StartupBlink

473 Top startups in Johannesburg for July 2026

We rank Naked Insurance, VALR and Sendmarc in Johannesburg along with 470 other startups based on an algorithm that scores startups based on total investment, employee count, and quarterly website traffic. Johannesburg startup ecosystem ranks #122 globally and #2 in South Africa.

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Top Unicorn Startups in Johannesburg for 2026

TymeBank is the only unicorn in Johannesburg raising more than USD 1.5B. It is the undefined ranked unicorn in Southern Africa.
SB Score:334

TymeBank, a South African investment company, is 100% black-owned and operated. Offering innovative financial solutions, TymeBank empowers customers with fully digital banking services.

Industry:
Fintech
Subindustry:
Online Banking

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Total amount:1

Best Startups in Johannesburg for 2026

SB Score:519

Naked Insurance is the new generation: effortless, transparent and sincere. Naked Insurance offers short-term retail insurance products.

Industry:
Fintech
Subindustry:
Financial Services

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2nd

VALR
SB Score:498

VALR.com is a digital asset trading platform where you can buy, sell, store and transfer cryptocurrencies seamlessly and securely. We offer one of the widest selections of digital assets. We‘re helping to build a financial system that recognises the oneness of humanity.

Industry:
Fintech
Subindustry:
Blockchain

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SB Score:444

Duoduoyun is an Android cloud virtualization technology company, whose products mainly include cloud mobile phones, cloud gaming solutions and cloud security office solutions. Among them, the cloud mobile phone adopts the ARM architecture, which is the main product of the current multi-cloud, allowing users to have a virtual mobile phone that runs in the cloud and can be remotely controlled to transfer the computing power of the mobile phone to the cloud.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Enterprise Technology

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SB Score:421

Rentoza is a subscription-based online electronics and appliance store. Rentoza makes critical technology accessible and affordable to users, particularly when traditional methods of purchasing technology are unavailable. Rentoza focuses on developing alternative methods of accessing devices that are essential in people's daily lives.

Industry:
Ecommerce & Retail
Subindustry:
Consumer Goods

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SB Score:413

Wetility's flagship product is a comprehensive digital solar energy management system that allows users to regulate power usage remotely. The system is marketed as the "360 Wetility Experience" and consists of rooftop PV installation or solar panels.

Industry:
Energy & Environment
Subindustry:
Energy

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6th

AURA
SB Score:398

AURA is a South African cloud-based market place that enables anyone to access the closest vetted private security and medical response unit to their location, anywhere, anytime using a connected device. AURA's operations are based in South Africa, Kenya and the United Kingdom.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Enterprise Technology

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7th

PAIX
SB Score:393

PAIX data centres is a Pan-African provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral colocation data centre services and is headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. PAIX is the acronym for “Pan African Internet Exchange data centres”. PAIX was founded in 2016 by a team of data centre, telecom industry and investment professionals with a track record in the African market. In its data centre operations, PAIX aims to offer a leading global quality service level to its national and international customer base across the African continent.

Industry:
Hardware & IoT
Subindustry:
Hardware

City Rank (Johannesburg)

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SB Score:388

The Invigilator is an application designed to support educational institutions in maintaining academic integrity during online assessments. It offers features such as facial recognition for student verification, video monitoring to detect suspicious behavior, and audio recording to identify unauthorized assistance. The app also includes screen monitoring to track on-screen activity, GPS detection to confirm the student's location, and plagiarism detection to ensure the originality of submitted work. Additionally, it provides customizable photographic evidence requests and verification codes to link students to specific assessments. It is compatible with both mobile and desktop devices, operates offline, and is designed to function effectively on entry-level smartphones with low data usage. These features aim to create a controlled and monitored environment for non-venue-based assessments.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Apps

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SB Score:358

Zulzi provides a same-day grocery delivery and pickup service, bringing fresh groceries and everyday essentials.

Industry:
Ecommerce & Retail
Subindustry:
Ecommerce

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SB Score:344

Ukheshe Technologies is a global, digital-first financial services enabler. The comppany provides an SMME focused digital platform to improve and address financial inclusion within South Africa. Through our technology, and by partnering with banks, telcos, financial services providers, we enable them to pursue financial inclusion for their customers with tailor made payment solutions. Ukheshe Technologies was established in 2018 by Jason Penton and Paul Carter-Brown in Johannesburg, NA - South Africa.

