Startups On Our Radar spotlights African startups fixing African challenges with innovation. In our earlier version, we featured 7 game-changing startups pioneering logistics, synthetic intelligence, legislation, and crypto. Count on the subsequent dispatch on October 3, 2025.
This week, we discover seven African startups within the synthetic intelligence, mobility, fintech and blockchain sectors and why they need to be in your watchlist. Let’s dive into it:
1. Dingpay needs to exchange money and playing cards with one tremendous pockets (Fintech, Nigeria)
Dingpay needs to do for Nigerians what Apple Pay has not, by constructing a digital pockets that works with native playing cards, banks, and occasion tickets, regardless of the system. Dingpay is a digital pockets that permits easy accessibility, administration and contactless fee on the level of sale, bringing all important funds into one place. Launched in January 2025, out of the founders wanting to duplicate the convenience of funds they skilled in the UK (UK), the startup needs to offer a extra dependable technique to make numerous funds each on-line and offline with out customers juggling a number of apps.
Customers can retailer occasion tickets or flight tickets on the app and make funds for them. The startup has pivoted to a QR-based system, the place retailers can scan QR codes from a person’s app to cost them for a transaction. Since its launch, it has signed up 4,000 customers and processed ₦8 million ($5,336) in transactions.
Why we’re watching: Nigeria’s fintech sector is crowded, with some reviews claiming that over 430 fintechs function within the nation. Dingpay is carving a distinct segment for itself with its offline funds function. Whereas some fee suppliers already enable clients to be offline when making funds, Dingpay’s offline function focuses on retailers, who don’t want web entry to cost their clients for a purchase order. All they should do is scan a QR code on the shopper’s system, and so they get their fee.
2. Supplya offers retailers items on credit score (e-commerce, Nigeria)
Supplya is a business-to-business (B2B) platform that helps small retailers in Nigeria supply client items immediately from producers or in any other case. Via Supplya’s platform, retailers can order stock and entry short-term zero-interest credit. Their creditworthiness is set by their transaction historical past (earlier buying quantity and frequency ) and a bodily verification of their shops.
Supplya sources items in bulk from its manufacturing companions, together with Flour Mills of Nigeria PLC (FMN), Coca-Cola, Ceremony meals, and CWAY, and delivers orders by means of the free supply its manufacturing companions present or pickup by shoppers from close by fulfilment shops. They sometimes give customers as much as seven days to repay their loans. There may be presently no penalty for defaulting on the mortgage; nonetheless, the platform intends to combine an rate of interest of 1% for every month a person defaults on their mortgage.
Why we’re watching: A 2024 Stears report reveals that Nigeria’s 40 million Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) face a financing hole estimated at $236 billion. For a lot of who depend on casual lenders with steep charges, Supplya flips this mannequin by providing interest-free stock financing whereas nonetheless incomes income from product margins and in-app commercials from companions. The corporate has onboarded over 2,000 retailers and processed over $350,000 in income. Opponents like OmniRetail are digitising casual commerce, however Supplya’s concentrate on interest-free financing makes it stand out.
3. SwarmZero is not going to relaxation till small companies have their very own military of AI brokers (AI, Canada)
Based in 2023 by Tomisin Jenrola, whose expertise spans NASDAQ and PayPal, the startup is constructing AI brokers for small and medium companies. Whereas large corporations can often afford to combine AI into their each day operations, some small companies lack the sources to construct large-scale AI options that may enhance enterprise and worker productiveness. SwarmZero makes AI accessible by letting anybody create specialised brokers for specialised duties without having to code.
SwarmZero additionally doubles as a market the place customers can publish brokers primarily based on their experience and monetise them or rent current expert brokers created by different customers. Which means a marketer can use his experience to create an AI agent that may carry out his duties, and somebody who wants such expertise can rent the marketer’s agent. The platform additionally plans to combine Buzz, an AI digital assistant, to assist individuals full duties sooner. Pricing begins with a free plan, whereas a $20 a month tier unlocks extra options on the platform.
Why we’re watching: AI adoption feels locked behind paywalls and technical jargon. SwarmZero’s mannequin democratises entry to AI and creates new earnings streams. Opponents like Zapier concentrate on the automation of duties, whereas giants like OpenAI tie customers to a single mannequin. SwarmZero’s edge is the pliability that comes with its multi-model entry, the flexibility for AI brokers to collaborate with different brokers in swarms, and the AI agent market.
4. Kiasi needs to make it simpler to spend money on the inventive financial system (Creator financial system, Uganda)
Kiasi is constructing a crowdfunding and funding platform for Africa’s inventive financial system. Kiasi’s purpose is to make it simpler for storytellers, filmmakers, and different creatives on the continent to lift funds immediately from followers and buyers. To make use of this platform, creators listing their tasks and add supporting paperwork. They undergo due diligence checks to verify if the undertaking is registered. As soon as authorized, people or institutional buyers can make investments at completely different ranges.
In contrast to typical crowdfunding platforms, Kiasi presents each donations and fairness contributions, which means backers might obtain a share of future income within the undertaking. The platform takes a 5% fee on each greenback raised and embeds a revenue-tracking system to make sure transparency between creators and their buyers. Though the startup remains to be in its pre-MVP stage, multi-currency help is a part of Kiasi’s roadmap to make cross-border contributions potential.
