Ten Startups By Nigerian Women

  For the past ten years, Nigeria has witnessed a lot of major changes in the tech space, from ventures founded and led by women such as Herconomy, Hervest, Edukoya, Bitmama, Shuttlers, Life bank, etc.

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These startups by women are creating tech-inclusive opportunities for other women as well as increasing women’s participation in tech. These companies have continued to hit milestones in their business operations, goals, and impact on society. To celebrate Nigerian women and how far they have come despite the gender disparities in the tech space, below are startups founded by Nigerian women which shows that they are bringing much-needed creative ideas and diversity to the Nigerian tech space.

• Edukoya

Edukoya is the brainchild of its founder, Honey Ogundeyi who also serves as its chief executive officer. The Edtech was founded in May 2021 and has raised $3.5m in the pre-seed round. Edukoya is an extensive examination preparation and learning platform built to help students study better and score good grades. The startup’s goal is to democratize access and reduce the cost of high-quality instruction/content to students regardless of where he or she lives on the continent. It aims to build the world’s largest online learning platform for Africans by making high-quality learning materials and support easily accessible and affordable. It wants to achieve this by engaging African students with digital curriculum content and on-demand teachers for real-time online learning.

• Okra

This is an application programming interface platform Founded in 2019 by Fara Ashiru Jituboh (CEO) and David Peterside. Led by Fara Ashiru Jibutoh, the startup raised $3.5m in a seed round in April 2021. The integrations Okra offers include accounts authorization, balance, identity, income, payments, and transactions. Since its launch in January 2020, Okra claims to have aggressively pushed API connection to all banks in Nigeria. Okra is simply an API “super-connector” that creates a secure portal and process to exchange real-time financial information between customers, applications, and banks. At Okra, Fara doubles as the chief executive and chief transaction officer, which makes her one of the most promising founders in Africa’s male-dominated field. In total, Okra has raised $4.5 million in two rounds ($1m in pre-seed) and the company plans to use its investment to expand its data infrastructure across Nigeria. The company now boasts of an impressive list of partners (developers and businesses) including big names like Access Bank, Aella, Interswitch, and so on.

• Shuttlers

This is a mobility startup that uses tech to digitize transport. Founded in 2016 by Damilola Olokesusi and Busola Majekodunmi, Shuttlers provides companies with better mobility options for their employees via its ride-sharing platform. The startup secured $1.6m in a seed funding round. Led by Dami’s ingenious ideas, the business has now grown from one route which is from Ajah to Victoria Island, to over thirty routes, more than 300 bus-stops, over 100 (unbranded) buses within the city of Lagos, and, has recorded over 2 million trips by commuters.

• Bitmama

This is a payments platform that provides a secured blockchain infrastructure to allow users across Africa to perform cryptocurrency transactions. Bitmama CEO, Ruth Iselema is a trained pharmacist who went into the Blockchain space after she was duped of 250,000 while trading Bitcoin. This prompted her to build Bitmama. In October 2021, the startup announced a pre-seed raise of $350,000 which will be used to grow its operational presence, expand its team as well as penetrate new markets across the continent. The platform ensures that crypto and cross-border transactions across Africa are done efficiently and safely for both users and businesses.

• Reelfruit

This is a food-tech startup founded in 2012 by Affiong Williams. The startup is into the production of a wide range of healthy, dried fruit and nut snacks which it sells in schools, hotels, and retail supermarkets across the country. In September 2021, the Nigerian Agritech startup announced a $3 million Series A funding aimed at establishing a new factory to help expand its production capacity. Reelfruit was also part of the Village Capital accelerator program in which it was selected as one of the winners of the $50,000 funding from the accelerator.

• HerVest

HerVest is a women-focused, inclusive fintech platform enabling women to participate in key financial services; savings, fund transfers, impact investment, and credit specifically credit for small-holder female farmers. Founded in 2020 by solape Akinpelu and Yomi Ogunleye as an “inclusive fintech company” serving underserved and excluded women in Africa through a gender lens. Over one year after Solape started the company, 4,000 plus women have joined her HerVest platform. HerVest raised a Friends And Family funding round of $100,000 with plans to use the capital to add to its nine-person team, strengthen its digital infrastructure and accelerate marketing efforts. It started operations as a distributed company and still mostly operates as one.

• Herconomy

This is Africa’s first women-focused digital platform, improving the course of the financial exclusion and underrepresentation of women in the economy. Founded by Fela Durosinmi-Etti on the belief that when the life of a woman is positively impacted, value is created not just for that woman but for the community at large. Formerly known as AGS Tribe, the female-focused organization has rebranded itself as a financial technology (Fintech) service provider to democratize economic opportunities for women and even the financial landscape. The startup raised $600,000 pre-seed funding to launch its financial services and expand its operations.

• LifeBank

This is an intuitive blood donor database that inspires committed Africans to give blood and save lives in their community. It was founded by Temie Giwa-Bosun in 2016 to support mothers suffering from Postpartum Haemorrhage. It saves lives by delivering medical supplies like blood, medicines, vaccines, and oxygen across Nigeria, Kenya, and Ethiopia. The startup started with a focus on the swift delivery of blood to reduce maternal mortality caused by Postpartum Haemorrhage. LifeBank Plus simply put is an enterprise marketplace for hospitals and blood banks with an app that helps their clients source the best blood and blood products that patients need. The startup has evolved into a medical logistics company. The logistics system helps to deliver the products to patients on time and also provides a simple payment system.

• WeCyclers

This is an environmental technology startup by Bilikiss Adebiyi, a Nigerian female innovator and founder. Her startup is focused on helping low-income communities in developing countries get a chance to alleviate their waste problem and also make money from it through a rewarding recycling program.

• Flying Doctors Nigeria

This is a health tech startup founded by Dr Ola Orekunrin is a graduate of medicine from the University Of York, UK. This startup is West Africa’s first Air Ambulance Service. Her startup is poised to bring emergency care to most areas in Nigeria that cannot be accessed by vehicles through her air ambulance company which is based in Lagos. This startup was born after her younger sister died of sickle-cell anaemia crisis whilst travelling in Nigeria as a consequence of no available medical air service to transport her to a hospital. Featured Image Source: KBFUS

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This article was first published on 8th March 2022

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