Scrapays Technologies Limited

Cover Block

PUBLIC

Name	Scrapays Technologies Limited
Tagline	Digital platform fusing recycling, tech, and finance for waste recovery in Africa
Headquarters	Lagos, Nigeria
Founded	2019
Stage	Seed
Business Model	Marketplace
Industry	Cleantech / Climatetech
Technology	Software (Non-AI)
Geography	Sub-Saharan Africa
Growth Profile	Social Enterprise
Founding Team	Co-Founders (2)
Funding Label	Seed (total disclosed ~$368,000)

Links

PUBLIC

• Website: https://scrapays.com
• LinkedIn: https://ng.linkedin.com/company/scrapays

Executive Summary

PUBLIC

Scrapays Technologies Limited operates a digital marketplace that coordinates the fragmented, informal recycling sector in Nigeria, connecting waste producers with collectors through a suite of embedded financial and logistics tools [Jobtech Alliance, ~2022]. The company's asset-light, agent-network model represents a capital-efficient approach to a critical environmental and economic challenge, creating a formalized supply chain for recyclable materials while generating income for thousands of micro-entrepreneurs [The Catalyst Fund, ~2023]. Founded in 2019 as an evolution of an undergraduate project, the platform uses USSD, web, and mobile applications to facilitate transactions, taking a 20% share of revenue while distributing the remainder between waste producers and collectors [Jobtech Alliance, ~2022]. Co-founders Tope Sulaimon and Boluwatife Arewa bring a blend of operational and product management experience, with Arewa having previously coordinated multi-regional operations for an HR tech firm [Orange Corners].

To date, the company has raised approximately $368,000 from a consortium of impact-focused accelerators and funds, including Jobtech Alliance and The Catalyst Fund, which has supported the signing of over 1,900 agents and the recovery of more than 114,000 kg of scrap in testing phases [PitchBook, 2025][The Catalyst Fund, ~2023]. The immediate focus for investors should be on validating the transition from pilot metrics to sustained, scaled commercial operations, and monitoring the company's ability to execute on its stated expansion plans beyond its initial three Nigerian states.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core model and historical metrics are documented by investor publications, but recent operational and financial updates are absent.

Taxonomy Snapshot

Axis	Classification
Stage	Seed
Business Model	Marketplace
Industry / Vertical	Cleantech / Climatetech
Technology Type	Software (Non-AI)
Geography	Sub-Saharan Africa
Growth Profile	Social Enterprise
Founding Team	Co-Founders (2)
Funding	Seed (total disclosed ~$368,000)

Company Overview

PUBLIC

Scrapays Technologies Limited was founded in 2019 in Lagos, Nigeria, as an evolution of an undergraduate project aimed at tackling the country's pervasive waste management challenges [TechCabal, Sep 2021]. The company's founding premise was to apply technology to create a decentralized ecosystem for recovering recyclable waste, moving away from capital-intensive infrastructure models [TechCabal, Sep 2021]. The core legal entity is a private limited company registered in Nigeria.

A key operational milestone was the launch of its decentralized agent network model in January 2022, which expanded its presence from Lagos into Ogun and Ondo states [Jobtech Alliance]. This pivot to an asset-light, agent-driven platform marked a shift from earlier direct collection efforts and established the revenue-sharing framework that defines its current operations. By approximately 2023, the platform had signed up over 1,900 agents and reported recovering 114,320 kilograms of scrap material in a testing phase [The Catalyst Fund].

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Founding details and early milestones are corroborated by a dated press article. The 2022 agent launch and subsequent traction metrics are cited in investor blogs, but specific dates and the scale of operations post-2023 are not independently verified by recent public updates.

Product and Technology

MIXED

The core product is a multi-channel digital platform designed to formalize and scale the informal waste collection economy in Nigeria. Scrapays provides households, businesses, and individual collectors with access points via USSD, a web portal, and a mobile app to list and sell recyclable scrap [Jobtech Alliance, ~2022]. The platform's operational wedge is its decentralized network of hyperlocal agents, who aggregate materials from sellers, manage logistics to processors, and are supported by a suite of embedded digital tools.

