Ghanaian fintech startup Oze has been named to the 2025 Norrsken Impact 100, an annual list spotlighting the world’s most promising impact-driven startups. Oze is one of 11 African startups featured — and the only company from Ghana to make the list.
Why it matters
The Norrsken Impact 100, curated by the Norrsken Foundation with nominations from 50 leading investors and partners, honors venture-scale companies tackling some of the world’s toughest challenges.
Oze’s inclusion underscores its growing influence in Africa’s SME financing ecosystem.
“This recognition affirms both the scale of the problem we’re solving and the impact we’re making,” said Meghan McCormick, Oze’s Co-founder and CEO.
“By helping lenders use AI-powered credit scoring and process automation to lend profitably to MSMEs, we’re unlocking the capital that will power the next generation of African businesses.”
Big picture
Oze is on a mission to build 100 million profitable small businesses across Africa and close the continent’s $331 billion small-business credit gap. To celebrate its selection, Oze’s logo was displayed on the Nasdaq Tower in Times Square.
As part of the Impact/100 program, the company also receives a year of free access to Norrsken Houses in Stockholm, Kigali, Barcelona, and Brussels, along with free global job postings to help accelerate hiring.
How Oze drives impact
Oze operates at the intersection of fintech and SME enablement, offering a suite of tools that connect small businesses with affordable capital:
- Oze Business App: Mobile-first recordkeeping, invoicing, and e-commerce tools for MSMEs.
- Oze Originate: An AI-powered credit scoring engine automating origination and underwriting for banks, MFIs, telcos, and corporates.
- Oze Embed: An embedded lending platform allowing PSPs, B2B marketplaces, and e-commerce platforms to offer working capital to their SME users.
The results
A recent study by Bridgespan and AfricInvest found that Oze generates a 36x social and economic return for every dollar invested — evidence of strong alignment between impact and financial performance.
So far, Oze has disbursed and facilitated nearly $2 million in loans, helping MSMEs reduce borrowing costs from 21% per month to as low as 3%.
Women entrepreneurs, in particular, have avoided $7.5 million in potential losses and unlocked $23.2 million in new business opportunities thanks to improved financial management and access to capital.
Learn more about other African tech startups on Labari Insights, our data repository for tech in Africa: insights.techlabari.com
