Why investors are looking at African Fintech again

In November last year, two African fintech companies, South Africa’s Optasia and Morocco’s Cash Plus, both entered public markets within weeks of one another, marking the region’s first notable fintech IPOs since before the pandemic-era funding boom accelerated investor appetite across the sector. Optasia listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange at a valuation of roughly $1.4 billion after raising approximately $345 million, while Cash Plus raised approximately $82.5 million through its Casablanca listing at a valuation near $550 million – both across primary and secondary transactions. 

Alongside growing market anticipation around a potential public listing of Airtel Africa’s mobile money business and OPay later in 2026, the deals may point to something larger beginning to emerge across African fintech: a gradual return of investor confidence in the sector’s ability not only to scale, but eventually to generate meaningful liquidity events as well.

Africa has grown into one of the fastest-expanding fintech markets globally, with sector revenues projected to rise roughly thirteenfold to about $65 billion by 2030. Much of that growth has concentrated around payments and lending businesses, which now account for more than half of African fintech firms and have attracted the majority of equity funding flowing into the sector over the past several years.

Higher smartphone penetration and a young, urbanising population accelerated adoption rapidly enough that fintech investment across the continent crossed the $1 billion mark in both 2021 and 2022. But the post-pandemic interest rate reset altered the economics underpinning global venture markets quite materially, especially for growth-stage technology companies, and African fintech was not insulated from that adjustment. 

However, signs of recovery are now beginning to sprout.

Some market analysts now estimate that African fintech startups raised roughly $187 million across 21 deals during the first quarter of 2026 alone, representing quarter-on-quarter growth of almost 400% in deal value and just over 30% in deal count, further reinforcing the sense that parts of the market may be entering a more active funding environment again after several slower years.

Many of the larger fintech companies that absorbed significant venture funding during the high-growth years are reaching a stage where early investors are actively exploring exit pathways, particularly through public listings for the more mature platforms capable of supporting institutional market scrutiny. At the same time, merger and acquisition activity across African fintech has become noticeably more active as incumbents and technology firms alike look for scale, infrastructure capability, and distribution advantages in markets where building organically can be far slower and more expensive. In South Africa alone, the past few years have already produced a growing mix of banks acquiring fintech capabilities, retailers expanding into embedded financial services, and fintech companies consolidating with one another directly. What is notable now, though, is that a larger share of this activity is happening between African players themselves rather than being driven primarily by international acquirers entering the market from outside the continent.

What this activity ultimately reflects is how far parts of the African fintech ecosystem have matured over a relatively short period of time. Many of these businesses were built locally by African founders operating inside markets that, until fairly recently, were still viewed by large parts of global capital as too fragmented or operationally difficult to scale meaningfully. The fact that some of these companies are now reaching public markets, generating sustainable revenues, and attracting acquisition interest from strategic buyers points to something much larger than individual success stories; it suggests that parts of African fintech are beginning to evolve from venture-backed growth narratives into businesses capable of supporting longer-term institutional capital and more mature capital-market participation.

For investors looking at African fintech more closely again, one of the first things to understand is that the continent does not operate as a single market from either a regulatory or commercial perspective. Business models, consumer behaviour, licensing frameworks, and competitive dynamics can differ materially from one country to another, which means local context matters far more than many investors initially anticipate. In practice, that often makes strong domestic partnerships important, not only for market access but for understanding how financial behaviour actually functions within specific African economies. Institutions such as Absa are already advising investors and businesses navigating the commercial and regulatory complexity surrounding fintech transactions across different African markets.

This becomes even more important in areas where African fintech companies have developed models that evolved quite differently from those seen in Western markets. Mobile money is probably the clearest example. In several African economies, large numbers of consumers entered digital financial systems through mobile wallets and USSD-based services long before traditional banking infrastructure achieved broad penetration at scale. For investors unfamiliar with those dynamics, some of the continent’s most successful fintech models can initially appear unconventional despite already operating at very significant scale commercially. 

African fintech still carries considerable growth potential over the next decade, but the sector entering that next phase will likely look very different from the one that first attracted global venture capital attention several years ago. The businesses and investors likely to perform best may ultimately be those that understand how deeply African fintech is tied to the continent’s underlying financial realities, because solving those challenges is where many of the sector’s largest opportunities still sit.

Adesoji Solanke is the Head of Fintech & Banks Investment Banking Origination at Absa CIB