They told us scale was everything. Now many consumer startups are scaling toward bankruptcies.
Venture capital into African tech started to decline after 2022, forcing founders to ask if it was better to sell to consumers who can’t spend, or sell tools to the businesses that still can.
The economics of a difficult choice
I used to think consumer-first was the fast lane, but not anymore. Today, more costs of customer-acquisition, shrinking disposable incomes and selective VC chequebooks mean the logic of “growth at all costs” is a gift very few Nigerian founders can afford.
Recent industry reviews show venture capital flows into African tech softened over the years, with total African tech VC around $2.2 billion in 2024, a pullback in deals and more picky investing. Funders are backing fewer startups and favouring those with clear unit economics.
So founders face a practical choice to keep focusing on individual consumer startups, and highly expensive attention, or pivot to B2B, embedded finance and infrastructure, where unit economics are clearer and customers (businesses) have repeatable budgets.
The B2C problem: why many consumer startups are burning out
Consumer startups in Nigeria are facing three structural challenges at once:
- Higher customer-acquisition costs (CAC). Because everyone’s vying for clicks and impressions, the cost of customer acquisition has ballooned. Digital ad marketplaces are commoditised and pricey; getting someone’s first purchase now costs far more than it did in 2019–21. Benchmarks show CAC increasing across channels as competition for attention also increases. When you’re paying heavily just to get someone to try your app, your ROI horizon stretches uncomfortably long.
- Squeezed spending power. Inflation has battered households. Nigeria’s headline inflation eased to 18.02% in September 2025, down from 20.12% in August, the sixth straight month of deceleration. But even at 18%, people are prioritising food, rent, transport, discretionary spends suffer.
- Funding winter and selective capital. In tough times, VCs favour capital efficiency over growth stories. The IFC reports that venture funding across Africa has shifted toward startups with stronger unit economics and clearer paths to cashflow.
So consumers have to prove real retention, strong margins and defensibility.
Why B2B (and embedded-finance) looks safer right now
If B2C is the high-variance play, B2B is the steady hand. Here’s why:
- Lower CAC per dollar of revenue. Selling to a business usually requires a longer sales process, but the ticket sizes are higher and the lifetime value is more predictable. When the numbers line up, monthly recurring revenue (MRR) beats one-off consumer spend every time.
- Clearer ROI for customers. Businesses pay for cost savings, compliance, productivity profits or revenue enablement. Those returns are easier to quantify, so you can price accordingly.
- Embedded finance & infrastructure scale. When you integrate payments, credit, or financial tools into business workflows, you capture value across transactions. Fintech firms embedding services into merchant flows or enterprise stacks are winning in this period.
- Reduced churn risk. Consumers abandon services quickly when times are hard. Businesses, even the informal ones, and especially those tied into operations, tend to stick unless value disappears.
In short, B2B gives you fewer customers, but each one is more likely to stick and to pay.
Hybrid doesn’t mean compromise: the smartest founders don’t treat this as binary
It’s not B2C or B2B, it’s how smart founders mix them.
The most resilient startups are those that:
- Build an infrastructure layer (payments, logistics, procurement) that serves businesses, and then expose consumer-facing products on top; or
- Start as B2C but quickly develop monetisable B2B channels (merchant tools, analytics, advertising for retailers); or
- Market directly to small businesses (MSMEs) that both buy and sell to consumers, a customer group with recurring cash flow. That’s monetising through cross-sell, e.g. merchant tools, data analytics, credit, even if the front door is consumer-facing.
In Nigeria, the informal economy, shops, kiosks, and traders, accounts for a huge share of activity. Moniepoint’s Informal Economy Report shows that 85% of informal businesses are sole proprietorships and only 40% employ labour; they buy goods via transfers and remain cash-heavy but represent concentrated purchasing power in local markets.
Startups that serve these businesses indirectly serve consumers, while enjoying steadier revenues.
The founder’s checklist: questions you should ask now
If I were advising a founder deciding between consumer startups (B2C) or B2B today, I’d insist on answers to these:
- Can you prove payback in less than 12 months without heavy subsidy? If not, think twice about continuing consumer-first growth spend. If your cost to acquire a user is more than their lifetime value, you have a problem.
- Does your customer have a predictable spend line you can influence? Businesses that buy monthly or seasonally are better customers than an unstable consumer base.
- Is your product infrastructure-led? If others can replicate your consumer UI, you’ll be permanently on the defensive. The more you embed into workflows (payments, data, finance), the stickier your products become.
- Can you monetise through multiple channels? Can you diversify your revenue streams? Merchant fees, data services, and B2B subscriptions diversify risk. Don’t depend only on subscriptions or single product lines.
If you can’t answer them confidently, you risk building a house on sinking sand. In this market, metrics (downloads, DAU) are not a strategy.
Practical plays that work (examples and tactics)
Here are tactics I’ve seen succeed in Nigeria and across Africa:
- Merchant-first payments: Begin with payments or checkout solutions for small businesses, then layer credit, procurement, and analytics on top.
- Vertical SaaS + embedded payments: If you serve a vertical (e.g., agri-traders, clinics), embed payments, insurance and credit inside the software. You capture more of the value chain.
- Cost-reduction products: Logistics optimisation, energy-efficiency tools, inventory finance including products that reduce OPEX for clients are easier to sell in tight times.
- Anchor clients, then scale: Land a few enterprise contracts to validate your model, then expand horizontally.
These are high-leverage moves. They may require more sales tactics early, but bring more reward over time.
Where I’d put my chips now
If I were placing chips today, I’d lean into B2B and hybrid models while keeping a careful consumer startups arm alive for brand depth. The consumer market is fractured, loyalty is weak, attention is expensive, and regressions are common.
But businesses will always need tools, margin relief, and financial products. If you build what they can’t easily do without, you win.
So yes, B2C (consumer startups) is very much alive, but in this season of limitations, B2B is safer. And the hybrids? They’re the ones who will tell who thrives next.
