african-fintech
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The App That Found Its Business in a Bank Transfer
Afriex’s founders tried a chatbot and a trivia game. The nuisance that survived both experiments - moving money between the US and Nigeria - became their company, then a much larger payments network.
Olugbenga Agboola Is Teaching Money to Take the Short Way Home
The Flutterwave founder spent years stitching together Africa's payment systems. Now his harder task is building a company that can keep moving when he is not the one pushing every button.
InTouch Wants Africa’s Payments to Meet at One Counter
A Dakar shopkeeper’s tangle of payment services became a business spanning 27 African countries. InTouch’s bet is that the shop counter still matters, even when the money moves online.
Ismael Belkhayat Is Turning the Corner Shop Into a Financial Network
A delayed carton of milk exposed a much larger problem. Ismael Belkhayat and Sophia Alj built Chari around the daily friction of Morocco's neighborhood shops - then followed the transaction trail from stock orders to payments.
Maxwell Obi Is Building the Financial Plumbing Behind Africa's Global Trade
After an exit, a tour through global remittances, and hundreds of conversations with traders and finance teams, Maxwell Obi chose a gloriously unglamorous problem: helping emerging-market businesses move money on time.
Asher Adeniyi Turned Payday Into a Product
Before payroll became his product, people were already his business. Asher Adeniyi's path from a shy recruitment founder to Eazipay CEO is a study in second chances, dependable systems and the quiet drama of paying everyone on time.
Paul Kimani Bet the Company on the Boring Part
A profitable consultancy had customers, staff and momentum. Paul Kimani closed it anyway, kept five people, and built Workpay around the overlooked machinery that makes payday feel ordinary across Africa.
DFS Is Betting Africa’s Next Tech Boom Won’t Look Like Silicon Valley
The firm once known as DFS Lab spent a decade studying how money and commerce move across frontier markets. Now it is turning that fieldwork into an investment thesis for AI, industry and the infrastructure in between.
Tolu Alabi
Tolu Alabi is the co-founder and CEO of Cleva (YC W24), a USD banking platform that lets freelancers and businesses across Africa get paid in dollars and shield their earnings from local currency swings. Born and raised in Nigeria, she played competitive basketball before earning degrees at Grinnell College and Stanford GSB and building products at Stripe and Amazon. She also runs Next in Line Africa, a basketball nonprofit that teaches life skills to young athletes.