African Startups to watch in 2026

As 2025 draws to a close, the newsroom at Condia has indeed been busy. We have spoken to founders and investors about what new and exciting startups are to be pumped in the new year. The startups, listed in no particular order, are below:

1. Skeepy

[Image: Skeepy CEO, James Ogunjimi.]

Founded in May 2025 by CEO James Ogunjimi, after operating 13 months under stealth, Skeepy is Nigeria’s first pet HMO. Healthcare solutions are typically known to be for humans, but Skeepy is pioneering the collection of premiums for the well-being of pets.

The mission is wider than just subscriptions, but also about generating a national database of pets. The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) confirmed they lack jurisdiction over animal health products, leaving companies like Skeepy– to be the first– to navigate compliance through existing insurance and veterinary regulations. On the grand scale, success is imminent. And even if they have the modest ambition of servicing 3,000 pets initially…the business has only just begun as a pioneer and first mover.

Quarterly and annual subscriptions provide coverage for routine care and emergency procedures, with surgical caps ranging from ₦200,000 ($129) to ₦800,000 ($518) depending on the plan tier. While the pet insurance market is nascent in West Africa, Skeepy’s ability to educate the market while building a proprietary database could make it the default infrastructure for veterinary care in the region by late 2026.

2. Pewbeam

[Image: Pewbeam Founder, Dara Sobaloju. Source: LinkedIn]

If you are familiar with Easy Worship and the numerous woes the church media team suffers …well, you may have finally got the answer to all your struggles. Pewbeam AI is essentially the Easy Worship Pro Max that can display a Bible passage in seconds after hearing phrases of the Scripture. Whether you get the correct verse or not, as long as you can spew a few keywords to the AI, you will see the Bible passages appear on the screen.

Founded by Dara Sobaloju, a product development lead at Treepz, this innovative AI is on its way to becoming as popular as YouVersion or the Bible Project. What is even more interesting about the product is that it can be accessed offline—a critical feature for regions with unstable internet. It is yet to be figured out how Sobaloju would make money after working hard on this product he decided to build publicly. But the scale is expected to improve in 2026 as churches look to modernise their liturgy without the heavy hardware costs.

3. Xara AI

[Image: Xara AI Founder, Sulaiman Adewale. Source: TechParley]

For all of the talk about “too much Fintech” in the ecosystem, Xara AI makes a very comfortable case why faster settlements will always win. Opay and Palmpay have remained undisputed in this, empowered by the scarcity of the naira, but Xara is betting on familiarity.

Built as an AI-powered WhatsApp assistant, Xara AI allows users to send money, pay bills, and track spending—directly inside WhatsApp, which is used by the majority of Nigeria’s social media population. Founded by Sulaiman Adewale, Xara leverages the “chat-to-pay” model that has seen massive success in markets like Brazil and India. The critical test for 2026 will be trust; if Xara can convince users that a WhatsApp bot is as secure as a bank app, its lower barrier to entry could see it cannibalise the market share of traditional agency banking.

4. Sun King

[Image: Co-founders of Sun King, Patrick Walsh and Anish Thakka. Source: Business Insider]

While not a new name to the African tech scene, Sun King (formerly Greenlight Planet) is entering a critical new phase in 2026 that demands attention. The solar giant, led by co-founder T. Patrick Walsh, has announced aggressive plans to expand clean energy access to Nigeria by 2026. Not African by descent, the business has made emerging economies across Asia and Africa its market.

Moving from distribution to manufacturing is a massive logistical leap. The initiative, in partnership with the Nigerian Rural Electrification Agency (REA), aims to substitute $150 million in annual imports. If successful, Sun King won’t just be an energy provider; it will become a cornerstone of West African industrialisation. The watch-out factor here is execution: can they navigate the complex Nigerian manufacturing landscape where others have struggled? If they pull it off, they unlock a level of vertical integration that no other off-grid solar player possesses.

5. Clarrio. AI

[Image: Clarrio.ai team. Source: Google]

Originally launched as Knowlepsy, Clarrio has rebranded and pivoted with a wider, more ambitious lens. Founded by Firas Rhaiem, the startup aggregates health data to manage chronic diseases, starting with epilepsy but expanding rapidly. The platform uses AI to interpret signals from wearables and environmental data to predict health crises before they happen.

Clarrio is worth watching in 2026 because of its recent strategic shift toward the US market while maintaining its R&D roots in Africa. Having raised pre-seed funding from a network of angels and executives from Google and Microsoft, they are tackling the “fragmented data” problem in healthcare. The critical assessment? Data privacy regulations are tightening globally. Clarrio’s success will depend on its ability to navigate these legal frameworks while proving to insurers that their predictive model actually lowers hospital visits.

6. Storipod

[Image: Storipod Founder, James Nelson. Source: LinkedIn]

The creator economy in Africa has often lacked one thing: a reliable middle class of writers who actually get paid. Storipod, founded by James Nelson, is trying to fix this by building the “Substack for Africa” but with better payment rails.

After a gruelling journey of building and pivoting, Storipod found its footing by partnering with crypto-exchange Busha to enable instant stablecoin payouts for creators—solving the cross-border payment headache that plagues African creatives. In 2026, the platform is poised to move beyond just a writing tool to a full-fledged media ecosystem. The challenge remains user retention in a text-averse era, but if Nelson can make reading “as addictive as scrolling,” Storipod could be the breakout media-tech play of the year.