Africa’s unicorn club grows to 10, Nigeria remains continent’s dominant hub

Africa’s technology sector has officially reached a new milestone, with the continent now home to 10 startup unicorns, private technology companies valued at $1 billion or more.

The latest company to join the exclusive club is Nigerian mobility fintech startup Moove, which secured a $250 million funding round that lifted its valuation to about $2.1 billion.

Nigeria remains the continent’s dominant unicorn hub, producing six of Africa’s 10 billion-dollar startups. These include Interswitch, Africa’s first unicorn, which crossed the $1 billion mark in 2019, followed by Flutterwave, OPay, Andela, Moniepoint and now Moove.

Read also: Africa’s next unicorns: 18 startups in hunt for $1bn valuations or IPOs in 2026

Senegal has one unicorn, Wave, while Uganda is represented by Chipper Cash. Egypt’s MNT-Halan and South Africa’s Tyme Group complete the list.

Among the companies that have publicly disclosed updated valuations, Flutterwave remains Africa’s most valuable unicorn at about $3.25 billion, followed by OPay at $3.1 billion. Moove entered the rankings with a valuation of $2.1 billion, ahead of Egypt’s MNT-Halan, which is valued at about $1.4 billion. Several other unicorns, including Interswitch, Andela, Wave, Moniepoint and Tyme Group, have not publicly disclosed their latest valuations.

The milestone highlights the continued growth of Africa’s technology ecosystem despite a tougher global funding environment.

Nigeria’s strong presence reflects its leadership in fintech and digital innovation, while Moove’s emergence signals growing investor confidence in mobility and asset-financing technology across the continent.

According to Afridigest, some reports have suggested that Algeria’s Yassir exceeded a $1 billion valuation in 2022. However, because the company has not officially disclosed its valuation, it was not included in the continent’s confirmed list of unicorns.

Reacting to Moove’s achievement, Ladi Delano co-CEOco-founder, Moove said, “Every major technology revolution becomes an infrastructure race. The internet required data centres. AI required compute. Autonomy requires fleets, charging, maintenance, data systems and 24/7 operations in every city and that is what Moove is building. In our view, as autonomy scales, infrastructure ownership and operations will define the category leaders. We are building to be one of them.”

He has also framed Moove’s human-driven fleet experience as preparation for robotaxi operations, noting the need for parties that “own the metal,” operate, service, and orchestrate vehicles.