10 Nigerian startups to watch in 2025

When we hear the words startups and fintechs, our minds picture the popular and widely mentioned Opay, Flutterwave, Jumia, Moniepoint, Bamboo, or Chowdeck. While these startups are making waves in their respective environment by implementing creative solutions to everyday difficulties, they aren’t the only ones. 

From e-commerce to seamless payment, logistics, AI, edtech, health, and supply chain, startups are revolutionizing these fields by turning market gaps into opportunities, launching rebranding initiatives, and rediscovering new strategies.

Considering the world’s progressive order, startups face off while others emerge. This article will focus on the latter as it ventures into 10 Nigerian startups to watch in 2025. 

Read Also: Funding: African startups raised $50 million in March, lowest since 2020

The 10 Nigerian startups to watch in 2025

These startups were not selected randomly, they were picked based on their recent milestones, impacts, approach to market, and plans. These are adjudged to have shown significant numbers that count for market potential and impact. 

Notably, the order is not by ranking, as this is a random list of 10 Nigerian Startups to watch out for in 2025. 

Having cleared that, let’s delve into business!

Golemon

Golemon is a startup that delivers groceries and household items. The young Nigerian startup was launched in 2024 by four former senior managers at Paystack: Yinka Adewuyi, Gbadegbo Gbade-Oyelakin, Abdulrahman Jogbojogbo, and Abiola Showemimo. 

With existing firms in the market such as Glovo, Mano, and Chowdeck, YC-backed Golemon faces stiff competition. Despite this, Jogbojogbo – who leads the startup’s growth- believes this is the best time to start a grocery delivery business. 

GoLemon manages its inventory and fulfillment centres by directly sourcing bulk products from farmers and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) companies. The young firm has built a sourcing network connected directly to farmers and manufacturers and optimises for the lowest costs possible to attract a customer base.

The startup caters to large orders and was intentionally designed around people who make repeat orders, repeat purchases, and large basket-size orders.

To expand, Golemon introduced a next-day delivery service in November 2024. This replaced its previous two days’ delivery. To improve efficiency, it also introduced overnight shopping (picking and packing), early morning quality checks, and real-time inventory management. 

Golemon currently operates in Lagos across locations such as Alimosho, Maryland & Ilupeju, Berger, Ogudu & GRA, Gbagada, Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Shomolu, Lekki, Yaba, Ikeja, Surulere and so on.

According to the startup, it serves 1000+ households with 7,000+ products at a delivery cost of N300.

Crunchbase growth prediction in 2025 – 90%

Mira

Launched in 2022 by Ted Oladele, a former VP of design and innovation at Flutterwave, Mira’s QR code payment platform lets you pay for food instantly. It allows customers to pay using bank transfer, Apple Pay, or debit card.

Also, Mira offers online vendors a link for customers to order directly from Instagram or WhatsApp, eliminating the fees charged by third-party food delivery platforms. With popular restaurants such as Coffee & Co, Ni Fries, Grey Matter, and Dulce Cafe, Mira offers an all-in-one point-of-sale system.

While it hopes to create a world where users can browse digital menus, place orders, and even split the bill from the tip of their phone, the startup faces stiff competition from established players like Flutterwave and Paystack.

As of 2024, the startup claims to have 100+ Lagos restaurants on its platform, an annual subscription fee of N15,000 and a 2% per processed order. It also extends its service to supermarkets, pharmacies, and fashion vendors.

The startup raised $200,000 from family and friends and has already processed over $60,000.

Crunchbase growth prediction in 2025 – 80%

Carbin Africa 

Launched in 2023 by two ex-Cars45 employees, Femi Oriowo and Fawaz Abdul, Carbin Africa is digitising car inventory and sales processes for car merchants and dealerships in Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest car market. 

Presently, the car market relies heavily on middlemen or auto merchants, as Carbin calls them. These individuals know where you can find a good Nigerian-used Toyota Camry or who deals in good UK-used vehicles, which makes them Carbin Africa’s prime target customers.

While end users might make a purchase, on average, once every few years, a middleman might sell two or three cars monthly. 

