At a Glance
- African founders often base their firms abroad to access venture capital, stable currencies, and top tech talent, giving them strategic flexibility beyond home-market constraints.
- Companies like Flutterwave, Richemont, and Zepz combine global scale with strong African operational roots, creating jobs and solving local problems from foreign headquarters.
- Legal domiciling in hubs like Amsterdam and San Francisco helps firms like Prosus and Chipper Cash achieve faster growth while maintaining Africa-focused missions.
Many of Africa’s most valuable African-owned companies—such as Prosus, Glencore, Richemont, Flutterwave, and Chipper Cash—are headquartered outside the continent, not due to a lack of identity but because of structural limitations and strategic advantages.
Founders like South Africa’s Johann Rupert, Zimbabwe’s Strive Masiyiwa, and Somali-born Ismail Ahmed have built global giants in wealth creation and influence, but faced major hurdles in operating and scaling from within Africa.
These include limited access to venture capital, regulatory complexity, currency instability, weak digital infrastructure, and bureaucratic red tape.
By establishing legal or operational bases in financial hubs like London, San Francisco, or Amsterdam, these companies gain access to global capital markets, investor confidence, and talent pools.
This enables faster scaling, robust governance, and listing flexibility. At the same time, their economic footprints in Africa remain substantial—from Glencore’s mining operations to Liquid Intelligent Technologies’ fibre rollouts and Flutterwave’s payment gateways.
These ten(10) firms, chronicled by Shore Africa, simultaneously contribute to global innovation and African development, reflecting a dual economic identity: building billion-dollar valuations abroad while solving real problems and creating jobs at home. The challenge now lies in making Africa a viable base not only for vision but also for scale.
- Prosus N.V.
Sector: Technology
Market Cap: R 3.77 trillion($166.64 billion)
Headquarters: Netherlands
Ownership: Koos Bekker with a net worth of $3.5 billion
Prosus N.V. is currently the most valuable stock on the JSE with a market capitalization of R 3.77 trillion($166.64 billion). Formed as a spin-off of Naspers to house its global tech assets, including its $100+ billion stake in Tencent.
- Glencore plc
Sector: Basic materials Mining & Commodities Trading
Market Capitalization: £31.83 billion ($42.74 billion)
Ownership: Ivan Glasenberg with a net worth of $9.1 billion
Glencore plc is currently the seventh most valuable stock on the JSE with a market capitalization of R849 billion ($47.19 billion). Glencore is one of the world’s largest diversified natural resource companies, with operations in mining, commodities trading, and energy production. The company has a significant presence in South Africa’s coal and metals industry. Over the past year, Glencore has benefited from strong demand for critical metals, particularly those needed for renewable energy technologies.
- Compagnie Financière Richemont S.A.
Sector: Luxury goods
Headquarters: Switzerland
Ownership: Johann Rupert, with a net worth of $14.6 billion
Market Capitalization: CHF85.89 billion ($103.56 billion)
Richemont ranks among Europe’s most valuable consumer‑luxury groups, famed for maisons such as Cartier, Montblanc, Van Cleef & Arpels and IWC Schaffhausen. The group spans high‑jewellery, watches, leather goods and premium accessories, with a global retail footprint of more than 3 000 boutiques. Demand from the U.S. and mainland China, plus growth in direct‑to‑consumer e‑commerce via platforms like YNAP, has underpinned recent revenue momentum despite macro headwinds.
- Liquid Intelligent Technologies
Sector: Telecommunications, Cloud & Digital Services
Ownership: Wholly owned by Econet Group (Strive Masiyiwa with a net worth of $1.2 billion)
Headquarters: Mauritius —with its main operational hub in London
Liquid Intelligent Technologies is a pan‑African fibre‑optic and cloud‑services powerhouse, operating the continent’s largest independent fibre network—spanning more than 110,000 km across 14 countries. By pairing subsea cable landing stations with terrestrial fibre, the company is helping lower latency, expand broadband access, and accelerate Africa’s digital transformation in sectors ranging from banking and mining to e‑commerce and public services.
- Zepz (formerly WorldRemit Group)
Sector: Fintech / Remittances
Status: Privately held (last public valuation: $5 billion, 2021)
Ownership: founded by Somali‑born entrepreneur Ismail Ahmed
Zepz is a leading digital cross‑border payments platform headquartered in the United Kingdom and founded by Somali‑born entrepreneur Ismail Ahmed. Focused on low‑cost, fast remittances, the company serves more than 5 million customers, with a particularly strong franchise among African diaspora communities sending money back home. In recent years the firm has ridden the boom in digital finance and rising intra‑Africa migration, helping it capture share from traditional money‑transfer operators while keeping fees and settlement times low.
- Onafriq (formerly MFS Africa)
Sector: Fintech / Payments
Status: Privately held
Ownership: founded by Beninese entrepreneur Dare Okoudjou
Onafriq is a leading digital payments hub connecting mobile money wallets across Africa. Headquartered in the UK and founded by Beninese entrepreneur Dare Okoudjou, the platform bridges payment systems in over 35 African countries, facilitating seamless cross-border financial services on the continent.
- Flutterwave
Sector: Fintech / Payments
Status: Privately held (U.S. legal base)
Ownership: founded by Olugbenga Agboola
Flutterwave is one of Africa’s most valuable fintech startups, legally domiciled in the U.S. but operationally rooted in Nigeria. Founded by Nigerians Olugbenga Agboola and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, the company powers payment infrastructure across Africa and supports global merchants engaging African markets.
- Wave Mobile Money
Sector: Fintech / Payments
Status: Privately held and founded by Drew Durbin and Lincoln Quirk
Wave is a U.S.-founded fintech that dominates mobile money services in francophone Africa. Founded by Drew Durbin and Lincoln Quirk, it combines African-focused operations with diaspora-backed investment and governance, and is a leading low-cost mobile money platform in countries like Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire.
- Sendwave
Sector: Fintech / Remittances
Status: Privately held
Sendwave is a major U.S.-based remittance platform serving African corridors. Co-founded by members of the African diaspora, it has carved out a strong niche in low-fee remittances to West and East Africa, leveraging digital channels for faster, cheaper money transfers.
- Chipper Cash
Sector: Fintech / Payments
Status: Privately held (last known valuation: $2 billion, 2021)
Chipper Cash is a pan-African cross-border payments app founded by Ugandan Ham Serunjogi and Ghanaian Maijid Moujaled. Headquartered in San Francisco, it enables free peer-to-peer transfers across several African countries and has expanded into crypto and global remittances.
