South African fintechs Paymenow, TymeBank, Omnisient make FT’s Africa fastest-growing companies list
Paymenow ranked sixth in the FT Africa’s Fastest-Growing Companies 2025 ranking, with a 3756.1% absolute growth increase from 2020 to 2023. Paymenow's revenue surged from $0.14 million in 2020 to $4.86 million in 2023, and its employee count grew from 7 to 38.
Peach Payments acquires West-African payments gateway PayDunya
Peach Payments acquires PayDunya, entering mainland Francophone Africa for the first time. PayDunya operates in six West African countries and processes 70,000 transactions per day.
Bootstrapped OneKitty tackles crowdfunding transparency with WhatsApp chatbots
Manny Anyango runs a chama through a WhatsApp group, facing challenges in tracking contributions manually. Danche Nganga developed OneKitty, a crowdfunding app integrated with social messaging chatbots, to address fundraising management issues.
Why Do So Many Startups Fail in Africa — And What Can Founders Do About It?
54% of African startups failed, with Ethiopia and Rwanda experiencing failure rates as high as 75%. Startups often fail due to insufficient market research and a lack of understanding of local consumer behavior.
Ghanaian startups face higher costs as AWS introduces 21% tax
AWS will implement a 21% tax on cloud services for customers in Ghana starting March 1, 2025. The tax includes a 15% Value Added Tax (VAT) and an additional 6% in levies.
