Kenya's Roam, M-Kopa and Quickmart on FT Africa’s fastest-growing companies list

Kenya-based electric vehicle start-up Roam, the asset financing company M-Kopa, and the retail chain Quickmart are among local names in the 2025 Financial Times-Statista ranking of Africa’s fastest-growing companies.

Compiled by the British newspaper Financial Times and data firm Statista, the ranking assessed over 130 companies across Africa based on their compound annual growth rate (CAGR) and revenue growth between 2020 and 2023.

At position 35, Roam, which assembles electric buses and motorbikes in Nairobi, posted an 86.4% CAGR and 547.8% revenue growth.

The Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed TPS Eastern Africa PLC, which owns the Serena Hotels chain, was ranked 41st (68.1%;35.1%), ahead of M-Kopa at position 68 (42.1%; 186.9%).

Quickmart was ranked 79th with a 33.9% compound annual growth rate and a 139.9% revenue growth.

Other Kenyan companies on the list are IT and software company Impax Business Solutions (82), the Homa Bay-based sustainable aquaculture company Victory Farms (91), the agricultural inputs distributor East African Business Company (100), and Pan African IX Data Centres (101).

The list also includes co-working spaces provider Kofisi (110), and the lenders KCB Group (112) and Co-operative Bank (127).

This year’s list is dominated by South African and Nigerian firms, and fintech (financial technology) companies accounted for a fifth of all names in the ranking.

To be included in the list, FT says companies must have posted revenue of at least $100,000 (Ksh.12.9 million) in 2020 and $1.5 million (Ksh.194 million) in 2023.

“Although the search was very extensive, the ranking does not claim to be complete, as some companies did not want to make their figures public or did not participate for other reasons,” the publication said.