Why we’re watching: Africa’s inventive sector is booming, and establishments are always discovering methods to help that financial system. African Export-Import Financial institution (Afreximbank) just lately dedicated $1 billion to movie financing, and different Improvement Finance Establishments (DFIs) just like the Worldwide Finance Company (IFC) are circling the house. Kiasi needs to be the bridge that connects these financing establishments with smaller creators by being a fundraising hub for African creatives. Whereas international platforms like Kickstarter exist, they’re generic and culturally distant for African creators.
5. Inkriv is betting that textual content written by AI can really sound such as you (AI, Nigeria)
Inkriv is an AI-powered writing platform designed for writers. Writers usually complain that AI-generated textual content usually feels flat or inconsistent. Inkriv is altering that by coaching its system to seize a person’s genuine writing fashion, their phrase pacing, sentence spacing, and rhythm. When customers add samples of their previous work, Inkriv learns from these samples after which generates drafts that align with their private tone. As the author makes edits on the generated draft, these corrections are fed into the system to enhance personalisation over time.
Past producing drafts, Inkriv presents three core instruments: A pondering canvas for brainstorming concepts, the place the person can observe down tough concepts and immediate the AI agent to generate a construction from these tough concepts. It additionally has interactive artefacts that allow writers embed mini apps, calculators or interactive graphics inside their articles. Lastly, Inkriv has audio layers for attaching a voice recording to sections of an article for added context. The platform additionally integrates fact-checking to scale back hallucinations and gives weekly story concepts primarily based on the editor’s previous writing fashion and utilization of the pondering canvas.
Writers can both copy generated drafts from Inkriv and publish on Content material Administration System (CMS) platforms like Medium or WordPress, or they will determine to publish on Inkriv and share the hyperlink with different customers. Though Inkriv says it’s not a CMS platform, it consists of that function to make it simpler for creators to share their work.
Launched in June 2025, Inkriv leverages Gemini AI fashions, OpenAI fashions, and different open-source fashions in its infrastructure. Since its launch, it has had as much as 1,000 customers and generates income from its $15 month-to-month subscription mannequin.
Why we’re watching: This startup is filling a niche left by general-purpose AI instruments like ChatGPT or Gemini by bringing in personalisation in AI writing. Different AI writing instruments like Claude supply some type of personalisation. Nevertheless, Inkriv’s pondering canvas and interactive artefacts set it aside from its opponents.
6. Fekxir is constructing an AI-powered pathway for international expertise mobility (Mobility, Nigeria/UK/US)
Fekxir helps expert professionals unlock international alternatives by means of international expertise visas and mobility applications. Fekxir’s founders launched the platform after observing an info and useful resource hole within the sector. Fekxir needs to make it simpler for professionals, together with tech consultants and designers, to maneuver throughout borders to do their greatest work by means of its fashions:
- Fekxir Enterprise, which presents a hands-on service the place consultants information candidates on what a worth proposition is, conducts a niche evaluation of their expertise and compares it with the nation’s requirements and greatest practices, and critiques their paperwork or proof earlier than submission, and
- Fekxir Software program as a Service (SaaS), which is a self-service platform powered by proprietary AI. This AI leverages knowledge from a person’s previous experiences and the pathways obtainable on this system to match them to the visa program they’re eligible for.
Why we’re watching: Fekxir is leveraging know-how in a sector dominated by visa brokers. There’s a surge within the variety of Nigerians making use of for the International Expertise Visa. By infusing know-how to spice up the success fee and optimise software processes, Fekxir might develop into the go-to platform for professionals chasing worldwide careers. Fekxir has just lately expanded to the US, concentrating on the EB1 and EB2 visas.
7. Hyperbridge needs to repair crypto’s greatest safety drawback (Blockchain, Nigeria)
Hyperbridge was launched in 2024 by a blockchain analysis lab, Polytope Labs. This product is a cross-chain bridge that permits blockchains like Ethereum and Polkadot to speak securely with out counting on intermediaries. Additionally it is the world’s first verifiable bridge, which means that it always verifies each transaction or asset cryptographically, guaranteeing belongings transfer safely and seamlessly. It has processed over $30 million in transaction quantity and built-in with over 14 chains, together with Ethereum, Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum, Base, BNB Chain, and Gnosis.
Hyperbridge is used to carry out cross-chain transfers of tokens and knowledge between linked networks, like shifting an asset from Ethereum to Polygon. It acts as an interoperability co-processor that gives security checks wanted for cross-chain transfers. The product makes use of a decentralised community of relayers that ensures pace and safety.
Why we’re watching: Conventional bridges like Celer, Nomad, and Multichain that use a bunch of people or corporations (multisig communities) of their transactions have suffered high-profile exploits which have contributed to the billions of losses in crypto bridge hacks. Hyperbridge’s mannequin of utilizing verifiable proofs might shut that safety hole. It has raised over $5 million from its Preliminary Relayer Providing (IRO) and its seed spherical, led by Web3 Basis and Scytale Digital.
That’s all for right this moment. Count on our subsequent dispatch on October third. Know a startup we must always function subsequent? Please nominate right here.
Mark your calendars! Moonshot by TechCabal is again in Lagos on October 15–16! Meet and be taught from Africa’s high founders, creatives & tech leaders for two days of keynotes, mixers & future-forward concepts. Get your tickets now: moonshot.techcabal.com
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