A publicly cited revenue-sharing model allocates 45% of proceeds to the waste producer, 35% to the collector or agent, and 20% to Scrapays [Jobtech Alliance, ~2022]. The platform aims to increase agent productivity through features like digital inventory management, e-wallets for payments, integration with smart scales for weighing, and performance-based loan offerings [The Catalyst Fund, ~2023]. For enterprise clients, the company promotes a data-driven solution that provides traceability for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting and geographic insights into waste generation patterns [Scrapays.com/about, 2026].

The technology stack is not detailed in public materials, but the product's reliance on USSD for broad accessibility suggests a backend capable of integrating with telecom infrastructure. The mention of real-time tracking and smart scale integration points to an Internet of Things (IoT) component. The company's website states that "thousands of entrepreneurs use our app" to manage their recycling businesses [Scrapays.com/about, 2026].

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core product claims are consistent across multiple investor publications, but specific technical details and recent feature updates are not independently verified.

Market Research and Opportunity

PUBLIC

The market for formalizing Africa's informal waste sector is driven by a confluence of urbanization, environmental policy, and a growing corporate focus on ESG compliance, creating a window for asset-light platforms that can aggregate fragmented activity.

Quantifying the total addressable market for recycling in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa is challenging due to the dominance of informal systems. No third-party TAM, SAM, or SOM estimates specific to Scrapays's model are cited in public sources. However, the scale of the underlying problem is significant. Nigeria generates an estimated 32 million tonnes of solid waste annually, with a recycling rate below 10% [TechCabal, Sep 2021]. This suggests a substantial volume of recoverable material, though the commercial value accessible to a platform depends on its ability to capture and process specific waste streams like plastics, metals, and electronics.

Key demand drivers are visible across three fronts. First, urban population growth in cities like Lagos, where Scrapays initially launched, is increasing waste generation and straining municipal collection systems, creating a supply gap for private solutions. Second, regulatory momentum is building, with Nigeria's National Policy on Solid Waste Management aiming to promote recycling and extended producer responsibility schemes, which could incentivize manufacturers to seek traceable recovery data [Jobtech Alliance, ~2022]. Third, corporate sustainability goals are becoming a tangible demand source. The company's enterprise product, which offers "data-driven insights and full traceability for ESG goals," directly targets this need for verifiable environmental impact reporting from multinationals and large local firms [Scrapays.com/about, 2026].

Adjacent and substitute markets include traditional waste management contractors and pure-play fintech lenders serving micro-entrepreneurs. Scrapays's wedge is its integration of logistics coordination, transaction enablement, and credit, positioning it not just as a waste broker but as an operating system for informal recyclers. A key macro force is the continued informality of the labor market; the platform's value proposition hinges on its ability to improve incomes and stability for thousands of individual agents, a social impact angle that resonates with development-focused grantmakers and impact investors.

Given the absence of specific, cited market sizing data, a segmentation of the company's own early operational footprint provides the most concrete view of initial market capture.

Metric	Value
Scrap Recovered (Testing)	114320 kg
Agents Signed Up	1900 agents
States of Operation	3 states

The chart illustrates a proof-of-concept footprint, not a market size. Recovering over 114,000 kg of scrap through a network of 1,900 agents across three states validates the basic unit economics and agent adoption in a controlled setting. The jump from these testing metrics to a scalable, profitable business across 22 states, as once planned, remains the central execution risk.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Market sizing context is inferred from general reports on Nigeria's waste sector; operational metrics are from a single investor blog circa 2023.

Competitive Landscape

MIXED Scrapays positions itself as an asset-light digital intermediary in a market historically defined by informal collection and direct corporate recycling programs, aiming to coordinate rather than replace the existing informal sector.

Company	Positioning	Stage / Funding	Notable Differentiator	Source
Scrapays	Digital marketplace connecting waste producers, informal collectors, and processors via USSD/app.	Seed (~$368k from accelerators)	Decentralized agent network with embedded fintech (e-wallets, loans). Revenue-sharing model (45%/35%/20%).	[Jobtech Alliance, ~2022]; [The Catalyst Fund, ~2023]
Wecyclers	Integrated waste collection service using a fleet of cargo bikes and a reward-for-recycling program.	Seed/Series A (raised $1.6M in 2022)	Owns physical logistics and collection infrastructure. Direct consumer engagement via SMS-based rewards.	[TechCrunch, 2022]
RecyclePoints	Incentive-based recycling platform where households earn points for waste, redeemable for goods/services.	Early-stage (grant and prize funding)	Focus on household behavior change through a points-based loyalty system. Partnerships with consumer brands for rewards.	[Company Website]

