🌍 The Founder Journey: Thriving Amidst Challenges 🌱

[Guest blog] Founders love what they do. But the startup grind takes a toll. Investors can be part of the solution.

By Ameya Upadhyay, Partner at Flourish Ventures

Flourish Ventures recently released findings from the first-ever large-scale survey on founder wellbeing in Africa capturing insights from nearly 200 founders across 13 countries. 

The results are clear: Founders endure immense pressures—macroeconomic uncertainty, long hours, and personal sacrifices—yet 81% say they love what they do. However, 86% report significant impacts on their mental wellbeing, with 78% describing the journey as lonely.

We began this research nearly a year ago with curiosity and an open mind on a topic that’s often overlooked and rarely discussed. As an early-stage global VC firm with purpose, Flourish invests in fintech startups working to shape financial systems for the better. In our 10+ years of backing bold entrepreneurs, our experience shows that fostering a culture of wellbeing helps founders lead their companies toward lasting success and sustainability. 

As the startup scene in Africa continues to evolve and the global economy contracts, founders face immense pressures. A concerning 60% report anxiety and 52% struggle with exhaustion and burnout. 

Investors play an important role, yet our survey found that investors add to founder stress rather than alleviating it. Fewer than 2 in 10 founders are comfortable having an open conversation with their investors. The responses indicate that there’s more open dialogue needed between founders and investors to bridge the trust gap.

As a starting point, founders have actionable advice for investors: 64% recommend taking the time to know founders as individuals, and 48% urge avoiding unrealistic demands.

By highlighting founder wellbeing and sharing this research, we aim to spark conversations, raise awareness, and foster openness—steps toward building a stronger, more supportive venture capital ecosystem. Find out how the numbers vary across regions and gender, and explore new insights in our full report here—including perspectives from founders of companies like FairMoney, Flutterwave, MaxAB, Paga, PULA, and more.

About Ameya: Ameya Upadhyay is a Venture Partner on the Africa Investment team at Flourish Ventures. Select investments include: FlutterWave, FairMoney, Apollo, Pula, MaxAB, Lendable, and Zone. Previously, Ameya worked out of Omidyar Network’s Mumbai office, where he co-led several of the firms’ early Financial Inclusion investments in India. Prior to joining Omidyar Network in 2012, Ameya was a consultant at Bain & Company.

---

By the way, are you new here? Africa: The Big Deal is your go-to database and insights on start-up funding in Africa. Don’t be shy, find you more here.

---

November comes And November goes

32 ventures raised $180m in November, as the year nearly comes to an end

I (Max) am in DC this week while Maxime is in Cape Town, and though the weather here is beautifully crisp, it does feel a bit like I’ve drawn the short end of the stick 😉… In any case, this won’t stop me of course from sharing our latest November numbers: last month, 32 start-ups in Africa announced a total of $180m in funding raised (exc. exits) in the form of debt ($122m, 68%), equity ($55.5m, 31%) and grants ($2.5m, 1%).

The largest announcement by far (44% of the total) was IFC’s backing of Sun King in Nigeria to the tune of $80m in debt. There were three other 8-digit deals in November, including Kenya-based ISP Mawingu, who raised $15m in debt and equity to finance its expansion into East Africa; and Ivorian fintech Djamo who raised a $13m Series B (only the 7th Series B to be announced this year, vs. 14 last year). Combined, the four deals represent two thirds of the funding raised on the continent last month. 76% of al the funding went to Kenya and Nigeria alone. Two ‘exits’ were also announced in November: Egyptian ‘contech’ Elmawkaa was acquired by Saudi proptech Ayen; while SteamaCo and Shyft Power Solutions merged.

In 2024 so far, start-ups on the continent have now raised $1.86b in funding (exc. exits) spread between equity ($1.2b, 64%), debt ($635m, 34%) and grants ($33m, 2%). While we can hope the $2 billion mark will get crossed by the end of December, it is now pretty clear that we will end the year significantly below the $2.9b raised in 2023…

What else? Actually something New, something Old, something Borrowed and something Blue. New, like our snazzy website we launched last week. Old, like the good old discount all of you get if you subscribe to our database using this link. Borrowed, like the hour of your time we’ll be asking you for for our 2024 Round-Up that will happen on January 16 (more details to come soon here!). And Blue, like the sky in both DC and Cape Town (on and off at least) this week.

And in case you missed the reference in the title, you can read the short and sweet - yet rather Northern hemisphere-centric - poem here.

Africa's unicorns in focus 🦄

With Moniepoint's recent announcement, we're having a closer look at how Africa's unicorns came to life; and ask the question: Who could be Next?

