South Africa Alternative Data Market: Analytics Innovation, Expanding Use Cases & Growth Outlook

According to IMARC Group's latest research publication, South Africa alternative data market size reached USD 39.87 Million in 2024. Looking forward, IMARC Group expects the market to reach USD 598.95 Million by 2033, exhibiting a growth rate (CAGR) of 35.13% during 2025-2033.

How AI is Reshaping the Future of South Africa Alternative Data Market

• Fintechs and local companies ranging from Periculum use AI to analyze data from mobile phones, past transactions and other digital sources; these allow millions lacking formal credit histories to access faster loans with lower default risk in a widening market.
• Banks such as Nedbank and TymeBank use AI to analyze huge alternative datasets in real-time, from utility bills to social signals, to prevent fraud, tailor offers, and help customers navigate the crowded fintech ecosystem.
• More than 12 million financially excluded adults in South Africa are now served by machine learning models that leverage non-conventional data such as bill payments to predict who could become a bank customer.

Get In-Depth 2026 Industry Insights & Projections

South Africa Alternative Data Market Trends & Drivers:

The growth of a fintech and digital finance ecosystem in South Africa helps drive the production of alternative data. The growing use of smartphones and mobile money systems in South Africa generates large volumes of transactional, utility payment and e-commerce data. This alternative data is increasingly being used by financial institutions to assess creditworthiness, particularly for people without formal credit histories, and to inform predictive analytics. Consumer demand is growing for instant and easy-to-access services, and lenders are using alternative data to improve decision-making and expand their potential customer base in a growing digital marketplace.

The advent of AI-based and ML technologies is another key driver for the use of alternative data in South Africa. These technologies can process unstructured data sets such as mobile usage, user behavior, and other digital footprints to produce more accurate credit ratings. Such capabilities are being adopted by lenders as they seek to address the shortcomings of existing solutions and increase access for unbanked and underbanked borrowers. AI enables new applications of risk and real-time decision-making, which is driving collaboration between fintech startups and customary financial institutions, as well as creating infrastructure to support data-driven financial services.

The push to bring more South Africans into the financial fold and help ensure credit access for those often excluded from customary finance has helped drive the alternative data market. This is due to many people being underbanked with only limited formal financial footprints, motivating the use of data sources such as payment and geolocation. Regulators may encourage digital finance and open banking, which can lead to greater acceptance of alternative data. For example, when financial inclusion policies encourage the use of alternative data, lenders and other providers look for ways to lower barriers to financial access for many different segments, such as small businesses and rural areas.

South Africa Alternative Data Industry Segmentation:

The report has segmented the market into the following categories:

Data Type Insights:

• Credit and Debit Card Transactions
• Email Receipts
• Geo-location (Foot Traffic) Records
• Mobile Application Usage
• Satellite and Weather Data
• Social and Sentiment Data
• Web Scraped Data
• Web Traffic
• Others

Industry Insights:

• Automotive
• BFSI
• Energy
• Industrial
• IT and Telecommunications
• Media and Entertainment
• Real Estate and Construction
• Retail
• Transportation and Logistics
• Other

End User Insights:

• Hedge Fund Operators
• Investment Institutions
• Retail Companies
• Others

Regional Insights:

• Gauteng
• KwaZulu-Natal
• Western Cape
• Mpumalanga
• Eastern Cape
• Others

Competitive Landscape:

The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined along with the profiles of the key players.

Recent News and Developments in South Africa Alternative Data Market

• June 2025: MTN and TransUnion launch the TransUnion Telco Data Score, utilizing mobile call data records as alternative data to assess creditworthiness, delivering 25–35% better predictive performance than prior models for new-to-credit consumers.
• June 2025: TransUnion announces a minority investment and strategic partnership with South Africa-founded fintech Omnisient to expand privacy-enabled alternative data adoption, enhancing credit insights for underserved segments.
• October 2025: TransUnion's analysis of 4.3 million consumers shows fintech borrowers exhibit higher risk patterns, prompting recommendations to integrate trended and alternative data for improved delinquency prediction and inclusion.
• February 2026: Lula (formerly Lulalend) secures $21 million in funding to scale its AI-driven credit scoring platform, relying on alternative data to approve SME loans in hours without traditional collateral or statements.
• 2025: Fintech innovations roll out stand-alone alternative credit scoring models tailored for first-time borrowers, drawing on non-traditional sources like mobile usage and transaction patterns to boost access in the growing alternative lending space.

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