The tide is shifting for tech investors in Africa in 2025. A substantial percentage of this year’s startup investments is headed in one clear direction: super-niche B2B startups. The pattern, emerging through the first eight months of the year, signals a growing pivot in the continent’s tech ecosystem away from broad consumer plays toward highly specialised software solving acute business problems.

These companies are building the specialised tools — the “picks and shovels” — that enable entire industries to function more efficiently. The landscape is not a monolith but a collection of distinct, sophisticated niches. Based on an analysis of 2025 funding data, here is a taxonomy of the most active B2B SaaS categories defining the current investment cycle.

1. Financial Infrastructure & Embedded Finance (The “Plumbing”)

This remains the most heavily capitalised niche. Startups here are avoiding consumer-facing products to focus on the underlying APIs and platforms that allow any company to embed financial services.

Sub-Niche: Payments & Open Banking Infrastructure

• Example: In April, South Africa’s Stitch raised $55 million in a Series B funding round led by QED Investors to expand its open banking and payments API, cementing its role as foundational infrastructure. Egypt’s MoneyHash also raised $5.2M for its unified payment API.
• Rationale: As businesses demand seamless payment options and data connectivity, robust API solutions that abstract away banking complexity have become critical utilities.

Sub-Niche: Vertical-Specific Financial Operations

• Example: Morocco’s PayTic focuses exclusively on payment operations automation for financial institutions. In April, it landed $4M from investors, led by AfricInvest to pursue this. Armed with new $1.4M, Ghana’s Liquify is building a platform specifically for B2B trade finance.
• Rationale: This move toward specialised solutions addresses unique workflows and compliance requirements within single financial verticals, offering efficiency that generalist platforms cannot match.

Sub-Niche: Stablecoin-Powered Cross-Border Settlement Infrastructure

• Example: Kenyan fintech HoneyCoin is focusing exclusively on building payment infrastructure powered by stablecoins for enterprise cross-border settlements. In a recent seed round, it secured $4.9 million from a consortium led by Flourish Ventures. The company leverages blockchain rails to connect banks, mobile money systems, and global partners, offering same-day B2B settlements at lower costs than traditional correspondent banking. HoneyCoin already processes $150 million monthly, primarily from its B2B settlement services.
• Rationale: This move toward stablecoin-based infrastructure addresses the acute pain points of high cost and slow speed in traditional cross-border finance, particularly for businesses operating across emerging markets. By specializing in the underlying settlement rails rather than consumer-facing apps, these platforms offer a fundamental efficiency that generalist payment processors or banks cannot match. They navigate the unique complexities of blockchain integration, regulatory compliance across multiple jurisdictions, and connectivity to diverse financial systems like mobile money, providing a specialized utility for the growing digital economy.

2. Vertical-Specific Supply Chain & Procurement SaaS

A significant cluster of startups is moving beyond generic logistics marketplaces to digitise the highly specific procurement and distribution challenges of individual industries.

Sub-Niche: Healthcare & Pharma Logistics

• Example: In May, Egypt’s iSupply secured $3M for its dedicated pharmacy distribution platform, tackling stock-outs and inefficient ordering.
• Rationale: The pharmaceutical supply chain involves unique regulatory and cold-chain requirements that generalist platforms are ill-equipped to handle.

Sub-Niche: Construction & Raw Materials

• Example: Nigeria’s Cutstruct operates a procurement marketplace specifically for construction materials, connecting builders directly with suppliers. In May, it raised raised $1.5M seed round led by CRE Venture. 
• Rationale: The construction industry’s fragmentation and opacity create an opportunity for dedicated SaaS platforms to bring transparency and streamline complex purchasing processes.

Sub-Niche: Food & Hospitality (HoReCa)

• Example: Egypt’s Suplyd focuses on procurement and logistics for hotels, restaurants, and cafes. It recently raised $2M to scale this. 
• Rationale: The HoReCa sector’s reliance on frequent, reliable deliveries of perishable goods creates a clear gap for specialised inventory and logistics management software.

3. Developer Tools & Deep-Tech Enablement

The emergence of startups selling to other technologists represents a strong indicator of ecosystem maturity, requiring deep domain expertise.

Sub-Niche: AI/ML Infrastructure & Testing

• Example: Tunisia’s Thunders raised a $9M Seed round in June for its AI-powered software testing platform. Salus Cloud is also building AI-driven DevOps tools for cloud management.
• Rationale: As software development accelerates, demand is growing for tools that automate and improve the quality and efficiency of engineering teams, creating a market for global-quality products from Africa.