Industry:
Fintech
Subindustry:
Financial Services

City Rank (Johannesburg)

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SB Score:342

Littlefish is a platform designed for banks to accelerate their time to market by 80%. It provides the essential infrastructure and application layers needed for SME banking, enabling financial institutions to streamline operations and enhance service delivery in the rapidly evolving banking sector.

Industry:
Fintech
Subindustry:
Payments

City Rank (Johannesburg)

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Regional Rank (Southern Africa)

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Total amount:473

SB Score:519

Naked Insurance is the new generation: effortless, transparent and sincere. Naked Insurance offers short-term retail insurance products.

Industry:
Fintech
Subindustry:
Financial Services

City Rank (Johannesburg)

0

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Regional Rank (Southern Africa)

0

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0

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2nd

VALR
SB Score:498

VALR.com is a digital asset trading platform where you can buy, sell, store and transfer cryptocurrencies seamlessly and securely. We offer one of the widest selections of digital assets. We‘re helping to build a financial system that recognises the oneness of humanity.

Industry:
Fintech
Subindustry:
Blockchain

City Rank (Johannesburg)

0

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Regional Rank (Southern Africa)

0

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Global Rank (WorldWide)

0

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SB Score:444

Duoduoyun is an Android cloud virtualization technology company, whose products mainly include cloud mobile phones, cloud gaming solutions and cloud security office solutions. Among them, the cloud mobile phone adopts the ARM architecture, which is the main product of the current multi-cloud, allowing users to have a virtual mobile phone that runs in the cloud and can be remotely controlled to transfer the computing power of the mobile phone to the cloud.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Enterprise Technology

City Rank (Johannesburg)

0

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Regional Rank (Southern Africa)

0

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Global Rank (WorldWide)

0

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Total amount:473

SB Score:519

Naked Insurance is the new generation: effortless, transparent and sincere. Naked Insurance offers short-term retail insurance products.

Industry:
Fintech
Subindustry:
Financial Services

City Rank (Johannesburg)

0

View

Regional Rank (Southern Africa)

0

View

Global Rank (WorldWide)

0

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2nd

VALR
SB Score:498

VALR.com is a digital asset trading platform where you can buy, sell, store and transfer cryptocurrencies seamlessly and securely. We offer one of the widest selections of digital assets. We‘re helping to build a financial system that recognises the oneness of humanity.

Industry:
Fintech
Subindustry:
Blockchain

City Rank (Johannesburg)

0

View

Regional Rank (Southern Africa)

0

View

Global Rank (WorldWide)

0

Browse
View full page
SB Score:444

Duoduoyun is an Android cloud virtualization technology company, whose products mainly include cloud mobile phones, cloud gaming solutions and cloud security office solutions. Among them, the cloud mobile phone adopts the ARM architecture, which is the main product of the current multi-cloud, allowing users to have a virtual mobile phone that runs in the cloud and can be remotely controlled to transfer the computing power of the mobile phone to the cloud.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Enterprise Technology

City Rank (Johannesburg)

0

View

Regional Rank (Southern Africa)

0

View

Global Rank (WorldWide)

0

Browse
View full page

Total amount:473

SB Score:519

Naked Insurance is the new generation: effortless, transparent and sincere. Naked Insurance offers short-term retail insurance products.

Industry:
Fintech
Subindustry:
Financial Services

City Rank (Johannesburg)

0

View

Regional Rank (Southern Africa)

0

View

Global Rank (WorldWide)

0

Browse
View full page

2nd

VALR
SB Score:498

VALR.com is a digital asset trading platform where you can buy, sell, store and transfer cryptocurrencies seamlessly and securely. We offer one of the widest selections of digital assets. We‘re helping to build a financial system that recognises the oneness of humanity.

Industry:
Fintech
Subindustry:
Blockchain

City Rank (Johannesburg)

0

View

Regional Rank (Southern Africa)

0

View

Global Rank (WorldWide)

0

Browse
View full page
SB Score:444

Duoduoyun is an Android cloud virtualization technology company, whose products mainly include cloud mobile phones, cloud gaming solutions and cloud security office solutions. Among them, the cloud mobile phone adopts the ARM architecture, which is the main product of the current multi-cloud, allowing users to have a virtual mobile phone that runs in the cloud and can be remotely controlled to transfer the computing power of the mobile phone to the cloud.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Enterprise Technology

City Rank (Johannesburg)

0

View

Regional Rank (Southern Africa)

0

View

Global Rank (WorldWide)

0

Browse
View full page

Total amount:473

Most Funded Startups in Johannesburg for 2026

The top three most funded startups in Johannesburg have raised total funding of more than USD 174M. Naked Insurance has 0.26% more funding than VALR.
SB Score:519

Naked Insurance is the new generation: effortless, transparent and sincere. Naked Insurance offers short-term retail insurance products.