The founders created a digital marketplace that changed the traditional way of buying: visiting several small and medium-sized dealerships, finding listings in a newspaper, attending a car auction, or knowing someone who had a car they were looking to sell.

So far, the startup has onboarded more than 250 Lagos car dealerships, across eight zones, and 1,000 middlemen, and generated a current digital inventory of about 1,700 cars—more than 90% of which are foreign- and Nigerian-used vehicles. With an update time of 30 minutes, the startup described itself as the “largest real-time car inventory in Lagos.”

So far, the startup has raised $300,000 in pre-seed funding from early-stage venture capital firm, 54Collective and crossed ₦1 billion in Gross Merchandise Volume.

A 2025 goal for the startup is to onboard at least 400 of the 500 car dealerships and expand its reach to cities like Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Kano, Kaduna, and West Africa. It also aims to reach or surpass ₦5 billion with a 10% take rate.

Crunchbase growth prediction in 2025 – 96%

Earthbond

Founded in 2023 by Chidalu Onyenso, Earthbond is a platform that connects urban Nigerians with affordable financing for clean, reliable energy. The Lagos-based startup leverages group financing and carbon accounting to lower costs and risk of energy transition in Nigeria’s $14B fuel-based, off-grid generator market.

Considering the need for businesses and households to find alternatives to Nigeria’s epileptic power supply and save the cost of fuel, Earthbond provides energy at an affordable monthly rate (installment).

By creating a self-filtered navigation, the startup partners with solar providers to audit and design a system that fits the customer’s needs and budget. With this information, it matches a customer to an asset or solar financing product provided by various capital providers across the market.

Since its launch, Earthbond has raised $245.8k from 4 investors, the latest and largest being Madica’s $200k pre-seed funding in October 2024. Others are Girls in Tech ($5k), Harvard Rock Center & ILab ($15.8k) and ACCEL Program by Greentown Labs and Browning the Greenspace ($25k).

Earthbond has served over 400 businesses, generating 210 MWh of solar energy and saving up to N292 million. 

Crunchbase growth prediction in 2025 – 79%

Pullus Africa 

Poultry farmers often lose their farm produce to diseases that hinder them from building a profitable business. Pullus leverages data-driven technology to connect poultry farmers to affordable finance, better markets, advisory services, global best practices, and quality inputs.

Co-founded in September 2022 by Opeoluwa Fayomu and Abisoye Odeyemi, Pullus is a VC-backed Kaduna-based startup that provides poultry farmers with electronic and physical support to enhance production quality via its platform, together with an extension team.

Referred to as Nigeria’s first poultry-only supply chain platform, Pullus Africa is changing the narrative by leveraging technology. It connects farmers to direct markets, credible inputs, insurance services, and credits.

The startup offers access to loan opportunities after two production periods and counseling opportunities.

So far, Pullus has 8,200 farmers, 32 partner vendors and 528 metric tons of chicken ordered. With a collection of partners such as 54 Collective, Loyal VC, and SAIS Accelerator, it raised a $150,000 pre-seed round in 2023 and an undisclosed seed round in January 2024.

Crunchbase growth prediction in 2025 – 81% 

Vendy

Vendy, a YC-backed e-commerce marketplace, provides customized WhatsApp shops for sellers to allow buyers to browse inventory, place orders with automated invoicing, and make payments.

Founded in 2022 by Kayode Disu and Peter Ekunkoya, Vendy plans to transform the way commerce is done in Africa.

They saw the potential of WhatsApp, where businesses and customers interact, and envisioned a solution to consolidate buying, selling, and payments on a single platform. The Lagos-based startup creates a platform where vendors can sell quickly to interested buyers with their Shop Link or QR code.

The startup’s investors include Hero Capital and Voltron Capital. It raised $1,200,000 in late 2022. 

Crunchbase growth prediction in 2025 – 83%

Talstack

Seni Sulyman and Kayode Oyewole co-founded Talstack in 2023 with the core conviction that Africa’s greatest potential will come from enabling African firms to compete worldwide by investing heavily in talent growth and development over the next 10 years.

