Nigerian Fintechs Raised $120m in 60 Deals in 2020

Financial technology (fintech) startups in Nigeria raised a total of $120,557,026 in 60 deals in 2020, the Nigerian Startup Funding Report 2020 published by Techpoint Africa has revealed.

According to the report obtained Saturday, of the 60 deals, 18 of it were pre-seed rounds.

A further breakdown of the amount raised showed that 53.7 per cent of the total funding was raised by financial services providers; while 74.7 per cent was attributable to six startups that individually raised at least $10 million.

Also, while 3.5 per cent, which was 15 of the deals were local; 37 (71.2% of the total amount raised), were foreign deals, and nine (25.3% of the total amount raised) were deals with participation by both local and foreign investors. However, it pointed out that there were more than 15 undisclosed deals in the year.

Some of the sectors that benefited from the funding last year were startups in agriculture ($200,000), education ($150,000), energy ($3,000,000), financial services ($64,793,455), healthcare ($32,249,955), human resources ($2,830,000), media ($750,000), mobility and logistics ($793,616), online retail ($13,970,000), retail ($20,000) and services ($1,780,000).

In all, the report showed that 26 financial services providers raised a total of $64,793,455.

Flutterwave which had a Series B funding in 2020, was listed as the top deal of the year, with $35 million Series B fund raising. It is however, worthy to note that the fintech startup last month raised $170 million in a Series C funding round, bringing its total fund raising to $225 million since its launch five years ago.

Other companies that featured among the top deals of the year were 54gene, Aella Credit, Helium Health, Kuda, TradeDeposit, Field Intelligence, Autochek Africa, Resource Energy, CredPal, YellowCard, Youverify, Xend Africa, Lifestores Pharmacy and Okra.

“For the third time in a session, technology startups in the financial services industry raised more than half of the total amount raised by Nigerian technology startups in 2020. In 2019, financial services had 51.1 per cent with the share rising to 53.7 per cent in 2020.

“The acquisition of Paystack – a financial services provider founded by Nigerians – by Stripe for over $200 million topped the list of happenings in the Nigerian tech startup space in 2020. This further solidified global financial services providers’ interest in the Nigerian market.

“Unlike in the last two years, the industry didn’t get any regulatory hit. In June 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria released an exposure draft of a regulatory framework for sandbox operations to guide innovation in the country’s financial services space,” it stated.

 

Obinna Chima

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