An inaugural special report by Financial Times has ranked Wasoko (formerly Sokowatch) as Africa’s fastest growing company of 2022.
The report was compiled with Statista, a research company, and ranks African companies by their compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in revenue, between 2017 and 2020.
According to the report, Wasoko achieved the highest compound annual growth in revenues between 2017 and 2020 and, in March, raised $125mn in a Series B funding round.
“Kenya is the third most represented country in the ranking, with nine companies, behind South Africa (24) and Nigeria (20), and ahead of Egypt (six). These are also the markets that have attracted the most venture capital and where unicorns (companies valued at $1bn+) and would-be unicorns have proliferated.” the report reads.
Other Kenyan companies in the list include FloCash Ltd (2nd), Lori Systems Corp (7th), QuickMart (11th), Africa’s Talking (13th), Copia (20th), ASA International (32nd), East African Business (41st), MKopa (51st) and Impax Business Solutions (67th).
The inaugural Financial Times annual list of Africa’s Fastest Growing Companies provides a view of the corporate landscape in a continent where technology, fintech, and support-service industries have had to adjust to a drastically changed environment.
Many of the fastest-growing companies, particularly in the fintech industry, are those attempting to reach Africa’s unbanked population or areas that have historically been underserved or overlooked, according to the research.
According to the British newspaper, several corporations are absent from the list for a variety of reasons, including private companies’ refusal to provide their income statistics. The poll requires revenue figures to be certified by a CEO or other senior executive.
Companies having revenue of less than $100,000 in 2017 and less than $1.5 million by 2020, as well as subsidiaries and branches of other companies, were excluded.
