In 2025, early-stage startups across Africa and the Middle East raised over $1 billion through pre-seed and seed funding rounds. This article highlights four emerging African startups that are well-positioned for strong growth over the next five years.
1. InfiniLink
Sector: Semiconductor
Founded: 2022
Seed Funding: $10 million, March 2025
Headquarters: Cairo, Egypt
InfiniLink is a semiconductor startup building ultra-high-speed connectivity solutions for next-generation AI-driven data centres and high-performance computing (HPC) systems. The company develops advanced high-speed SerDes (serializer/deserializer) and analogue transceivers, as well as integrated silicon photonics technologies, aimed at dramatically increasing bandwidth while reducing power consumption and latency — addressing one of the key bottlenecks in AI infrastructure scaling.
As Africa prioritises AI Sovereignty within the next five years, InfiniLink is positioned to help solve critical infrastructure bottlenecks in AI-centric data centres and next-generation HPC systems.
2. Affinity Africa
Sector: Fintech
Founded: 2022, with operations launched publicly in 2024
Seed Funding: $8 million, February 2025
Headquarters: Accra, Ghana
Affinity Africa is a digital banking platform dedicated to making banking accessible, affordable, and inclusive for underserved and unbanked individuals, as well as micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Ghana and across Africa. It operates via mobile and web apps and an agent network — offering users 24/7 access to a wide range of financial products with no monthly fees or transaction charges.
Since officially launching its app in Ghana in late 2024, Affinity has grown rapidly and now serves over 100,000 customers, including many who never had access to formal banking before.
3. Enza
Sector: Fintech
Founded: 2023
Seed Funding: $6.75 million, March 2025
Headquarters: Cairo, Egypt
Enza Group is a fintech startup building modern, cloud-native digital payments infrastructure tailored to the unique needs of African banks, fintechs, mobile network operators, and merchants. Its mission is to “liberate the world of payments” across Africa by offering flexible, secure, open-API payment technology that empowers financial institutions to provide seamless, locally-relevant payment capabilities such as cards, wallets, real-time payments, mobile money, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL), QR codes, and digital acceptance solutions.
Enza’s platform is built to help clients reduce the cost of digital transactions, improve integration agility, unlock new revenue streams, and scale payment products without needing to build expensive legacy systems from scratch.
4. Leta
Sector: Logistics Technology (Logitech)
Founded: 2021
Seed Funding: $5 million, March 2025
Headquarters: Nairobi, Kenya
Leta is an AI-powered logistics and delivery management platform built to help businesses move goods cheaper, faster, and more efficiently, specifically targeting the challenges of Africa’s fragmented logistics landscape. Rather than owning transport assets, Leta provides software that integrates with enterprise systems (ERP, POS, OMS) and uses real-time data and machine intelligence to automate dispatching, optimise routing, track deliveries, enable secure payments, and provide actionable analytics. Its goal is to cut operational costs and delivery times while improving supply chain visibility for clients across industries like retail, food & beverage, pharmaceuticals, and e-commerce.
Clients include brands such as KFC, Diageo, Simbisa Brands, EABL, and others running complex distribution networks.