LinkedIn Top Startups 2022: The 10 Nigerian companies on the rise

The 2022 LinkedIn Top Startups list reveals 10 emerging companies in Nigeria gaining attention. Backed by unique LinkedIn data measuring different elements of growth and demand, the list reveals companies like Bundle Africa , Utiva and Moove that you should be paying attention to.?

Starting and growing a company has always been tough, but it’s especially tough right now. As the working world navigates widespread inflation and economic uncertainty, it’s getting more challenging for young companies to receive investment and grow.

But while it’s a challenging moment, some argue that innovative ideas are born in times of uncertainty. Operating under constrained resources and limited capital can push young companies to prioritise assets and values and adapt quickly.

That has been the case for many of Nigeria’s startups, which continue to remain very attractive to venture capitalist funding globally. In the first quarter of this year, Nigerian startups attracted more than $800m in VC funding – a 128% increase from what they received in the same period last year. Those numbers have solidified Nigeria as the top destination for VC funding in Africa, followed by Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa.

Our inaugural LinkedIn Top Startups list is the resource to find the startups to pay attention to right now, featuring 10 companies in Nigeria that are rising to the challenges of the moment and continuing to innovate and gain attention in 2022.

To compile the list, we looked at LinkedIn data across four pillars: employee growth, jobseeker interest, member engagement within the company and its employees, and how well these startups pulled talent from our flagship LinkedIn Top Companies list. (You can learn more about our methodology and eligibility requirements at the bottom of this article.)

This list is ultimately meant to be a resource for jobseekers excited by the opportunity to innovate, solve big problems, and grow their skills. If joining a startup is the right fit for you, check out which roles, functions, and skills are in demand at each company – and click on them to find the associated LinkedIn Learning courses to study up. If you see a company that sparks your interest, take a look at who you may know and turn on job alerts to stay on top of future opportunities.?

Check out this year’s 10 Top Startups in Nigeria – and join the conversation using #LinkedInTopStartups.

Full-time headcount: 60 | Headquarters: Lagos | Year founded: 2019 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Business Management, Leadership | Largest job functions: Engineering, Customer Care, Support | What they do: Bundle Africa is a cryptocurrency startup that lets users send, receive, or request cash and digital currencies with no transaction fees.

See more about Bundle Africa | See people you may know at Bundle Africa

Full-time headcount: 55 | Headquarters: Lagos | Year founded: 2018 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Business Management, Leadership | Largest job functions: Information Technology, Marketing, Engineering | What they do: Utiva is a virtual education platform that allows people to learn tech skills. It also offers bespoke training services to companies and helps them connect with and hire talent from within the platform.

See more about Utiva | See people you may know at Utiva

Full-time headcount: 425 | Headquarters: Lagos | Year founded: 2020 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Business Management, Leadership | Largest job functions: Operations, Customer Success and Support, Engineering | What they do: Moove supplies vehicles to drivers of ride-hailing apps, logistics and mass transportation services, and other businesses at weekly rental rates.

See jobs at Moove | See people you may know at Moove

Full-time headcount: 50 | Headquarters: Lagos | Year founded: 2020 | Most common skills: Leadership, Web Development, Digital Literacy | Largest job functions: Engineering, Sales, Business Development | What they do: Okra provides companies with the technology they need to develop banking apps. Its API enables these companies to build lending, personal saving, and other financial products.

See jobs at Okra | See people you may know at Okra

Full-time headcount: 45 | Headquarters: Lagos | Year founded: 2017 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Leadership, Development Tools | Largest job functions: Sales, Engineering, Arts and Design | What they do: Cowrywise uses tech-first financial tools to simplify the way Nigerians manage their spending and saving, with gamified rewards. The platform also offers different investment opportunities.