The competitive map in Nigeria’s waste recovery sector is fragmented across three primary models. First, integrated operators like Wecyclers manage the full value chain, from collection to aggregation, using owned assets. This model offers control and traceability but requires significant capital for fleet and facility expansion. Second, incentive platforms like RecyclePoints focus on the demand generation side, using gamification to increase household participation without directly managing logistics. Third, specialized processors like Biostar Green Solutions operate downstream, focusing on specific waste types and often partnering with collectors of all kinds. Scrapays sits between these models, acting as a coordination layer that digitizes transactions and logistics for the informal network without taking on asset ownership.

Scrapays’ current edge is its distribution model and embedded financial tools. The platform’s reported 1,900+ signed agents represent a decentralized, capital-efficient collection force [The Catalyst Fund, ~2023]. The integration of inventory management, e-wallets, and performance-based loans aims to increase agent loyalty and operational efficiency, creating a software-based moat around the network. This edge is perishable, however. It depends on continuous agent onboarding and retention in a sector with low switching costs. A competitor with deeper pockets could replicate the digital tools and offer better terms to agents, while an integrated player could digitize its own operations, bypassing the need for a third-party platform.

The company is most exposed to competition from two directions. From above, an integrated player like Wecyclers, with its own fleet and established brand, could develop a similar digital platform for its existing network, leveraging its operational control to offer more reliable service. From adjacent sectors, large fintech platforms with extensive agent networks (e.g., for mobile money) could potentially add waste collection as a secondary service, leveraging their superior scale and financial infrastructure to outcompete on agent reach and transaction costs. Scrapays does not own the physical logistics channel, which remains a critical vulnerability if a partner logistics firm decides to work directly with processors or launch a competing platform.

The most plausible 18-month scenario hinges on execution speed and partnership depth. If Scrapays can rapidly scale its agent network to the planned 22 states and lock in exclusive offtake agreements with major processors, it could become the dominant digital clearinghouse for recyclables in Nigeria. The winner in this scenario would be Scrapays, as its asset-light model would allow for faster geographic expansion than capital-intensive rivals. The loser would likely be smaller, non-digitized aggregators who are disintermediated. Conversely, if execution lags and a well-funded competitor (like a scaled logistics company or a corporate-backed recycling initiative) launches a similar digital network, Scrapays could be relegated to a niche player. Its limited war chest of ~$368k makes it vulnerable to a spending race on agent incentives and technology development.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Competitor profiles and Scrapays' positioning are drawn from public sources and company materials, but direct, recent competitive intelligence is limited.

Opportunity

PUBLIC The prize for Scrapays is the transformation of Africa's fragmented, informal recycling sector into a digitized, efficient, and investable supply chain, unlocking value from waste while creating a network of micro-entrepreneurs at scale.

The headline opportunity is for Scrapays to become the default operating system for informal waste collection across Sub-Saharan Africa. This outcome is reachable because the company's cited model directly addresses the sector's core constraints. It is not building capital-intensive collection fleets or processing plants, but instead providing the digital rails,USSD, app, and web interfaces,that connect existing actors [Jobtech Alliance, ~2022]. By layering embedded fintech and logistics tools onto a decentralized agent network, the platform aims to professionalize and scale thousands of micro-businesses, a wedge into a market that has historically resisted formalization. The evidence of initial traction, with over 1,900 agents signed up and more than 114,000 kg of material recovered in testing, demonstrates a proof-of-concept for the asset-light aggregation model [The Catalyst Fund, ~2023]. If this model can be standardized and replicated, Scrapays could position itself as the essential infrastructure layer for a circular economy, capturing a fee on a vast flow of material that is otherwise lost to landfills or informal channels.

Growth from a Nigerian pilot to a continent-wide platform could follow several concrete paths. The scenarios below outline potential scale vectors, each grounded in the company's stated capabilities or market dynamics.

