Nigerian Startups Poised for Growth in the Second Half of 2026, According to Venture Capitalists
Nigeria continues to lead the African startup landscape, securing the most funding deals on the continent in the first half of 2026. The ecosystem has consistently produced innovative companies, navigating challenges such as a high cost of living, security concerns, fluctuating exchange rates, and complex regulatory environments.
These emerging companies are introducing novel approaches to business and daily life across sectors including finance, logistics, and environmental solutions. They are actively raising capital, expanding into new territories, and achieving significant milestones.
To identify the companies set to make waves in the latter half of 2026, Condia consulted venture capitalists from Velocity Digital, Endeavour, Launch Africa Ventures, and HoaQ. A key condition was that they could not name their own portfolio companies.
Passpoint functions as a financial orchestration layer for markets in Africa, Europe, and G20 nations. The company consolidates payments, compliance, liquidity, and settlement into a unified, governed control plane. This enables businesses to operate seamlessly across African and global markets with a single integration, eliminating the need to redevelop infrastructure for each new trading corridor.
Busha Business Collaborates with Tether to Expand Stablecoin Infrastructure for African Businesses
Leveraging Busha’s SEC-licensed infrastructure, this partnership will provide businesses across Africa with enhanced access to faster cross-border payments, stablecoin treasury management, and globally connected liquidity.
Founded by Kelechi Uchegbulem and Adejuwon Oyebanjo, Passpoint operates across 16 corridors encompassing Africa, Europe, the United Kingdom, China, and the United States. The company holds a direct license from the Central Bank of Nigeria, operates under FINTRAC in Canada, possesses a Virtual Asset Service Provider license from Poland’s Ministry of Finance, and offers PSD2-compliant infrastructure across 24 EU countries and the United Kingdom.
Scale is a financing and superapp designed for delivery drivers and logistics operators, originating from the Nigerian logistics firm Renda. Initially launched as an internal pilot and now fully operational, it offers drivers access to credit for vehicle maintenance, fuel, insurance, and other essential services. Operating as both a B2C and B2B platform, Scale connects drivers with mechanics, fuel stations, spare parts, and health insurance on credit. Its AI tools also assist drivers, fleets, unions, and logistics companies in managing operations and fostering growth.
Renda handles full payments to providers and manages collections, utilizing operational data for risk assessment. Following a successful pilot phase, Scale is now expanding its reach with the support of external finance partners. The company was co-founded by Ope Onaboye and Bimbo Onaboye.
Arone Technologies, a Nigerian deep tech startup established in 2018 by Emmanuel Ezenwere, is based in Enugu. It began by offering drone delivery services for last-mile healthcare logistics and has since evolved into a hardware manufacturer specializing in aerospace, AI, and sustainable energy.
Arone develops Aurora drones for medical delivery and surveillance, modular solar systems like the Luminar 2.0, with 1.35 MWh deployed nationwide by the end of 2025, and QView AI, an on-premises platform designed to reduce reliance on third-party cloud services.
In early 2026, Arone announced a ₦12.95 billion partnership with the state-owned Institute of Management and Technology in Enugu. This initiative aims to establish Nigeria’s first tech manufacturing plant, capable of producing 5,000 drones and 30,000 Luminar systems annually, and will train 20,000 hardware engineers.
Miri Africa is an environmental technology startup providing real-time air quality and weather monitoring solutions across Africa. The company deploys advanced sensors to measure PM2.5, CO2, NO2, temperature, and humidity, delivering data-driven insights to governments, businesses, and communities.
The startup currently operates over 100 active devices in Lagos, Accra, and Nairobi. In Nigeria, Miri Africa has secured a contract with the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency to install 2,000 air quality devices. It also maintains a data partnership with Climate TRACE and holds reseller agreements covering Nigeria and East Africa.
Its solutions support urban air quality monitoring, agricultural planning through weather stations for rainfall and wind tracking, public health initiatives, and climate research. By the close of 2026, the company intends to significantly expand its network to help address the data deficit in environmental decision-making across the continent. The CEO of Miri Africa is Temidayo Oniosun, PhD.
Raven is a digital bank offering swift, secure, and cost-effective financial services. Initially a centralized dashboard for managing multiple bank accounts, it has evolved into a comprehensive digital bank serving over 500,000 individual customers and 5,000 businesses. RavenPay’s ecosystem includes a personal banking app featuring low-cost transfers at a flat fee of ₦10, high-interest savings accounts yielding up to 14% annually, bill payment services, and both virtual and physical cards.
