Fintechs accounted for over 30% of Kenyan tech startups followed in 2022 – Study – Fintech

As of November 2022, Kenyan fintechs accounted for 30.2% or 93 of the 308 tech startups tracked, a recent study by Disrupt Africa found. Additionally, the study results show that the fintech subsector alone accounted for 3,100 or 27% of the 11,462 employees employed by tech startups during the same period.

Fintechs solve fundamental problems

Loud Results In a study of Kenya's startup space, fintech ventures alone accounted for just over 30%, or 93 of the 308 startups tracked. This number is almost three times higher than that of the nearest challengers, namely agritech and e-health, both of which accounted for 10.1% of Kenya's tech startups tracked between January and November 2022.

However, as Disrupt Africa's study report on the Kenyan startup ecosystem explains, the dominance of fintechs is not uncommon.

“Fintech ranks first in most African countries as it solves fundamental problems for the population, is an area where novel technical solutions tend to be well received and adopted quickly, and offer attractive returns for investors,” the report said.

Remittances and Lending More Popular Categories

Fintechs not only represent the largest share of tech startups, but also employ more workers (3,100) than other subsectors. Agritech and e-commerce are the only other tech subsectors that employed more than a thousand workers.

As the breakdown of fintech focus areas in the study shows, remittances (24%) and lending and financing (21%) appear to be the most popular categories. According to the report, this is partly because “these areas cover many of the most basic financial services that much of the population still lacks.” The report added that such categories have been “the starting point for fintech ecosystems across the continent.”

Regarding the use of blockchain by tech startups, the study found that 12 of the 30 blockchain-based companies are fintechs. In second and third place are e-health (6) and agri-tech (5).

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Terence Zimwara

Terence Zimwara is an award-winning journalist, author and writer from Zimbabwe. He has written extensively about the economic struggles of some African countries, as well as how digital currencies can provide an escape route for Africans.

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