₦airaland Forum

The global tech ecosystem is being reshaped by Nigerian entrepreneurs who are scaling multi-billion-dollar enterprises across continents.

From fintech to robotics, these innovators are proving that solutions born in Africa’s largest economy can thrive on the world stage.

Their ventures are not just local fixes — they are structural innovations studied and adopted worldwide.

Nigeria’s entrepreneurial energy, forged in a problem-dense environment, has become a launchpad for global expansion.

Many founders are now establishing headquarters in the United Kingdom, leveraging its financial and regulatory infrastructure while maintaining deep operational ties to Nigeria. This hybrid model allows them to serve both African and international markets seamlessly.

The result is a growing wave of Nigerian-founded startups making their mark in the UK. These companies are driving change in fintech, mobility, SaaS, and artificial intelligence, while also creating opportunities for collaboration between Africa and Europe.

Below, we spotlight ten standout ventures that began or are headquartered in the UK.

1. LemFi
LemFi, formerly known as Lemonade Finance, is an international remittance and multi-currency platform designed to give immigrants seamless access to financial services. Founded in 2020 by Ridwan Olalere(CEO) and Rian Cochran (CFO), the company has quickly established itself as a trusted solution for cross-border payments.

With its global headquarters in London, LemFi has secured a £100 million investment commitment to strengthen its UK operations. This strategic positioning allows the company to tap into Europe’s financial hub while maintaining strong ties to Africa.

Beyond the UK, LemFi operates regional offices in Nigeria, the US, and Canada, ensuring that its services remain accessible to millions of users worldwide. Its mission is clear: to simplify money transfers for immigrants and bridge financial gaps across continents.

2. Kuda
Kuda Technologies Limited, headquartered in London, is a digital-only bank that has revolutionized banking for Africans both at home and abroad. Co-founded in 2019 by Babs Ogundeyi and Musty Mustapha, Kuda offers a mobile-first platform that eliminates the need for physical branches.

The bank holds a national microfinance licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria, enabling it to serve individuals and SMEs with innovative financial products. Its services include free transfers, budgeting tools, and instant access to loans.

By combining UK incorporation with Nigerian regulatory approval, Kuda has positioned itself as a hybrid institution that bridges the gap between African consumers and global financial systems.

3. SendOva
SendOva is a London-based remittance platform built to eliminate hidden fees and prioritize customer empathy. Founded by Olufemi Anthony Olaogun in 2022, the fintech operates under Balazoo Express Ltd.

Olaogun’s personal experience of high fees and delays when sending money home inspired him to create a platform that offers better exchange rates and real-time support. Growing up in Lagos before relocating to the UK, he understood firsthand the frustrations faced by immigrants.

Today, SendOva provides Nigerians in the UK with instant, fee-free transfers back home. Its localized customer service and transparent pricing have made it a trusted alternative in the remittance space.

4. NippyBot
Founded in 2025 by Samson Adewole, NippyBot is a UK-based robotics startup focused on autonomous delivery solutions. The company builds compact, fully-electric robots designed to safely deliver food, parcels, and essential goods.

Equipped with depth sensors, AI autonomy, and intelligent mapping, NippyBot robots navigate pedestrian environments such as campuses, business parks, and residential estates. This innovation addresses the growing demand for efficient last-mile logistics.

By merging robotics with AI, NippyBot is positioning itself as a pioneer in sustainable urban delivery systems, with potential applications across healthcare, retail, and education.

5. Reach Industries
Reach Industries, formerly Reach Robotics, is a Bristol-based company co-founded by Chris Beck and Nigerian robotics engineer Silas Adekunle. Adekunle is best known for creating MekaMon, the world’s first intelligent gaming robot.

The company now focuses on industrial automation, offering cloud-based platforms that streamline experimental planning, data capture, and protocol execution. Its solutions integrate robotics with advanced software to improve efficiency in laboratories and manufacturing.

By shifting from consumer robotics to industrial applications, Reach Industries has carved out a niche in precision technology and data-driven automation.

6. MoneyHive
MoneyHive is a fintech startup founded by Nigerian product leader Ayodeji Jegede in the UK. The platform connects remittances directly to verified bill payments, ensuring that funds are used for essentials like rent, school fees, and healthcare.

Jegede’s decade-long experience in banking and fintech revealed a gap between remittance flows and service quality. He saw the challenge as an infrastructure problem rather than a lack of demand.

MoneyHive’s model ensures that families benefit directly from remittances, reducing misuse and enhancing financial accountability.