Scenario	What happens	Catalyst	Why it's plausible
Agent Network Dominance	Scrapays becomes the primary income platform for hundreds of thousands of waste collectors, achieving deep penetration in Nigeria and key East/West African markets.	A strategic partnership with a major telecom or fintech player (e.g., MTN, Flutterwave) to bundle Scrapays' USSD/service, driving user acquisition.	The company is already part of the MTN Cloud Accelerator program, indicating a relationship with a pan-African telecom giant [PitchBook, 2025]. Its core product is built on USSD, the most accessible technology for its target users.
Enterprise ESG Mandate	Large corporations and multinationals operating in Africa adopt Scrapays' enterprise solution as their standard for waste traceability and reporting to meet sustainability goals.	A landmark contract with a named, blue-chip multinational consumer goods or beverage company for full waste recovery traceability.	The company's website explicitly markets an enterprise solution offering "data-driven insights and full traceability for ESG goals" [Scrapays.com/enterprise, 2026]. Global ESG reporting pressures are creating a new, willing-to-pay customer segment.
Regulatory Standard-Bearer	Municipal and national governments adopt Scrapays' data and agent network as the framework for formalizing and managing urban waste streams, leading to licensing fees or public-private partnerships.	A pilot program with a major city (e.g., Lagos State) to digitize and monitor its informal waste sector, funded by a development bank or climate fund.	The platform's ability to provide "geographic insight on waste generation" aligns directly with the data needs of city planners [Scrapays.com/about, 2026]. The social enterprise profile and job-creation focus make it an attractive partner for public sector initiatives.

The compounding effect for Scrapays is a classic two-sided network and data flywheel. Each new agent or waste producer on the platform increases the density of the collection network, improving service reliability and attracting more bulk waste generators (businesses, manufacturers). This activity generates unique, hyperlocal data on waste types, volumes, and prices,data that becomes increasingly valuable. It can optimize logistics routes for partners, provide richer insights for enterprise clients, and underwrite more sophisticated financial products like performance-based loans for top agents [The Catalyst Fund, ~2023]. Early signs of this flywheel are suggested by the revenue-sharing model itself, which is designed to align incentives and retain participants, and by the integration of e-wallets and smart scales that increase platform stickiness.

Quantifying the size of the win requires looking at comparables. While direct public peers in Africa are scarce, the model shares DNA with global marketplace platforms that digitize informal sectors. A credible scenario, should the Agent Network Dominance path succeed across several high-population African nations, could see Scrapays achieving a valuation multiple akin to high-growth, asset-light marketplaces in emerging markets. For context, India's waste management and recycling platform market has seen companies attract significant venture capital at early stages for digitizing similar value chains. If Scrapays can secure the role of default infrastructure, capturing a small percentage fee on a multi-billion dollar informal materials flow, the enterprise value opportunity is substantial (scenario, not a forecast). The company's own cited expansion plans,22 Nigerian states and 5 African countries within 18 months as of 2022,frame the ambition of the addressable geography [Jobtech Alliance, ~2022].

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Growth scenarios and market opportunity are extrapolated from company claims and investor blog posts; specific expansion timelines and partnership details are not recently corroborated.

Sources

PUBLIC

1. [Jobtech Alliance, ~2022] Why We Invested: Scrapays, tackling Nigeria's waste management problem through innovative technology driving job growth | https://jobtechalliance.com/why-we-invested-scrapays-tackling-nigerias-waste-management-problem-through-innovative-technology-driving-job-growth/

2. [The Catalyst Fund, ~2023] Why we invested in Scrapays, a startup enabling waste entrepreneurship in Nigeria | https://www.thecatalystfund.com/insights/why-we-invested-in-scrapays-a-startup-enabling-waste-entrepreneurship-in-nigeria

3. [PitchBook, 2025] Scrapays 2025 Company Profile: Valuation, Funding & Investors | https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/492853-51

4. [Orange Corners] Orange Corners Profile | https://www.f6s.com/scrapays

5. [TechCabal, Sep 2021] Meet the startup transforming informal recycling in Nigeria | https://techcabal.com/2021/09/10/scrapays-is-transforming-informal-recycling-in-nigeria/

6. [Scrapays.com/about, 2026] About - Scrapays | https://scrapays.com/about

7. [Scrapays.com/enterprise, 2026] Enterprise - Scrapays | https://scrapays.com/about

8. [TechCrunch, 2022] Wecyclers raises $1.6M to scale its waste collection and recycling services across Nigeria | https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/27/wecyclers-raises-1-6m-to-scale-its-waste-collection-and-recycling-services-across-nigeria/

9. [Company Website] RecyclePoints | https://recyclepoints.com