Through Raven Atlas, the company provides a banking-as-a-service platform that enables other businesses to integrate customized payment experiences for unbanked users without smartphones. RavenPay operates under Beststar MFB, a microfinance bank licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria, with all deposits insured by the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation. Prince Obinna Nwachukwu serves as the Chief Executive Officer.
Decide is a Nigerian AI startup founded in 2025 by Abiodun Adetona, a former software developer at the fintech company Flutterwave. Despite operating with a lean team of three and having raised no external venture capital, Decide has achieved global recognition, ranking fourth worldwide for accuracy in spreadsheet tasks according to the SpreadsheetBench benchmark. The platform achieved an 82.5 percent score on 400 verified, real-world Excel tasks, including formula writing and data cleaning, surpassing several well-funded competitors.
Within 24 days of its launch, Decide garnered 1,000 users and now serves over 3,000 users, including paying customers. The product is an AI agent capable of not only suggesting actions but also executing changes directly and explaining them in clear, understandable language. Adetona developed Decide to address the inefficiencies professionals encounter in manual data analysis, drawing upon his experience at Flutterwave to create a tool that tackles everyday spreadsheet challenges without demanding substantial computational resources or large teams.
Metrifox is a monetization and billing platform designed for AI startups, SaaS companies, and businesses offering usage-based products. It eliminates the need for companies to build complex billing systems from scratch, enabling them to quickly implement pricing models such as usage-based pricing, credits and prepaid options, subscriptions, seat-based licensing, or hybrid combinations, all without incurring additional engineering costs. The platform is entitlement-first and engineered to assist AI and modern SaaS companies in modeling, testing, and iterating AI-native pricing strategies.
It also enforces feature and usage limits, automates billing workflows, and provides real-time visibility, empowering companies to scale revenue and enhance profit margins. Users integrate onceion entitlements, or update pricing within their codebase. Abiodun Olowode and Adedapo Sobayo co-founded Metrifox in 2025
Travevu is a financial operating system for global trade, developed for mid-market businesses in emerging economies. The platform assists importers, exporters, manufacturers, and commodity suppliers in accessing affordable trade finance, streamlining cross-border payments, and operating more efficiently within fragmented supply chains. By integrating trade finance, multi-currency payments, and transaction intelligence into a single solution, Travevu enables businesses to move goods, access working capital more rapidly, and settle international transactions smoothly.
Travevu’s infrastructure is designed to mitigate the common obstacles that impede global trade, including lengthy financing approval processes, foreign exchange challenges, and complex payment coordination. The founder’s deep market understanding is a key differentiator for Travevu. Founder Nkiru Amadi Emina possesses extensive experience in supply chain finance, including her role in building Pivo, and previously managed port operations at Kobo360. This background provides her with direct insight into the trade, logistics, and financing constraints that affect African businesses.
Vendy is a conversational commerce infrastructure platform that empowers organizations to build and deploy secure commerce experiences within messaging channels. Its infrastructure supports payments, workflows, and digital services for banks, government agencies, enterprises, and SMBs. Customers can discover, pay for, and transact directly within messaging applications, social media, and AI chatbots without leaving the conversation.
Since its launch 20 months ago, Vendy has processed over $40 million in transaction volume and continues to expand its infrastructure partnerships. It integrates with major African banks and mobile money providers, including Kuda, OPay, and MTN MoMo. Vendy generates revenue through a 1% transaction fee and tiered SaaS subscriptions for businesses. Founded in 2022 by Kayode Disu and Peter Ekunkoya, the company’s payment processor is licensed by the CBN, PCI DSS certified, and is a Meta-approved WhatsApp Business Solution Provider.
Vector is addressing a significant challenge for African businesses: facilitating cross-border money transfers that are fast, reliable, and cost-effective. The startup provides the infrastructure for businesses to send, receive, and manage funds globally through a single, secure platform. Its tools encompass cross-border payments, foreign exchange and treasury management, and multi-currency accounts, all powered by stablecoin rails to enhance the speed and efficiency of B2B payments.
Licensed in Nigeria, the US, and Canada, Vector offers virtual accounts, cards, and treasury solutionst compliance and risk controls. The company supports multiple currencies, enables real-time FX transactions, and settles most payments within 24 hours
With offices in Lagos, London, Toronto, and New York, Vector has processed over $1 billion in payments and assists thousands of clients in their global expansion efforts. This volume indicates that it is effectively solving a critical need for businesses that cannot afford payment delays, failures, or expensive foreign exchange workarounds.
