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Abidjan Startups to Watch in 2027: 4 Verified Côte d'Ivoire Companies in Fintech, Payments and E-commerce, Where They Get Support and Lessons for Founders

Abidjan Startups to Watch in 2027: Verified Fintech, Payments and Marketplace Companies in Côte d'Ivoire

Abidjan, the economic capital of Côte d'Ivoire, is where many of French-speaking West Africa's best-known fintech companies started. The 2026 version of this article listed ten names, but several of them were wrong: one e-commerce company had closed years ago, one payment company was described as an incubator, and four names could not be found anywhere. For this 2027 edition we checked every company again in November 2026 and kept only those whose own website, official app store listing or company registration confirms that they still operate and have their base in Abidjan. That leaves four companies. We did not pad the list; what happened to the other names is explained near the end.
Quick answer: the Abidjan startups to watch in 2027 are Djamo (a neobank founded in Abidjan in 2020 that says it has more than 1.5 million users), Julaya (a business account for payroll and supplier payments over mobile money), HUB2 (payment APIs that connect mobile money networks in nine countries) and Adjemin (a mobile marketplace from Cocody). For support, look at Impact Hub Abidjan, Orange Corners Côte d'Ivoire, the investor Janngo and the country's Label Startup Numérique.
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Why Abidjan Matters for Founders in 2027

Three things shape startups in Abidjan. The first is mobile money: most people pay and get paid through mobile wallets, so three of the four companies below either connect to those wallets or build products on top of them. The second is regional reach: Côte d'Ivoire uses the CFA franc of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), so a company that works in Abidjan can expand to Senegal, Benin, Togo or Mali without changing currency, as Djamo, Julaya and HUB2 have done. The third is a legal framework: Law 2023-901 of 23 November 2023 on the promotion of digital startups created a Label Startup Numérique, and on 12 March 2025 the Council of Ministers adopted the decree on the committee that grants it, according to the official Council of Ministers report.
Abidjan is a bigger ecosystem than the ones in our guides to Bamako startups, Conakry startups, Luanda startups, Maputo startups, Hargeisa startups and Mbabane startups. Each of those lists was checked the same way, so you can compare what works in different African cities.

Abidjan Startups to Watch in 2027 Compared

CompanyWhat it doesAbidjan baseLatest facts we cite
DjamoCurrent account, Visa card, savings, credit and investments in one appRue du 7 Décembre, Zone 4, Marcory (app listing)1.5 million+ users; Series B of USD 17 million in 2025
JulayaBusiness account for transfers, collections, supplier payments and payrollOffice in central Abidjan; also Dakar, Benin and Lomé10,000+ professionals use it; founded 2018
HUB2Pay-in, pay-out and remittance APIs for mobile moneyCocody Riviera 4 Golf (Ivorian company)Nine countries listed, from Côte d'Ivoire to Cameroon
AdjeminMobile marketplace with Mobile Money paymentsAngré 8e Tranche, Cocody (app listing)10,000+ Android downloads
Sources: each company's official website and official Google Play listing, checked 4 November 2026. Only Djamo publishes funding amounts.

The Abidjan Startups to Watch in 2027

1. Djamo: the neobank founded in Abidjan

Djamo offers a current account, a Visa card, savings, short-term credit of up to 1,000,000 CFA francs, investment funds, transfers to mobile money and banks, and bill payments in one app. According to its About page, Hassan Bourgi and Régis Bamba founded it in Abidjan in 2020. It joined Y Combinator's Winter 2021 batch, raised a USD 14 million Series A in 2023, launched in Senegal and added Djamo Business in 2024, and raised a USD 17 million Series B in 2025, when its Djamo Finances arm obtained a microfinance approval in Côte d'Ivoire. The same page counts more than 1.5 million users in French-speaking Africa, more than USD 30 million raised, more than 250 employees, more than USD 4.5 billion in transactions since launch and more than 10,000 businesses. Its Google Play listing names the developer as Djamo Côte d'Ivoire, Rue du 7 Décembre, Zone 4, Marcory, Abidjan, shows more than 5 million downloads and was updated on 19 October 2026. The Visa card is co-branded and issued by its partner banks, BGFIBank Côte d'Ivoire or Ecobank Côte d'Ivoire.
Lesson for founders: Djamo did not wait for its own banking licence: it launched with partner banks, won users, and then added licences for investment and microfinance step by step. In a regulated market, partners can get you to customers years before your own licence does.
Best for: fintech founders, and anyone building consumer apps for salaried workers in West Africa.