7. Torilo Group
Torilo Group began in the UK as a database and systems management firm before expanding into a full-fledged technology conglomerate. Founded by Oluwaseun Farinre with Joe Odunayo as Managing Partner, the company has worked with major clients like Telegraph Media Group and Sony.

In 2021, Torilo launched Bizedge, a productivity tool offering HR, accounting, payroll, and asset management services. The platform also generates error-free documents, making it a comprehensive business solution.

With its headquarters in the UK and strong ties to Nigeria, Torilo continues to scale its operations across multiple industries.

8. Foundervine
Foundervine is a UK-based platform co-founded in 2018 by Izzy Obeng and Cecil Adjalo. The organization accelerates the growth of entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds by connecting them to mentors, investors, and peers.

The platform has helped thousands of founders launch tech companies, build skills, and secure millions in investment capital. Its mission is to democratize entrepreneurship and create inclusive opportunities.

By fostering diversity in tech, Foundervine is reshaping the startup ecosystem in both the UK and Nigeria.

9. Askam AI Solutions
Askam AI Solutions was founded by Nigerian entrepreneurs Babajide Fakile and Emmanuel Mark Jonah. The company develops advanced AI solutions tailored to emerging markets.

Its flagship product, Askam.ai, is a chatbot that operates through WhatsApp and supports local languages like Yoruba and Pidgin English. This localization makes AI more accessible to everyday users.

By focusing on education and software engineering, Askam AI Solutions is democratizing AI technology and driving adoption across Africa.

10. SendSprint
SendSprint is a global cross-border payments company founded in 2021 by former Flutterwave executive Damisi Busari.

Headquartered in London and Lagos, the platform is specifically designed to enable the African diaspora in the US, UK, and Canada to seamlessly send money and digital gift cards to family and friends in Africa.

Alongside core remittance services, the platform features “Sprint Connect,” which enables users to send gift cards and in-kind items to a network of local African retailers. In 2024, the company expanded its global footprint into the United States by acquiring the remittance firm Nobel Financial.

chopnaira:
https://nairametrics.com/2026/07/09/see-10-nigerian-founded-startups-driving-fintech-ai-growth-in-the-uk/

AustineE1:
These insecure op,you messed up a good post and a nice development by Nigerians in UK or British Nigerians by highlighting the names,it simply shows you want to massage your Yoruba ego and that's just essence of the thread....anyway we understand this cunning ways of promoting ethnic jingoism.
However,congrats to the Nigerians.
We move on!

AustineE1:
These insecure op,you messed up a good post and a nice development by Nigerians in UK or British Nigerians by highlighting the names,it simply shows you want to massage your Yoruba ego and that's just essence of the thread....anyway we understand this cunning ways of promoting ethnic jingoism.
However,congrats to the Nigerians.
We move on!

AustineE1:
These insecure op,you messed up a good post and a nice development by Nigerians in UK or British Nigerians by highlighting the names,it simply shows you want to massage your Yoruba ego and that's just essence of the thread....anyway we understand this cunning ways of promoting ethnic jingoism.
However,congrats to the Nigerians.
We move on!

oladapps:
This is beautiful, Nigerians are taking over this industry and it's lovely

datola:
Great!

Congratulations to all Omoluabis doing us proud all over the world.

anonimi:
David Hundeyin
May 4, 2022


I want to sell a script to a Hollywood studio. The story is about a guy who owns a farm that constantly runs at a loss but never quite shuts down.

The farm is massive and underutilised, and the protagonist has all the opportunities in the world to improve its output and get a bumper harvest.

He has access to credit, machinery, free irrigation and gifts from neighbouring farmers, but all he ever does with these things is drink and smoke them away while his family suffers.

Nigeria has refused to grow up and achieve something, but it somehow feels as if it is living vicariously through the achievements of its estranged children around the world

Apart from drinking, smoking and generally being utterly useless, his other pastime is to pump out children at an industrial rate. Needless to say, he takes no care of his children whatsoever, and many of them fail to survive childhood.

Those who do survive have to leave the farm and hire themselves out as hired labour to the neighbouring farmers, having picked up some survival skills from home.

With time, a number of them rise through the ranks and become senior managers, directors and even shareholders in these other farms while their father continues mismanaging his farm.

When good news about some of these successful children gets home, their father is filled with pride and joy, but when they end up on the wrong side of life, he acts as if he never knew them.

The successful ones make efforts to revamp their childhood home by sending back money and volunteering their skills and time, but all this guy ever wants to do is be a 62-year-old underachieving idiot carried through life by charity and luck.