Industry:
Fintech
Subindustry:
Financial Services

City Rank (Johannesburg)

0

View

Regional Rank (Southern Africa)

0

View

Global Rank (WorldWide)

0

Browse
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2nd

VALR
SB Score:498

VALR.com is a digital asset trading platform where you can buy, sell, store and transfer cryptocurrencies seamlessly and securely. We offer one of the widest selections of digital assets. We‘re helping to build a financial system that recognises the oneness of humanity.

Industry:
Fintech
Subindustry:
Blockchain

City Rank (Johannesburg)

0

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Regional Rank (Southern Africa)

0

View

Global Rank (WorldWide)

0

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3rd

PAIX
SB Score:393

PAIX data centres is a Pan-African provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral colocation data centre services and is headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. PAIX is the acronym for “Pan African Internet Exchange data centres”. PAIX was founded in 2016 by a team of data centre, telecom industry and investment professionals with a track record in the African market. In its data centre operations, PAIX aims to offer a leading global quality service level to its national and international customer base across the African continent.

Industry:
Hardware & IoT
Subindustry:
Hardware

City Rank (Johannesburg)

0

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Regional Rank (Southern Africa)

0

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Global Rank (WorldWide)

0

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Total amount:473

Top Hiring Startups in Johannesburg by Employee Number

The top three hiring startups in Johannesburg have an median employee size that is between [251-500]
SB Score:169

Tennovo provides consulting and technology services focused on digital transformation and cloud-enabled solutions. The company delivers advisory support and development services, helping clients migrate systems, modernize platforms, and adopt emerging technologies in areas such as cloud integration, digital workflows, and platform engineering. It collaborates with enterprises to design and implement scalable technology solutions aligned with business objectives. The firm also offers managed IT services, cybersecurity support, and ongoing system optimization to help organizations maintain effective infrastructure.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Cloud

City Rank (Johannesburg)

0

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Regional Rank (Southern Africa)

0

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Global Rank (WorldWide)

0

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SB Score:344

Ukheshe Technologies is a global, digital-first financial services enabler. The comppany provides an SMME focused digital platform to improve and address financial inclusion within South Africa. Through our technology, and by partnering with banks, telcos, financial services providers, we enable them to pursue financial inclusion for their customers with tailor made payment solutions. Ukheshe Technologies was established in 2018 by Jason Penton and Paul Carter-Brown in Johannesburg, NA - South Africa.

Industry:
Fintech
Subindustry:
Financial Services

City Rank (Johannesburg)

0

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Regional Rank (Southern Africa)

0

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Global Rank (WorldWide)

0

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SB Score:325

FlySafair identifies as a low-cost carrier. It is a trusted domestic carrier to the springboks. They believe that just because they are low cost, doesn’t mean that they will offer a low-value service.

Industry:
Transportation
Subindustry:
Aerospace

City Rank (Johannesburg)

0

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Regional Rank (Southern Africa)

0

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Global Rank (WorldWide)

0

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Anylytical Technologies creates software solutions and provides business consulting services. Its goal is to offer solutions that satisfy corporate needs. They want to make software development into a field that resembles a production line. Their solutions demonstrate their enthusiasm for software development. It has the ambition to put together a predetermined set of technological tools and procedures that would be employed to address the majority of its software projects.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Software

City Rank (Johannesburg)

0

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Regional Rank (Southern Africa)

0

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Global Rank (WorldWide)

0

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Total amount:473

Explore the Startup Ecosystem of Johannesburg

National Rank

(South Africa)

2nd

new

Regional Rank

(Southern Africa)

2nd

0

Global Rank

(WorldWide)

122nd

34

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Top Cities for Startups in South Africa - Ranked by StartupBlink

StartupBlink ranks the startup ecosystems of more than 100 countries and 1,000 cities. Download our latest Global Startup Ecosystem Report.
2026 National Rank CityGlobal RankTotal ScoreAnnual GrowthQuantity ScoreQuality ScoreBusiness Score
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