commerce.

WEEGO, Morocco

It’s the Citymapper for Africa, providing real-time urban transportation data and ticketing services for travelers in Morocco. Weego says 400 million people use public transportation on the continent every day, and 81% find it difficult to plan their trips. Co-founder Saad Jittou says the idea for the startup came from the uncertainity of getting a bus in Dakar. The company, backed by Morrocco’s CDG Invest and US venture capital fund SOSV, is looking to raise $5 million in 2026 to expand in Morocco and Senegal, and start services in Ivory Coast.

WISOLAR, South Africa

WiSolar says clean electricity should be as common as Wi-Fi. The startup provides prepaid solar electricity on demand and allows users to manage power usage through an app. It says it’s the only company in South Africa able to provide prepaid solar electricity to homes and has nine megawatts in installed capacity.
The startup received $9 million of revolving credit from Chinese financial institutions.

ZERAKI, Kenya

Zeraki offers digital learning and school-data analytics platforms to help students with their assessments and metrics to spot areas for improvement and track progress across subjects.
The company, which is backed by the Save the Children Impact Fund, has partnered with Kenyan telecoms provider Safaricom to offer online remedial learning to secondary school students in the East African nation and has a business in nine other countries on the continent. Zeraki’s subscription-based model offers schools and parents the option to pay daily, monthly or annual fees for access to its digital tools and services.

ZIRI HEALTH, Kenya

Zuri Health uses WhatsApp and other text services to deliver health care to rural African communities that may not have access to smartphones. Backed by Bayer, the company aims to raise as much as $4 million in seed funding and has tie-ups with local telecommunication companies to help it reach remote areas.