Startups On Our Radar spotlights African startups fixing African challenges with innovation. In our earlier version, we featured 5 game-changing startups pioneering synthetic intelligence, agriculture, clear power, and finance. Anticipate the following dispatch on February 6, 2026.
This week, we discover 5 African startups within the mobility, cryptocurrency, agriculture, and synthetic intelligence sectors and why they need to be in your watchlist. Listed below are our picks for at this time:
BodEr needs to chop carbon emissions with its e-ride hailing platform (E-mobility, Kenya)
Born out of a frustration with Nairobi’s site visitors whereas working in logistics at ShipShap, a delivery firm, Martin Lusasi and Kelly Mutugi based BodEr, a Kenyan ride-hailing platform targeted solely on electrical two-wheelers. It connects city commuters and small companies to e-bike riders, aiming to scale back journey time, decrease prices, and lower greenhouse fuel emissions.
Lusasi says the person journey mirrors common ride-hailing platforms the place customers obtain the app, log in, request a journey, choose an e-bike, watch for pickup, and pay both in money or by way of the app.
The startup doesn’t manufacture its personal bikes; as a substitute, it companions with e-bike producers. For its pre-launch checks, Lusasi mentioned BodEr is working with Roam, an electrical mobility firm, and can also be in discussions with Ampersand, an electrical transport power firm, to develop provide. Whereas riders who already personal e-bikes can join immediately on the platform, others who don’t can entry financing to amass bikes by way of partnerships with microfinance establishments.
As of January 2026, BodEr is at its minimal viable product (MVP) testing stage and says it has accomplished over 200 take a look at rides, with a public launch deliberate for February 2026.
BodEr operates a multi-stream income technology mannequin. On the patron aspect (B2C), the startup plans to take a 15% fee per journey, and expects to earn 10% revenue on electrical bike purchases on the enterprise aspect (B2B). It intends to supply company mobility and supply providers by way of its fleet and generate income from there. The startup additionally plans to introduce a leasing and subscription mannequin, together with day by day, month-to-month, or yearly choices, focused at campus communities.
Why we’re watching: BodEr is getting into Kenya’s aggressive ride-hailing market with a slender give attention to electrical two-wheelers. Fairly than competing head-on with platforms like Uber and Bolt, the startup differentiates itself by specializing in a wholly inexperienced fleet and focusing on secondary cities resembling Embu, Kisumu, and Mombasa.
BodEr plans to combine AI-based route optimisation to assist riders keep away from site visitors, in addition to an web of issues (IoT) mannequin that forestalls a journey from beginning until the system detects that the rider is sporting a helmet. In 2024, BodEr received Kenya’s TotalEnergies Startup of the Yr (Power class), which got here with a $12,000 grant, and secured AUD 100,000 ($70,000) from the KMA Basis Palladium grant competitors to fund app growth.
Pyn needs to show job looking right into a assured end result (HRTech, Nigeria)
Pyn, a job placement platform based in 2025 and designed to maneuver away from the handbook effort of recruitment for each candidates and companies, emerged from the non-public expertise of the founder, Charles Okala, who struggled to safe roles as a candidate and struggled to search out the suitable expertise as a founder. In his view, the job market forces candidates right into a volume-driven technique of sending out numerous purposes with little suggestions, whereas companies are left sifting by way of a number of resumes to discover a handful of appropriate candidates.
Pyn’s core proposition is to remove job looking completely. Fairly than appearing as a job board, the startup operates a placement system designed to match verified expertise with corporations and assure outcomes. The startup started as an AI-powered service that helped candidates apply for jobs by creating tailor-made resumes, submitting purposes, and monitoring responses. Though Okala says that the mannequin attracted over 5,000 customers, he realised he couldn’t confirm talent ranges, which led to Pyn’s present mannequin.
Underneath the mannequin, candidates submit their CVs, specify the roles they need, and enter a three-day handbook verification course of. As a substitute of counting on credentials alone, the startup assesses candidates by way of real-time proof of labor, observing them resolve issues dwell to check components Okala says can’t be faked with AI-generated portfolios.
As soon as verified, Pyn ensures a job supply inside 60 days that matches the candidate’s degree and wage expectations or points a full refund. Pricing for candidates to entry this service is ₦30,000 ($21.58) for junior, ₦75,000 ($53.96) for mid-level, and ₦300,000 ($215.85) for senior expertise.
For companies, Pyn sells entry to verified expertise, not CV databases. Corporations can request between three and 9 candidates, paying per verified profile. Pricing begins at ₦9,000 ($6.48) per verified junior candidate, ₦25,000 ($17.99) for mid-level, and ₦45,000 ($32.38) for senior roles.
The startup experiences almost 10,000 customers on the platform to this point. Underneath its earlier mannequin, it claims that about 20% of customers secured jobs. Within the newer placement-focused pilot, examined with 400 customers, Pyn experiences a 70% success fee in job placements.
Why we’re watching: Pyn is reframing hiring as a placement and verification downside quite than a search downside. Fairly than optimising for software quantity, the startup is betting that each candidates and corporations can pay for certainty. Its key differentiator is the real-time proof-of-work verification, which it argues is important in an period the place AI can simply fabricate portfolios.
MyCryptocasa needs to make getting crypto right into a social gaming expertise (Crypto/Web3, Nigeria)
Dosunmu Damola began constructing in 2024 MyCryptocasa in response to what he describes as a stagnant cryptocurrency ecosystem in Nigeria, one dominated by repetitive buy-and-sell exercise and platforms with little differentiation. After seeing how crypto and Web3 ecosystems function in Europe and different markets, Dosunmu got down to construct a product that enables customers to do extra with their digital property, particularly with out requiring deep prior information of crypto.
