INFOGRAPHIC: The fastest-growing tech companies in Africa for 2023

Despite the challenges brought by the pandemic, companies in various sectors such as fintech, renewable energy, healthcare, commodities, and agriculture recorded a high compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the three-year period between 2018 and 2021.

Highlighting the top 100 African businesses that managed to grow their revenues during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Financial Times and Statista have released an annual ranking of Africa’s fastest-growing companies in 2023.

According to the results, Nigerian-based Afex Commodities Exchange, which offers brokerage and trade finance services for commodities like maize, sorghum, cocoa, and rice, topped the list. Moniepoint (formerly TeamApt), a Nigerian-based startup providing banking services for small businesses ranked second, while Kenya’s Wasoko (formerly Sokowatch), an e-commerce company offering inventory access to small traders through more efficient supply chains in seven African countries.

While the fintech, IT, and software sectors were highly represented in the list, there was an extensive diversity of corporate activity among the fastest-growing companies.

The list, which was compiled in partnership with Statista, also includes a Namibian winery, a Kenyan fish farm, a South African company that conducts remote hearing tests, and renewable energy companies in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone.

The criteria for making it onto the list included generating at least $100,000 in revenue in 2018 and $1.5 million in 2021, being an independent company with headquarters in an African country, and having organic revenue growth between 2018 and 2021.