Of the $15 billion startup investment flow to Africa since 2019, Nigeria got received close to 30 per cent, which amounted to $4.4 billion.
Within the period, Kenya got $2.9 billion; South Africa, $2.4 billion and Egypt, $2.3 billion.
Africa: The Big Deal, a report made available to The Guardian yesterday, noted that the most striking was the relative weight of the big four countries, which was 84 per cent of the entire start-up funding.
According to the report, Kenya came second, South Africa third and Egypt a close fourth. The report noted that the big four are homes to more than three quarters (25 per cent for Nigeria) of all ventures having raised $1 million or more during the period.
In 2021, Nigeria got $1.7 billion; South Africa, $910 million; Egypt, $500 million and Kenya, $420 million.
In 2022, Nigerian startups got $1.2 billion; Kenya, $1.1 billion; Egypt, $800 million and South Africa, $555 million.
The funding, however, went south in 2023 with Kenya getting $800 million; Egypt, $640 million; South Africa, $600 million and Nigeria receiving $410 million.
Meanwhile, in the last five years, in terms of over $1 million start-ups, South Africa is slightly ahead of Kenya, noting that things are shifting over time though.
Africa: The Big Deal informed that the two closest runner-ups are Senegal and Ghana, though they have claimed almost six times less funding than Egypt since 2019.
While they might be neck and neck in absolute terms, Ghana’s position, according to the report, felt stronger than Senegal’s as a potential Big Five contender in the long run, with nearly three times as many start-ups that have raised over $1 million, including 13 that have crossed the $10 million mark in funding over the period, versus ‘only’ four in Senegal where 76 per cent of all the start-up funding since 2019 has gone to Wave alone.
The report further informed that most of the other markets where start-ups have raised over $100 million since 2019 – except DRC – are in East (Tanzania, Uganda) and North Africa (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco). It said in the latter, there are however, strong discrepancies between the three markets: in Algeria, only a couple of start-ups have disclosed funding over $1 million in the period, with Yassir alone claiming 98 per cent of the total amount.
It disclosed that Tunisia is home to a dozen ventures that raised over $1 million but more than two-thirds of the capital has gone to InstaDeep (pre-acquisition of course). Morocco however showed a much more balanced picture with close to 40 ventures having raised $1 million or more since 2019.
The report noted that beyond those, 12 countries have attracted between $10 million and $100 million in the past five years, and an additional 11 have seen some level of activity, sometimes very limited.
Africa: The Big Deal however, said there remain 19 markets however, where we have registered no deals at all, which doesn’t mean that start-ups are not being founded there, but that they are still at a stage where they mostly raise early-stage angel and F&F funding, below the $100,000 mark.