Famzing” diaspora success is dishonest
I’m sure before the end of the second paragraph, you figured out whose story I was telling. The 62-year story of post-independence Nigeria — which the Hollywood studio would surely reject for being too sad with no redemption — is that of our fictional antihero.

Nigeria has refused to grow up and achieve something, but it somehow feels as if it is living vicariously through the achievements of its estranged children around the world.

Remember how everyone from corporate brands to Abike Dabiri made a big song and dance about supporting Anthony Joshua the “Nigerian,” whose only chance to become someone in life came when his parents emigrated from Nigeria?

Remember how things turned when he somehow lost against that chubby Mexican dude whose name I can’t remember? Remember when the Super Falcons won the female AFCON title and received a congratulatory tweet from the president, only for them to have to stage a protest before being paid their camp allowances?

That’s what we do in Nigeria. We try to live vicariously through the achievements of people who have achieved great things under their own steam, simply because said people happen to be called ‘Ifeoma,’ ‘Efe’ and ‘Ayotunde.’

Even when Nigeria had absolutely nothing to do with said success, or in fact happened in spite of Nigeria, as with Divine Oduduru, we bask in the reflected glory of their personal achievements.

Sometimes when those people wear a Nigerian flag or post something about Wizkid or Jollof Rice on Instagram, we go crazy with the Nigerian flag emojis because oh my god, they identify with us!

This is not about being a Killjoy
Somehow, the complete failure of Nigeria and our complicity in its failure is more bearable when we point at Nigerian immigrants doing great things in life and say “I knew Femi before he started calling himself Anthony.

His father and I were classmates in Aiyetoro.” It is unclear how exactly this helps our situation but hey, it’s also unclear how chugging the amount of alcohol we do helps either.

Escapism is a key part of our culture, and anyone who dissents must be a non-Jollof-eating, vegetarian heretic, and possibly also an atheist.

Now while all this is painfully cringey to my eyes, some will also point out that Nigeria is not the only country that has a weird obsession with its diaspora population.

Even ‘first-world’ countries like Ireland continue to have deep emotional and economic connections to their diaspora, and in any case Nigerians proudly supporting Anthony Joshua or the NBA’s Giannis Ante…African-sounding-name is basically harmless fun. They’re not hurting anyone. Why be such a killjoy, David?

The reason this matters can be found in a quote that has been dubiously attributed to Russian President Vladmir Putin, where he describes Africa as the place where its diaspora does not invest in, but returns to only to die and be buried with their ancestors.

While there is no concrete evidence that Mr. Putin ever actually made that comment, the truth in it is painfully poignant.

For diaspora success to be meaningful to Nigeria, it must correlate to on-ground results in Nigeria. The example of Somalia shows that having a well-educated, globally successful diaspora while being an absolute basket case are both possible at the same time.

I’d imagine we do not aspire to be Somalia.

oladapps:
This is beautiful, Nigerians are taking over this industry and it's lovely

AustineE1:
These insecure op,you messed up a good post and a nice development by Nigerians in UK or British Nigerians by highlighting the names,it simply shows you want to massage your Yoruba ego and that's just essence of the thread....anyway we understand this cunning ways of promoting ethnic jingoism.
However,congrats to the Nigerians.
We move on!

chopnaira:
https://nairametrics.com/2026/07/09/see-10-nigerian-founded-startups-driving-fintech-ai-growth-in-the-uk/

AustineE1:
These insecure op,you messed up a good post and a nice development by Nigerians in UK or British Nigerians by highlighting the names,it simply shows you want to massage your Yoruba ego and that's just essence of the thread....anyway we understand this cunning ways of promoting ethnic jingoism.
However,congrats to the Nigerians.
We move on!

yommen:
Must you always cry when others are celebrating their own? If it's Igbos are basically involved now, you will still drag Yorubas into it to shame Yorubas. Yoruba celebrating Yoruba is still a problem for you. Has anyone stopped you from celebrating your own? See premium tears o! Na wa o!

Osariemen12:
While we commend the efforts of these hardworking Nigeria, we must frown at the deliberate attempt to fan the embers of tribal bigotry in two ways: highlighting the names of the selected Yoruba founders and ignoring the ones found by other Nigerians like Carbon, FinCode, Sparkle and MoniePoint.

AustineE1:
These insecure op,you messed up a good post and a nice development by Nigerians in UK or British Nigerians by highlighting the names,it simply shows you want to massage your Yoruba ego and that's just essence of the thread....anyway we understand this cunning ways of promoting ethnic jingoism.
However,congrats to the Nigerians.
We move on!