May 28, 2026
Bloomberg News today unveiled the second edition of its ‘Africa Startups to Watch List’, featuring 25 companies that represent some of the smartest ideas from founders across the continent.
The theme of this list is urgency, with most of the featured companies building solutions in environments where infrastructure or systems have failed to deliver.
The list includes companies from Botswana, Cameroon, Chad, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Somalia and Tanzania. Sectors represented on the list include: healthcare, fintech, security, climate resilience, waste management, transport and technology amongst others. The full list can be viewed here.
Jennifer Zabasajja, Bloomberg Television’s Chief Africa Correspondent and Anchor said: “Across a diverse range of sectors, the startups present an array of solutions to pressing challenges and problems. The second edition of this list also shows how businesses across the continent have increasingly mobilized local capital, with almost half of the funding raised by companies on this year’s list coming from African investors.’
Bloomberg News editors, along with Bloomberg Intelligence analysts, considered a number of criteria when assessing the entries including: the scope of the problem companies were tackling, the creativity of their ideas and their traction with investors and customers alike. All selected companies are privately held.