In 2017, I gave a TEDx talk entitled 'Who Will Own Our Future Unicorns?' At the time, the only billion-dollar startup on the continent was Jumia - a pan-African e-commerce, logistics and payment company - which became a unicorn in 2016.
Yet I was convinced more would emerge and they did in 2019, with Fawry and Interswitch. Since then, we've witnessed more African startups achieve billion-dollar valuations, attract international funding, and even exit to major global players.
This represents a significant growth-marker for the continent's start-up ecosystem, with many of these businesses solving critical pain points and becoming an essential part of our daily lives, particularly within the payment sector.
However, the original question I raised in the TEDx talk in 2017 still lingers: Who truly owns the upside of Africa's innovation economy? More specifically, who carries the responsibility for sustaining it?
African startups continue to attract meaningful global interest. In 2024 alone, they secured 3.2bn, a testament to the talent and ambition thriving on the continent. Most of this funding came from foreign investors, including development finance institutions and international venture firms.