Sub-Niche: Core Hardware & Connectivity

• Example: Egypt’s InfiniLink is developing semiconductors for optical data connectivity, a rare deep-tech bet. In April, MediaTek, the Taiwanese fabless chip giant participated in its $10M Seed round. 
• Rationale: This signifies a move up the tech stack from applications to foundational hardware, addressing connectivity challenges at their most fundamental level.

4. Enterprise Productivity & Niche SaaS

This category encompasses startups “unbundling” large corporate functions by offering best-in-class, targeted software for specific operational needs.

Sub-Niche: HR & People Operations

• Example: Nigeria’s PaidHR raised $1.8M for its HR and payroll tech, while South Africa’s Jem HR secured $3.3M for its WhatsApp-integrated platform.
• Rationale: Managing distributed workforces creates universal demand for digital solutions that can replace manual processes and disparate systems.

Sub-Niche: Risk & Compliance Management

• Example: In March, South Africa’s Trade Shield raised $824,199 from FNB’s Vumela Enterprise Development Fund for its B2B credit risk management SaaS platform.
• Rationale: Growth in cross-border and domestic trade is driving need for sophisticated tools to assess partner creditworthiness and manage financial risk.

5. The “As-A-Service” Transformation

A powerful model emerging in 2025 involves offering complex, capital-intensive operations as a scalable service via software.

Sub-Niche: Energy & Sustainability Management

• Example: South Africa’s Zimi is building software for EV charging networks and raised funding in April from Energy and Environment Partnership (EEP) to scale this. Open Access Energy’s recent $1.8M funding is intended for its AI-based energy trading platform.
• Rationale: Businesses seeking to adopt green technologies require intelligent software layers to make these systems efficient and manageable without operational overhead.

The Investors Backing the Super-Niche B2B SaaS Thesis

The concentration of funding in these niches reveals distinct investment patterns. A clear division has emerged between generalist funds and those with deliberate vertical strategies.

Specialist VCs Lead Infrastructure Bets
US-based QED Investors’ participation in Stitch’s round further builds on its focus on foundational, API-driven fintech infrastructure. For Partech Africa, it has often demonstrated a pattern of backing platform-level plays across fintech and proptech. Egypt’s Nclude Fund shows heavy concentration on fintech and enabling technologies.

DFIs Anchor Climate and Energy Tech
Development finance institutions like Norfund and British International Investment (BII) remain cornerstone investors in capital-intensive climate tech, frequently co-investing in solar energy and moving into enabling technologies like e-mobility. Specialised venture firm E3 Capital has also positioned itself firmly in this niche.

Deep-Tech Vanguard Emerges
A smaller group of investors is backing complex B2B tech. P1 Ventures’ 2025 portfolio, including investments in developer tool Better Auth and AI DevOps platform Salus Cloud, demonstrates a high-conviction approach to technical founders. The participation of Peak XV Partners in Better Auth’s round signals global investor interest in African developer tools.

Vertical SaaS Enablers
Funds like 4DX Ventures show a clear thesis around digitising trade and commerce, backing companies like Suplyd (HoReCa procurement) and Taager (e-commerce enablement).

What the Taxonomy Reveals

This shift toward super-niche B2B SaaS points to several underlying trends:

• Founder Sophistication: Startups are increasingly led by founders with direct experience in the industries they digitise, often solving problems they encountered firsthand in roles at major tech companies or corporations.
• Investor Preference for SaaS Models: The predictable recurring revenue of SaaS models presents a clear attraction for investors, de-risking investments compared to volatile consumer markets.
• Symbiotic Corporate Relationships: These startups frequently enable rather than directly challenge large corporations. A bank can partner with a Stitch or PayTic to accelerate its digital offerings faster than building in-house, creating a symbiotic relationship that indicates a healthy, layered ecosystem.

Key Characteristics of These “Super-Niches”:

1. Deep Domain Expertise: Require specific industry knowledge that can’t be easily replicated.
2. High Technical Barriers: Often involve complex technology stacks.
3. Vertical Specificity: Target very specific industry pain points.
4. B2B Focus: Sell to businesses rather than consumers.
5. API-First Approach: Many are built as modular services that can integrate with existing systems.

The 2025 venture landscape in Africa is mostly being defined by specialists, not generalists. The focus seems to have shifted arguably for tech investors in Africa, from capturing the consumer to empowering the corporation through hyper-specific software B2B solutions now powered by teeming startups, marking a more sustainable phase of value creation in the continent’s tech evolution.

Explore the complete dataset of African VCs with capital still ready for deployment HERE.