African fintech remains connected to the underlying financial realities of the continent, because it is in solving those challenges that many of the region's biggest opportunities still lie.
In November last year, two African fintech companies, South Africa's Optasia and Morocco's Cash Plus, both hit public markets within weeks of each other, marking the region's first notable fintech IPOs, as the pandemic-era funding boom whetted investor appetite across the region. Optasia listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange at a valuation of about $1.4 billion after raising about $345 million, while Cash Plus raised about $82.5 million at a valuation close to $550 million through its Casablanca listing – in both primary and secondary transactions.
With growing market anticipation around the potential public listing of Airtel Africa’s mobile money business and Ope in late 2026, the deals could point to the beginning of something big emerging in African fintech: a gradual return of investor confidence in the sector’s ability to not only scale, but also eventually generate meaningful liquidity events.
Africa has become one of the The fastest expanding fintech market globallyThe sector's revenues are projected to increase nearly thirteen-fold to approximately $65 billion by 2030. Much of that growth has centered around payments and lending businesses, which now account for more than half of African fintech firms and have attracted most of the equity funding flowing into the sector over the past several years.
High smartphone penetration and a young, urban population accelerated adoption so rapidly that fintech investments across the continent are projected to surpass the $1 billion mark in both 2021 and 2022. But the interest rate reset following the pandemic quite materially changed the economics underpinning global venture markets, particularly for growth-stage technology companies, and African fintech was not untouched by that adjustment.
However, now there are signs of improvement.
some market analysts African fintech startups are now estimated to have raised approximately $187 million across 21 deals during the first quarter of 2026 alone, representing a quarter-on-quarter increase of nearly 400% in deal value and an increase of more than 30% in deal number, further strengthening the sentiment that parts of the market may be entering a more active funding environment again after several slow years.
Many large fintech companies that absorbed significant venture funding during high-growth years are reaching a stage where early investors are actively seeking exit routes, particularly through public listings for more mature platforms capable of supporting institutional market scrutiny. At the same time, M&A activity in African fintech has become quite active as incumbents and technology companies alike look for scale, infrastructure capacity and distribution advantages in markets where it may be much slower and more expensive to build out organically. In South Africa alone, over the past few years there has already been a growing mix of banks acquiring fintech capabilities, retailers expanding into embedded financial services, and fintech companies merging directly with each other. What is notable now, however, is that a large proportion of this activity is occurring primarily among African players themselves, rather than being driven by international acquirers entering the market from outside the continent.
This activity ultimately demonstrates how mature some parts of the African fintech ecosystem have become in a relatively short period of time. Many of these businesses were operated locally by African founders, within markets that, until recently, were still considered too fragmented or difficult to operationally make sense for the bulk of global capital. The fact that some of these companies are now reaching the public markets, generating sustainable revenues, and attracting acquisition interest from strategic buyers points to something much bigger than individual success stories; This suggests that parts of African fintech are beginning to evolve from venture-backed growth stories into businesses capable of supporting long-term institutional capital and more mature capital-markets participation.
For investors looking to take a closer look at African fintech again, one of the first things to understand is that the continent does not operate as a single market from a regulatory or commercial perspective. Business models, consumer behaviour, licensing frameworks and competitive dynamics can vary from country to country, meaning that local context matters more than many beginning investors realize. In practice, this often makes strong domestic partnerships important, not only for market access but to understand how financial behavior actually functions within specific African economies. Institutions such as ABSA are already advising investors and businesses understanding the commercial and regulatory complexity surrounding FinTech transactions in various African markets.
This becomes even more important in regions where African fintech companies have developed models that differ significantly from those seen in Western markets. Mobile money is probably the most obvious example. In many African economies, large numbers of consumers entered digital financial systems through mobile wallets and USSD-based services long before traditional banking infrastructure achieved large-scale penetration. To investors unfamiliar with those dynamics, some of the continent's most successful fintech models may initially appear unconventional, despite operating at a very significant scale commercially.
African fintech still has considerable growth potential over the next decade, but the sector entering the next phase is likely to look very different from the one that first attracted the attention of global venture capital several years ago. The businesses and investors likely to perform best may ultimately be those who understand how deeply African fintech is tied to the underlying financial realities of the continent, because solving those challenges is where many of the region's biggest opportunities still lie.
Adesoji Solanke is Head of Fintech and Bank Investment Banking Origination at Absa CIB