Bloomberg has released its first-ever list of African Startups to Watch — and it’s a major moment for the continent’s tech ecosystem. Featuring 25 companies that represent some of the smartest ideas with their founders from across the continent, here is the list:
ANDA, Angola: ANDA Angola is a pioneering mobility technology company transforming urban transportation in Angola by formalising the motorcycle taxi (moto-taxi) sector. Founded by Sergio Tati Nührmann (CEO) and Joerg Nuehrmann (COO), ANDA offers a comprehensive platform that integrates asset financing, driver training, licensing, insurance, and GPS-enabled ride-hailing services. Through its ANDA Academy, the company provides rigorous training programs, including a 60-hour theoretical and practical course, to ensure drivers are well-equipped and certified to offer safe and reliable services. ANDA’s innovative approach has garnered international recognition. In 2024, the company won the TotalEnergies Top 100 competition, standing out among 40,000 participants from 32 countries . Additionally, ANDA was selected as one of the top six startups in the UNDP’s “Meet the Toshikas” program, highlighting its potential to disrupt industries and drive significant impact in Angola and beyond .
ANKA, Ivory Coast: ANKA is an Ivorian e-commerce platform founded in 2016 by Moulaye Taboure, Kadry Diallo, and Luc B. Perussault Diallo. Originally launched as Afrikrea, a marketplace for African-inspired fashion, art, and crafts, the company rebranded to ANKA in 2021 to reflect its broader mission of empowering African entrepreneurs through a comprehensive Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform. ANKA provided tools for sellers to manage online storefronts, integrate with social media, process international payments, and handle global shipping through partnerships with companies like DHL and Visa. Despite facing challenges, the platform supported over 20,000 sellers across 46 African countries, facilitating transactions in 175 countries and processing over $50 million in sales.
DODAI, Ethiopia: Dodai is an electric mobility startup based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, founded in 2022 by Japanese entrepreneur Yuma Sasaki. The company focuses on assembling and selling electric motorcycles designed to address urban transportation challenges in Africa. Dodai’s electric motorcycles are equipped with high-range lithium batteries, offering a travel distance of up to 150 kilometers on a single charge. These vehicles are particularly beneficial for delivery businesses and gig economy workers, providing cost-effective and sustainable transportation solutions. To enhance accessibility and reduce downtime, Dodai is developing a network of battery-swapping stations across Ethiopia. This initiative allows riders to quickly exchange depleted batteries for fully charged ones, facilitating continuous operation without the need for prolonged charging periods. The company has garnered support from international investors, including Japanese firms such as Musashi Seimitsu Industry Co., Ltd., Nissay Capital, and Inclusion Japan. These partnerships have provided Dodai with significant funding to scale its operations and expand its infrastructure.
ENVISIONIT DEEP AI, South Africa: Envisionit Deep AI is a South African health-tech company founded in 2019 by Dr. Jaishree Naidoo, Terence Naidu, and Andrei Migatchev. The company is dedicated to transforming healthcare in Africa through artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in the field of medical imaging diagnostics. Recognizing the critical shortage of radiologists across the continent—where ratios can be as high as one radiologist per 566,000 people in countries like Nigeria—Envisionit Deep AI developed RADIFY®, an AI-powered platform that rapidly detects diseases such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, and breast cancer from medical images. This technology has been instrumental in improving diagnostic efficiency in under-resourced hospitals, including facilities in South Africa’s Northern Cape province that operate with minimal radiology
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, Ghana: Founded by Dr. Derrick Edem Akpalu, who serves as the company’s CEO, Revna Biosciences is a Ghanaian precision medicine company dedicated to transforming healthcare across Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. Based in Accra, Ghana, Revna Biosciences focuses on uncovering the biological underpinnings of diseases affecting Africans and people of African descent, aiming to make precision medicine accessible to all. The company offers a comprehensive suite of specialized biomedical services, including advanced molecular diagnostics, biobanking, biomarker discovery, clinical research, and disease monitoring. Revna Biosciences holds all necessary local permits and licenses, including the Health Facilities Regulatory Authority (HeFRA) permit for tertiary laboratories, and is dual ISO accredited (ISO 15189:2022 for clinical diagnostics and ISO 20387:2018 for biobanking) by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA)
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.
These aren’t just African startups — they’re global contenders, tackling real-world problems with creativity, grit, and purpose.
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