LinkedIn Top Startups 2022: The 10 South African companies on the rise

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

Starting and growing a company has always been tough, but it’s especially tough right now as funding slows and layoffs increase. The working world is navigating widespread inflation and economic uncertainty, and it’s getting more challenging for young companies to secure investment and grow.

South African startups have started to experience that trend, having raised 30% less in the January-May period of this year compared to the same period in 2021. The country, which was Africa’s second VC investment destination last year, attained a marginal 2% growth in funding raised. But as a member of the “Big Four” in the African tech ecosystem, South Africa still managed to rank fourth in terms of VC funding for startups so far, raising nearly $400m in the first quarter of 2022.

Our inaugural LinkedIn Top Startups list is the resource to find the startups to pay attention to right now, featuring 10 South African companies 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 view 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.?

Here are this year’s 10 Top Startups in South Africa – and join the conversation using #linkedintopstartups.

Full-time headcount: 110 | Headquarters: Cape Town | Year founded: 2016 | Most common skills: Business Management, Digital Literacy, Project Management | Largest job functions: Engineering, Information Technology, Customer Success and Support | What they do: Ozow is an online payments platform that facilitates e-commerce without the need for a credit card. It offers payment options that include QR codes, EFT and payment links using a mobile device and bank account.

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

Full-time headcount: 65 | Headquarters: Cape Town | Year founded: 2019 | Most common skills: Development Tools, Web Development, Data Storage Technologies | Largest job functions: Engineering, Product Management | What they do: Stitch is a fintech company whose API allows developers to connect to users’ financial accounts to more easily confirm their identities, view transaction and balance data, and enable instant, fraud-free bank payments. Its new LinkPay product also allows businesses to accept secure, one-click EFT payments from a user’s linked financial account.

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

Full-time headcount: 150 | Headquarters: Cape Town | Year founded: 2016 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Business Management, Leadership | Largest job functions: Human Resources, Sales, Engineering | What they do: OfferZen is an online job marketplace that allows developers to find their next projects and/or positions. The company boasts a database of more than 2,000 companies in South Africa and Europe and over 100,000 developers.?

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

Full-time headcount: 120 | Headquarters: Johannesburg (recently moved to London, UK) | Year founded: 2017 | Most common skills: Business Management, Leadership, Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) | Largest job functions: Sales, Business Development, Information Technology | What they do: Ukheshe, which began as a software development firm building technology for banks and telecoms companies, now offers its own digital banking platform to help banks and telcos provide affordable digital banking and payment services across 40 markets.

See jobs at Ukheshe | See people you may know at Ukheshe?

Full-time headcount: 55 | Headquarters: Johannesburg | Year founded: 2018 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Communication, Business Management | Largest job functions: Customer Success and Support, Accounting, Information Technology | What they do: Rentoza is an online product rentals retailer that allows consumers to rent everyday products, such as appliances, electronics and even baby goods, through a subscription. It offers people who would otherwise not be able to afford a certain product or want to buy it the use of it for a specific length of time.

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

Full-time headcount: 65 | Headquarters: Johannesburg | Year founded: 2017 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Business Management, Web Development | Largest job functions: Engineering, Operations | What they do: AURA is a technology platform that offers users an emergency response service from private security and medical companies using a connected device from anywhere, at any time. A 24-hour call centre can be reached via a phone call, message, or safety app.

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

Full-time headcount: 250-300 | Headquarters: Johannesburg | Year founded: 2016 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Business Management, Leadership | Largest job functions: Sales, Engineering, Finance | What they do: Carter is an online car retail platform where potential buyers can choose a vehicle, receive a quote, and arrange for financing. The company offers both new and used vehicles, as well as online booking of vehicle servicing at participating dealerships.

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

Full-time headcount: 90 | Headquarters: Cape Town | Year founded: 2016 | Most common skills: Business Management, Digital Literacy | Largest job functions: Sales, Finance | What they do: Meerkat is a financial services provider that offers solutions for reducing debt and creating an emergency savings account. In addition, it offers credit life insurance and funeral cover as a way of avoiding further debt incurred for families in the event of loss of income or death.

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

Full-time headcount: 50 | Headquarters: Cape Town | Year founded: 2017 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Development Tools, Web Development | Largest job functions: Engineering, Information Technology, Operations | What they do: Root operates a digital insurance platform through which insurers can launch, sell, and scale digital insurance products faster and more efficiently.

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

Full-time headcount: 120 | Headquarters: Johannesburg | Year founded: 2020 | Most common skills: Business Management, Digital Literacy, Project Management | Largest job functions: Sales, Administrative, Operations | What they do: Zoom Fibre is a fast-growing and agile fibre network provider that provides high-speed, open-access fibre connectivity directly to homes and businesses at affordable prices. The company strives to reach middle- and low-income areas in South Africa, and has so far connected areas in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, the North West province, and the Western Cape.

See more about Zoom Fibre | See people you may know at Zoom Fibre

You can check out the other African Top Startups in Nigeria, 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. Ozow | 2. Stitch | 3. OfferZen | 4. Ukheshe | 5. Rentoza | 6. AURA | 7. Carter | 8. Meerkat | 9. Root | 10. Zoom Fibre