2. Julaya: a business account for payroll and supplier payments

Julaya gives companies and public institutions one account to send money to any mobile money network or bank, collect cash and mobile money deposits, pay suppliers and bills, and pay salaries, with approval levels, sub-accounts and accounting exports. Its home page says more than 10,000 professionals use Julaya and more than 700,000 payments and salaries are received through it each year. According to its About page, Julaya was founded in 2018, its name means "commerce" in Bambara, and it has an office in the heart of Abidjan plus offices in Dakar, in Fidjrossè in Benin and in Lomé; it works with partner banks in Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Benin and Togo. One detail matters if you plan to contract with it: its legal notice says the website is published by Julaya SAS, a French company registered in Bondy, near Paris. It does not publish funding figures.
Lesson for founders: Julaya sells to finance directors a cure for a daily pain: paying hundreds of workers in cash or one transfer at a time. B2B products that remove manual work from payroll and payments sell well in cash-heavy economies.
Best for: B2B fintech founders, and companies that pay many workers or suppliers in West Africa.
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3. HUB2: payment APIs for mobile money in nine countries

HUB2 is a payment company, not an incubator, as the old version of this article said. It sells APIs that let neobanks, payment providers and remittance companies collect payments (pay-in), send payouts (pay-out) and deliver international transfers across mobile money operators. Its home page lists Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Mali, Senegal, Togo, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Cameroon and Niger, and on 4 November 2026 its counter showed more than 936 billion CFA francs in cumulative volume. Its About page says HUB2 SAS was founded in 2017 and is based in Saint-Pierre on Réunion Island, France, while its Côte d'Ivoire legal notice names an Ivorian company with its registered office in Cocody Riviera 4 Golf, Abidjan, entered in the Abidjan trade register in 2020. It does not publish funding figures.
Lesson for founders: every mobile money operator has its own integration. HUB2 earns money by doing that hard, boring work once and selling it to every fintech that would otherwise repeat it. Look for the plumbing that everyone in your market rebuilds.
Best for: founders building payments, remittances or any product that must accept mobile money in several countries.
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4. Adjemin: a mobile marketplace from Cocody

Adjemin is an app for buying and selling from your phone. Sellers list products in categories such as fashion, cosmetics, phones and computers, and get paid by Mobile Money, and its Google Play listing promises buyers a money-back guarantee. The listing names the developer as Adjemin, Angré 8e Tranche, Cocody, Abidjan, shows more than 10,000 downloads and was last updated on 29 July 2025; the website lists products for sale in Abidjan neighbourhoods such as Yopougon and Angré. It is the smallest company on this list and does not publish funding figures.
Lesson for founders: in a market where buyers worry about paying strangers, a payment guarantee is part of the product. Build trust into the checkout, not only into the marketing.
Best for: founders in e-commerce, social selling and marketplaces.

Where Abidjan Startups Get Support

  • Impact Hub Abidjan: an entrepreneurial development company that has worked with entrepreneurs, SMEs, support organisations and public institutions in Côte d'Ivoire and French-speaking West Africa since 2019. Its site says it was founded by four women, and it is based in Riviera Bonoumin, inside DigiFemmes, Abidjan.
  • Orange Corners Côte d'Ivoire: a free six-month incubation programme for entrepreneurs aged 18 to 35 with a project under 24 months old in the cocoa or horticulture value chains. Thirty semi-finalists attend a two-day bootcamp and 20 are selected. Applications were closed when we checked; the form opens on its site before each cycle.
  • Janngo: a startup builder and venture capital investor with an office at 57 rue du Dr Blanchard, Abidjan, founded and chaired by Fatoumata Bâ. Its site says more than half of its portfolio is women-led.
  • Label Startup Numérique: the label created by Law 2023-901 of 23 November 2023. A committee under the ministry in charge of digital affairs validates and monitors it; its decree was adopted on 12 March 2025. Check the ministry's current application process before you count on the label's benefits.
  • Ivoire Tech Forum: the 2026 edition was set for 11 to 13 November 2026 at the Sofitel Abidjan Hôtel Ivoire, with Rwanda as guest country, a deal room for investors and 6,000 to 8,000 expected participants, according to its site.

