South Africa Alternative Data Market Overview
Market Size in 2024: USD 39.87 Million
Market Size in 2033: USD 598.95 Million
Market Growth Rate 2025-2033: 35.13%
According to IMARC Group's latest research publication, "South Africa Alternative Data Market: Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2026-2034", The 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 like Periculum are also leveraging alternative data points and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies such as mobile usage and transaction histories to make faster lending decisions, lower default rates, and provide access to credit for millions without customary credit histories.
- In South Africa, some banks and lenders use AI-driven models that assess non-customary signals such as utility bill payments and social data, to create banking services for 12 million unbanked adults.
- The draft National AI Strategy and its intent to establish a R1 billion AI Fund, along with improved data infrastructure and skills training, will create an enabling environment where companies can leverage other datasets to make better decisions in finance and other sectors.
- For Nedbank and TymeBank, AI provides real-time analysis of large quantities of alternative data in order to lower fraud losses, personalize consumer offers and build trust to improve consumer adoption in a highly competitive fintech environment.
- Local innovators use their AI tools to analyze payment history and digital footprint, easing the faster and more accurate credit scoring needed to better finance underserved SMEs in a market where customary methods leave much to be desired and demand for loans is high.
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Market Growth Factors
Another main driver of the alternative data industry in South Africa is the growth of fintech and mobile financial services (mobile money). The high penetration of smartphones and the increased use of mobile money services have resulted in a large amount of transactional and behavioral data being generated through digital payments, utility payments, and e-commerce and retail. It supports credit decisioning for people with no or little credit profile of record, promotes financial inclusion, and creates new opportunities via the provision of consumer insights and risk management tools to the underbanked. Lenders are increasingly recognizing and applying the power of alternative data to build new solutions for the economy.
The demand for advanced analytics and predictive insights has driven South African investment institutions and hedge funds to leverage alternative data sources. Quant strategies are utilizing alternative data sources, such as social media sentiment, geospatial data, and web-scraped data, to identify investment opportunities that circumvent customary financial data limitations. Increased processing power by artificial intelligence in the ability to analyze nonconventional streams of data may help make a real-time decision in a rapidly changing market and give rise to the wider use of alternative datasets in asset management and trading.
With the growth of digitalization in retail, e-commerce, and telecommunications, alternative data has become more popular in South Africa. This includes transactional data, app usage, consumer behavior, and location data, revealing insights into the evolving trends and purchasing habits of online consumers. The data can be employed by companies to improve marketing strategies, supply chains, and customer experience in the competition. Data privacy and transparency policies, as well as best practices in ethical data sourcing and engagement, are needed to foster trust and accelerate adoption of the data within industry applications.
Market Segmentation
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 Developement & News
- December 2025: TransUnion Telco Data Score launches in partnership with MTN and Chenosis, using mobile call data records as alternative data to assess creditworthiness for new-to-credit consumers, improving predictive performance by 25–35% over prior models and enabling millions with limited formal credit history to access financial services.
- June 2025: Fintech lenders expand adoption of alternative data sources including behavioral signals and real-time financial patterns, allowing faster loan approvals and greater inclusion for gig workers, freelancers, and self-employed individuals previously underserved by traditional credit bureau reports.
- April 2025: Fintech innovations introduce stand-alone alternative credit scoring models for first-time borrowers, leveraging non-traditional data like digital footprints to serve credit-invisible consumers and enhance access beyond conventional scores.
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