As cybersecurity threats continue to rise across Africa, a growing number of startups are stepping up to tackle the region’s unique challenges.
From fraud prevention to threat intelligence, these companies are building solutions tailored to African markets and realities.
This feature highlights six promising cybersecurity and fraud prevention startups — Ocra Fraud, Sendmarc, Cypherleak, Smile ID, Defendis, and Community Wolf — each playing a vital role in protecting digital systems, data, and users across the continent.
1. Ocra fraud
Ocra Fraud is a South African-based startup founded by Carla Wilby and Thalia Pillay. As fraud continues to rise, Ocra fraud exists to halt fraud operations in the financial sector.
Founded in 2024, the startup has already built two products. They’re on course to becoming a leading African fraud prevention provider for businesses cost-effectively.
In terms of fundraising, Ocra Fraud raised $550k for their pre-seed round in 2024. Something described as the “largest pre-seed rounds ever by an all-women founding team in Africa”.
2. Sendmarc
Sendmarc is a South African cybersecurity startup focused on email security. Founded by Sam Hutchinson, Keith Thompson, and Sacha Matulovich in 2018, the company offers valuable email security solutions to individuals and organisations.
More importantly, Sendmarc protects an organisation’s domain from being used in email impersonation and phishing attacks.
As of 2023, the startup claimed to have over 1,000 paying customers across North America, Europe, Australia, South Africa, and Latin America.
They did secure a $7 million Series A funding in the same year.
3. Cypherleak
Cypherleak was founded by Moroccan entrepreneur Mohamed Amine Belarbi in 2022.
The company specializes in cyber risk monitoring and scoring, focusing on simplifying advanced risk monitoring for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Cypherleak raised a $750,000 seed round from investors based in Abu Dhabi, Morocco, and Qatar a year after it was founded.
Today, products built by Cypherleak are used by over 1000+ companies globally.
4. Smile ID
Smile ID is an African-focused cybersecurity startup co-founded by two non-African entrepreneurs. It was founded by Mark Straub and William Bares in 2017.
Nonetheless, Smile ID provides the best Africa-focused solutions for real-time Digital KYC, Identity Verification, User Onboarding, Document Verification, Liveness Checks, Face Verification, Anti-fraud, Know your Business (KYB), and Identity Data Deduplication across Africa.
They also provide seasonal reports on Africa’s unique trends in identity verification and fraud.
5. Defendis
Defenders is a Moroccan cybersecurity startup founded in 2023 by Amine Bajeddi, Charafeddine Nassiri, and Marouane Sabri.
The company specializes in AI-powered threat intelligence solutions designed for banks, government agencies, and enterprises.
They offer real-time monitoring of data leaks, credential compromises, payment card fraud, and ransomware activities.
6. Community Wolf
Community Wolf is a South African-based startup leveraging WhatsApp for reporting crime and suspicious activities.
Data served via the WhatsApp application is then used to power an intelligent technology stack to improve public safety – Both digital and physical.
It was co-founded by Nick Mills and Michel Houghton in 2024. Fast forward to January 2025, the startup raised $ 100,000 in Seed funding.
Check our list of cybersecurity companies in Africa
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