See more about Cowrywise | See people you may know at Cowrywise

Full-time headcount: 75 | Headquarters: Lagos | Year founded: 2019 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Leadership, Business Management | Largest job functions: Customer Success and Support, Arts and Design, Marketing | What they do: Bamboo provides worldwide investment opportunities for Nigerians and others in Africa. As a bonus, the platform offers in-app tutorials of investment basics to help new and amateur users understand investments.

See more about Bamboo | See people you may know at Bamboo

Full-time headcount: 235 | Headquarters: Lagos | Year founded: 2017 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Business Management, Leadership | Largest job functions: Sales, Operations, Engineering | What they do: Formerly known as Kudi, a chatbot that handles transfer requests, Nomba has morphed into a mobile banking platform that equips businesses with the tools to easily make and receive payments.

See jobs at Nomba | See people you may know at Nomba

Full-time headcount: 350 | Headquarters: Lagos | Year founded: 2015 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Web Development, Business Management | Largest job functions: Engineering, Customer Success and Support, Information Technology | What they do: TeamApt helps businesses manage their operations by creating banking, credit, and management tools for different business needs. Their biggest product, Moniepoint, has helped small businesses process over a billion transactions.

See jobs at TeamApt | See people you may know at TeamApt

Full-time headcount: 70 | Headquarters: Lagos | Year founded: 2019 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Leadership, Business Management | Largest job functions: Business Development, Engineering, Marketing | What they do: Prospa’s digital banking services help businesses operate by giving them access to loans, bookkeeping, and spending tools.

See more about Prospa | See people you may know at Prospa

Full-time headcount: 105 | Headquarters: Lagos | Year founded: 2016 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Business Management, Communication | Largest job functions: Customer Success and Support, Sales, Finance | What they do: Piggyvest makes saving fun for customers by creating personal, communal, and locked savings. They also provide cheap investment opportunities on the platform.

See more about Piggyvest | See people you may know at Piggyvest

You can check out the other African Top Startups in South Africa, as well as globally, in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UAE, the UK, and the US.

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Methodology

LinkedIn measures startups based on four pillars: employment growth, engagement, job interest and attraction of top talent. Employment growth is measured as percentage headcount increase over methodology time frame, which must be a minimum of 10%. Engagement looks at non-employee views and follows of the company’s LinkedIn page, as well as how many non-employees are viewing employees at that startup. Job interest counts rate at which people are viewing and applying to jobs at the company, including both paid and unpaid postings. Attraction of top talent measures how many employees the startup has recruited away from any global LinkedIn Top Company, as a percentage of the startup’s total workforce. Data is normalised across all eligible startups. The methodology time frame is July, 1 2021 through June 30, 2022.

To be eligible, companies must be fully independent, privately held, have 30 or more full-time employees, be 8 years old or younger and be headquartered in the country on whose list they appear. We exclude all staffing firms, think tanks, venture capital firms, law firms, management and IT consulting firms, nonprofits and philanthropy, accelerators and government-owned entities. Startups who have laid off 20% or more of their workforce within the methodology time frame are also ineligible.?

About company insights

Company insights were sourced from LinkedIn Talent Insights. Data reflects aggregated public member data from active LinkedIn profiles in the relevant country and includes full-time employee profiles associated with the company on LinkedIn. All data points are measured among hires in the last year. We exclude members who identify as part-time or contractors. Headcounts are provided by the companies directly, unless otherwise noted with an asterisk. Those headcounts are based on LinkedIn data. The insights reflect data as of July 2022. Skills data was derived from measuring the most frequent skills among a company’s employees. Most common job titles represent the occupations that are most common within each company. Largest job function measures the function area most prevalent within each company.

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Reported by: Solange Uwimana and Juliette Faraut

Methodology and insights by: LinkedIn Economic Graph team

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Honoree companies: 1. Bundle Africa | 2. Utiva | 3. Moove | 4. Okra | 5. Cowrywise | 6. Bamboo | 7. Nomba | 8. TeamApt Inc. | 9. Prospa | 10. Piggyvest