Abidjan Companies From the Old List That Changed or Could Not Be Verified

The 2026 version of this article listed ten names and linked to ranking sites instead of the companies. Here is what we found when we checked each one, and a few other well-known names, in November 2026:
  • Afrimarket: the cross-border e-commerce company was filed for judicial liquidation at the Paris commercial court in September 2019, according to Digital Business Africa. It no longer operates, so it was removed.
  • Hub2.Io: it is a payment API company, not an incubator, and now appears on the list above with correct facts.
  • CinetPay: a well-known payment company, but its website refused our automated checks, so we could not confirm its facts on an official page. We will add it once we can.
  • OmniRetail: its website gives only a Lagos, Nigeria address and does not mention Côte d'Ivoire, so it is not an Abidjan company.
  • Nélipharm, Pay'Afrique, eWaste Africa and Ivorian TechStars: we found no official website, registry entry or press release for these names, so they were removed with the claims made about them.
  • Kamtar: the truck booking platform's website still runs but names no city, and LaunchBase Africa reported on 9 October 2025 that Logidoo, a logistics company founded in Morocco, had acquired it.
  • Afrikrea: its own story page says it opened in Abidjan in 2016, but its terms say it is now run by Afrikrea LLC, a Delaware company, so it is no longer an Abidjan-based startup.
  • Kubeba, Coliba and Etudesk: the kubeba.com address now shows an unrelated news blog, and the websites of Coliba and Etudesk did not load when we checked.
  • Kaydan and Seedspace: Kaydan Groupe presents itself as a diversified group with technology, real estate and finance divisions, not a startup, and the Seedspace address now redirects to the Seedstars website, so we found no current Seedspace Abidjan page.
We also removed the old article's unsourced figures and claims, such as an account count for Djamo with no date, and general statements about political stability and the consumer market.

Which Abidjan Startup Should You Learn From?

  • You build a consumer fintech: study Djamo, which launched with partner banks and added its own approvals over time.
  • You sell software to companies: study Julaya, which solves payroll and supplier payments for finance teams.
  • You build infrastructure: study HUB2, which connects many mobile money operators through one API.
  • You run a marketplace: study Adjemin, which uses Mobile Money and a buyer guarantee to win trust.
  • You are just starting: talk to Impact Hub Abidjan, watch for the next Orange Corners Côte d'Ivoire call, and meet investors at the Ivoire Tech Forum.
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How Founders Use Abidjan's Startup Scene

Notice where the money comes from: Djamo is the only company on this list that publishes funding rounds, and most young companies start with programmes, grants and revenue. If you build in Abidjan, see our lists of grants for female entrepreneurs and grants for early-stage startups, compare accelerators for female entrepreneurs, and when you are ready for investors, read our guide to early-stage VC firms.
If you are still choosing where to build, compare Côte d'Ivoire in our guides to the best countries for early-stage startups, the best countries for female entrepreneurs and the best cities for early-stage startups, and meet founders and investors at startup events for female entrepreneurs.
Before you copy any of these business models, validate your startup idea with real customers. Then make your startup easy to find: publish your startup press release and write about your product with the F/MS AI SEO Tool or the AI SEO Blog so customers, investors and AI assistants can find you.

FAQ About Abidjan Startups to Watch in 2027

Which Abidjan startups should I watch in 2027?

Our verified list: Djamo, Julaya, HUB2 and Adjemin. Each still operates and has its base in Abidjan, checked on its own website, app store listing or legal notice in November 2026.

Why are there only four startups on this list?

We only list companies whose official pages confirm that they operate from Abidjan. Some names on the old list had closed, moved or could not be found, and some well-known companies had websites that blocked our checks or did not load.

Which is the biggest fintech startup in Abidjan?

Of the companies we could verify, Djamo publishes the largest figures: more than 1.5 million users, more than USD 30 million raised, including a USD 17 million Series B in 2025, and more than 250 employees.

Is Julaya an Ivorian company?

Julaya has an office in central Abidjan and offices in Dakar, Benin and Lomé, and works with partner banks in four UEMOA countries. Its website is published by Julaya SAS, which is registered in France.

What does HUB2 do?

HUB2 sells payment APIs for collecting payments, sending payouts and delivering remittances across mobile money operators in nine countries. Its Ivorian company has its registered office in Cocody Riviera 4 Golf, Abidjan.

Are there female-led investors and hubs in Abidjan?

Yes. Janngo, with an office in Abidjan, was founded by Fatoumata Bâ and says more than half of its portfolio is women-led, and Impact Hub Abidjan says it was founded by four women.

Where can Abidjan startups get support?

Impact Hub Abidjan, Orange Corners Côte d'Ivoire (a free six-month programme for cocoa and horticulture entrepreneurs aged 18 to 35), the investor Janngo and the Label Startup Numérique created by Law 2023-901.

What is the Label Startup Numérique?

A label for digital startups created by Côte d'Ivoire's Law 2023-901 of 23 November 2023. The decree on the committee that grants and withdraws it was adopted by the Council of Ministers on 12 March 2025.

What happened to Afrimarket and the other old names?

Afrimarket was placed in liquidation in 2019. Nélipharm, Pay'Afrique, eWaste Africa and Ivorian TechStars could not be found on any official page, and OmniRetail gives only a Lagos address.

Where can I get a backlink by writing about my startup?

You can publish a guest post in one of the Fe/male Switch startup blogs, which rank in Google and in AI tools. Get a quality backlink.

About the Author

Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
2026-11-04 04:51 Best Startups