The startup seeks to holistically upskill the growing sub-Saharan African workforce. With only 33% of tech jobs globally filled with the required personnel, this made them view investment in technology as a priority area.

As a B2B company, Talstack works with companies by selling learning content. Employees can then pick what they want to learn by selecting areas of interest. The courses are pre-recorded. It also has a pre-assessment test that employees can use to help build their unique learning path. 

Compared to renowned platforms like Coursera or Udemy, Talstack redesigned the learning process by breaking it down into small chunks of five minutes or less. The courses are also made relatable: taught by Africans for Africans, and pre-recorded.

In 2023, the firm secured $850,000 in pre-seed funding from Ventures Platform, TLcom, Voltron Capital, Golden Palm Investments, and a syndicate of angel investors.

Crunchbase growth prediction in 2025 – 83%

Vesti

Co-founded by two brothers, Olusola Amusan and Abimbola Amusan in 2020, Vesti provides comprehensive legal and financial services for immigrants, including AI-powered support, remittances, and foreign exchange.

The company’s mission is to empower one billion immigrants worldwide. Following successful expansions to Ghana, Zambia, the UK, and Kenya, Vesti also plans to enter Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan in 2025.

In 2024, Vesti opened a state-of-the-art software engineering office in Lagos, a ₦1 billion investment in Nigeria’s traveltech sector.

Having raised $2 million in initial funding, Vesti is scaling rapidly with its new $50 million funding round. It is planning a Series A funding round in 2025 to scale its global footprint.

According to its founders, the startup plans to collaborate with tech giants like Tesla and Microsoft to source global talent and address workforce shortages. These partnerships could open additional revenue streams worth $10 billion annually, based on talent placement fees and enterprise solutions.

Crunchbase growth prediction in 2025 – 98%

Tyms Africa 

Tyms Africa is a Lagos-based startup revolutionizing bookkeeping and accounting for African businesses. The company streamlines accounts payable, accounts receivable, and general accounting.

It was founded in late 2021 by Ibrahim Adepoju, a seasoned software engineer, and Chineye Ochem, a chartered accountant. Both founders have extensive experience in information technology and financial accounting with organizations like PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited (PwC), Sterling Assets Management and Trustees Limited.

Most African businesses neglect accounting for other aspects such as business development, sales, and raising capital. Tyms noted that the failure of many startups and small businesses can be traced to poor financial management and inefficient unit economics. 

Tyms Book’s all-in-one business financial management suite helps finance managers automate their accounting efforts. Besides its software service, the startup also connects business owners who do not have a finance team with financial advisors and experts.

Tyms Africa has secured undisclosed funding from local and international investors: Tekedia Capital, Hoaq, SGGrow (Singapore), Azarel, and angels like Hiro Mashita, Honda Yuzuru (CEO of Freakout Holdings Inc., Singapore) and a few other family and friends.

The team has also participated in Seedstars and Google for Startups non-equity support programmes.

In 2025, Tyms plans to integrate AI into its processes, as announced by Ochem on LinkedIn. This upgrade will enable users to generate income statements directly from uploaded PDF bank statements, enhancing efficiency.

Crunchbase growth prediction in 2025 – 85%

Middleman

From the word, Midddleman is an e-commerce website that solves the problem of trust among vendors and customers by performing the function of a “middleman” literally.

Co-founded by Omolara Sanni and Adeola Owosho in 2023, the startup holds customers’ payments until they confirm that their purchase has been completed and delivered successfully.

Three months after its launch, the Middleman discovered a new space to explore its payment solution mechanism. It launched the ‘Remit by Middleman’, a channel for e-commerce entrepreneurs who import from China and pay their suppliers in RMB – Renminbi (China’s currency).

Through the China Alipay Wallets, transactions are facilitated within a minimum of 10 minutes and a maximum of 30 minutes. It will later extend this service to Vietnam and Bangladesh.

Since its launch, the startup has won grants like the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) HERccelerate, First Bank Fintech Innovators Pitch, and the PitchHER competition organised by Wetech.

The startup boasts over N1 billion in total transaction volume and over 5,000 users.

Crunchbase growth prediction in 2025 – 81%.