VerifyMe Listed As Notable Startup and Ecosystem Champion in StartupBlink Report

VerifyMe Listed As Notable Startup and Ecosystem Champion in StartupBlink Report

Digital identity and open finance infrastructure company, VerifyMe Nigeria, has been listed as one of Nigeria’s Notable Startups and Ecosystem Champions in the Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2021 released by StartupBlink recently.

The annual report is a comprehensive startup ecosystem ranking of 1000 cities across 100 countries using artificial technology and data crowdsourced from the StartupBlink Global Startup Ecosystem Map. Supplementary data is collated from global partners including Crunchbase, The Joint United Nations Program, Health Innovation Exchange and Semrush, in addition to nearly 100 Ecosystem Partners worldwide.

Reacting to the listing, Esigie Aguele, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of VerifyMe, stated that the recognition validates the pivotal intervention the Nigerian startup ecosystem is making in building critical infrastructure that is enabling industry growth and attracting positive global attention to the country.

He said: “We are delighted at VerifyMe’s listing as a notable startup and ecosystem champion in Nigeria by StartupBlink. Added to the overall significant ranking of other local stakeholders in the country and city categories, we are excited at the strides the Nigerian startup ecosystem is making in providing solutions to local problems which is enabling business, promoting inclusion, lowering transaction costs, and driving innovation.

“As a company, VerifyMe has remained focused in its mission to build a credible and trust-based identity system backed by strong KYC infrastructure to help grow businesses and strengthen economies across Africa.”

Other listed local startups are payment infrastructure FinTech and Flutterwave. Nigeria moved five spots from the previous year to rank 63rd globally for countries: the highest ranking in West Africa and 3rd in Africa. At 122nd position, Lagos, Nigeria, is the top startup city on the continent and ranks among the Top 50 cities for e-Commerce & Technology and in the global Top 100 for both Transportation Technology and Education Technology.

Overall, Nigeria has seven cities in the global 1000 ranking including Ibadan, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Benin, Kano and new entrant, Enugu. The report noted that with a massive consumer market and over 500 active startups, Nigeria is one of the largest startup ecosystems in Africa and continues to have the highest number of ranked cities of any country in the region.

VerifyMe recently announced a 40% growth in transaction volumes in its business month-on-month chiefly driven by its status as the only digital identity solutions provider with direct API linkage to government biometric-enabled databases.

Since entry into the market, the company has lowered transaction costs for businesses through leveraging technology and a wide agent network to gain economies of scale and pass savings on to customers. Plans are underway to expand into other territories as the company looks to drive compliance within key financial industry ecosystems and influence data standardization across the region.

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