MyCryptocasa combines conventional crypto buying and selling options with a Web3 gaming layer, which may also be used independently. Its Web3 providing contains money-backed multiplayer video games, impressed by informal video games resembling iMessage video games, however tailored right into a blockchain-enabled atmosphere.
Customers can log into the app, join with somebody from their contact checklist or one other MyCryptocasa person, and select a recreation to play. If each gamers choose into “actual gaming,” the match turns into money-backed and winner-takes-all. Video games might be performed utilizing NGN (₦) or cryptocurrency, relying on person choice. The startup additionally permits customers to purchase and handle crypto property.
The founder says the platform is designed to onboard customers who might in any other case really feel intimidated by crypto, utilizing video games as each an academic and engagement software. The startup has partnered with a number of third-party infrastructure suppliers to help funds, compliance, and crypto operations, together with Quidax and Fincra for deposits, withdrawals, USDT flows, and digital playing cards. MyCryptocasa is scheduled to formally launch in Nigeria on February 1, 2026.
Why we’re watching: MyCryptocasa’s differentiation lies in its try to maneuver crypto past transactional buying and selling and into an interactive exercise, utilizing Web3 gaming because the entry level. By integrating social gaming immediately with monetary property, the startup goals to extend the utility of digital currencies.
Crop2Cash needs to digitise Africa’s smallholder farmers with out the web (Agritech, Nigeria & Kenya)
Based in 2021 by Seyi Alabi and Michael Ogundare, Crop2Cash is an agricultural know-how platform designed to bridge the monetary and information hole for smallholder crop farmers. The platform began with a aim of decreasing post-harvest losses amongst smallholder crop farmers.
Whereas engaged on that downside, Alabi says the crew uncovered deeper structural gaps, together with restricted entry to finance and weak information of agricultural finest practices and monetary administration. Crop2Cash then advanced right into a platform designed to handle these points collectively.
The startup’s core product is its offline-first USSD platform, constructed for farmers who depend on telephones and dwell in areas with restricted or unreliable web entry. Farmers dial a USSD code (*347*46#), choose their most popular native language, and observe prompts to create a pockets account utilizing primary private particulars, together with their financial institution verification quantity (BVN).
As soon as onboarded, farmers can perform each agricultural and non-agricultural transactions utilizing keypad menus. These transactions embrace shopping for airtime, sending cash, accessing a built-in market, buying farm inputs, ordering insurance coverage, requesting mechanisation providers, evaluating distributors, and shortly, itemizing crops on the market.
Crop2Cash has two advisory instruments: an SMS-based climate advisory service, which sends farmers steerage primarily based on their location and day by day rainfall predictions, and an AI-powered toll-free hotline, which features as a digital extension agent. Farmers name the road, choose their native language, submit questions verbally, and obtain real-time recommendation that’s related to their location. All providers are accessible offline and obtainable in additional than native languages, together with Yoruba and Hausa.
The startup generates income by way of a number of channels. On its USSD market, Crop2Cash earns margins on farm inputs bought in bulk and resold to farmers, in addition to commissions from third-party suppliers resembling insurers and mechanisation providers. It additionally operates a profit-sharing mannequin with monetary establishments by incomes a proportion of the curiosity charged on transactions. Crop2Cash additionally monetises its information intelligence platform by promoting anonymised market insights to banks, insurers, and enter suppliers.
Since its launch, the startup experiences over $1.5 million in income, says it has unlocked over $3 million in credit score for farmers, and serves over 540,000 farmers throughout Nigeria and Kenya.
Why we’re watching: In 2021, solely 38% of Africans have been on-line. Crop2Cash stands out for constructing an agritech platform that works completely with out web entry, aligning carefully with the realities of smallholder farming in Africa. The startup is at the moment elevating a $1.5 million seed spherical (with $700,000 dedicated).
KwenuAI needs to make on a regular basis African companies use synthetic intelligence (AI providers, Nigeria)
Kamsi Okorafor and Hope David Micheal based KwenuAI in November 2024 as a services-driven AI consultancy that helps companies perceive, adapt, and deploy present AI instruments in sensible methods.
Connecting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with AI instruments sometimes begins with a discovery and design part, the place KwenuAI research a consumer’s workflows, KPIs, constraints, and ache factors. From there, KwenuAI both trains groups on easy methods to use present instruments or builds customized AI options, together with AI brokers and integrations.
In keeping with the founders, a lot of the work includes embedding AI into platforms purchasers already use, like WhatsApp or Telegram, quite than introducing completely new enterprise software program.
This strategy, they are saying, lowers adoption friction for SMEs that will lack entry to extra complicated instruments like Slack or Notion. KwenuAIfocuses on making high-end know-how accessible to grassroots companies by deploying options, together with a multilingual transcription and translation system that permits real-time voice translation whereas preserving the unique speaker’s voice and video feed.
Whereas their present focus is generalised throughout sectors, they’re shifting towards specialised help for instructional startups.
Why we’re watching: A 2025 survey by the World Financial institution, Africa data the bottom AI adoption globally, as no African nation has reached 20% AI adoption. KwenuAI is positioning itself as an AI interpreter for Nigerian and African SMEs to shut this hole. Its differentiation lies in translating international AI capabilities into domestically related and low-friction deployments.
That’s all for at this time. Anticipate our subsequent dispatch on February sixth. Know a startup we must always function subsequent? Please nominate right here.
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