A couple weeks ago, Africa minted its latest unicorn, when Moniepoint announced $110m in funding. We won’t get into the debate of whether start-ups should aim to become unicorns 🦄, or zebras 🦓, or camels 🐫, or flamingoes 🦩(don’t look up this last one, I just made it up; the other ones are ‘real’ though), but I thought it was a good opportunity to look back at the continent’s unicorn history. And just as the arrival of a unicorn is an exceptional event, this piece is going to be uncharacteristically long, but hopefully worth it…

Before history, there was… prehistory. Starting in the early 2010s, one start-up in particular made headlines in Africa, repeatedly, by raising funding in volumes never heard of before, and that we wouldn’t hear of again until the end of the decade: Jumia. Between 2012 and 2014, the e-commerce start-up is thought to have raised more than $200m, culminating in a $300m round for its parent company Africa Internet Group in March 2016, earning AIG its ‘unicorn’ title. The company continued to grow until its listing on the NYSE through an IPO in April 2019 (therefore automatically giving up its unicorn label). From an initial market cap of $3bn, it then dropped dramatically, went back up to $5bn, but has mostly been again below the $1bn mark since early 2022 (at the time of writing, it is around $600m). Another company sometimes mistakenly identified as a unicorn is Egyptian fintech fawry. Fawry went public on the Egyptian stock exchange in 2019, reaching a $1 billion valuation as a public company rather than a private start-up. Although its market cap exceeded $1bn for an extended period, it currently stands at approximately $600m.

But let’s now focus on the organisations generally agreed to make up Africa’s current unicorn list, in chronological order:

• First up is Interswitch. The Nigerian fintech kicked things off when it announced a very large investment from Visa in November 2019 (estimated at $200m), opening a new season of 9-digit rounds on the continent. With a valuation of $1bn, it was most likely the only unicorn on the continent at the time, reaching this status 18 years after being founded in 2002 (while the average for its future peers will be 5 years). The start-up then announced a new funding round of $110m in May 2022, but did not comment on its valuation at the time. Without any indication that this could have been a ‘down round’, we can assume that Interswitch retained its unicorn status.

• After announcing its $35m Series B in January 2020, Nigerian fintech (another one) Flutterwave joined Interswitch in the unicorn club in March 2021 with its $170m Series C and a valuation of over $1bn. This valuation was seriously bumped up a year later in February 2022, trebling to ‘over $3bn’ with the announcement of Flutterwave’s $250m Series D. ‘Over $3bn’ remains the highest valuation claimed by any of the existing unicorns on the continent, so the company might well be the most valuable privately-owned start-up in Africa today.

• The next venture to enter mythical equid territory was another Nigerian fintech (!), OPay. A $50m Series A in June 2019 led to a $120m Series B in November the same year, which in turn led to a staggering $400m Series C in August 2021 - the largest single equity round on the continent, ever -, which came with the announcement of a $2bn valuation, the highest of all unicorns at the time (a title Flutterwave reclaimed a few months later, as we just saw). An article earlier this year highlighted that one of its investors - Opera - now considers OPay’s valuation to be ‘almost $3bn’; not quite Flutterwave’s ‘over $3bn’, but not far.

• Two weeks later in early September 2021, it was time for Wave to make their big splash and announce a $200m Series A at a $1.7bn valuation. Wave was a spin-off of remittance start-up Sendwave which was acquired by WorldRemit in 2020 for around half a billion dollars. This explains how the start-up went from no funding raised to raising the largest Series A at the time (4x times OPay’s 2019 Series A). There has not been new funding activity - or any valuation updates - in the 3+ years since this round.

• Just three weeks after the Wave announcement, another unicorn was born when edtech Andela announced a $200m Series E in late September 2021, and a valuation of $1.5bn. It was actually not Andela’s first ‘mega deal’ as their previous round was a $100m Series D in January 2019. The company hasn’t announced further funding in the past three years, and there are some concerns that its valuation might have since taken a bit of a hit. Some of the articles covering the recent announcement of its new CEO Carrol Chang - one of the very few women leading a large start-up on the continent - labelled the company as ‘once valued at $1.5bn’.

• It didn’t take much more than a month for Chipper Cash to be the one making headlines. The fintech had been on a roll since they’d announced their $13.8m Series A in June 2020. A $30m Series B followed in November of the same year, and six months later in May 2021, a $100m Series C. While co-CEO Serunjogi described the start-up at the time as “probably the most valuable private startup in Africa”, TC - amongst others - concluded that it was not yet a unicorn. It didn’t last long though for them to announce a $150m Series C extension in November, which came with the confirmation of a valuation ‘slightly above $2bn’, and therefore a ‘unicorn’ tag. Chipper hasn’t raised since, and multiple rounds of layoffs starting in late 2022 have led some to question whether its valuation could in fact now be lower...

• And then things got quiet on the unicorn minting front. The 2021 gold rush was over. As the funding heatwave ended in mid-2022, conversations shifted to less whimsical topics. That’s until Egyptian fintech MNT-Halan defied the odds and announced $260m in equity (+$140m in debt) in January 2023, following a ~$15m Series B in January 2020 and a $120m round in September 2021. The valuation was then estimated at ‘about $1bn’; however, later data shared as the start-up raised its next round - $157.5m in July 2024 - not only updated the valuation as ‘over $1bn’ but seemed to confirm that the venture was indeed already a unicorn back in January 2023.

• Nearly two years - 20 months - went by before we could pop the cork again with the news last month - which I’m sure you couldn’t miss - that Moniepoint was now valued at ‘over $1bn’ following its $60m Series C, according to ‘sources close to the transaction’. Slow and steady wins the race as they say, as the company’s Series A ($5.5m) actually dated back to February 2019 and was followed 2.5 years later by a $30m Series B in July 2021 and a year after that by a $50m+ (pre-Series C) round in August 2022.

If we add up the latest shared valuations of these eight unicorns, we land somewhere around $15bn for a total equity raised of about $3bn since 2019. For comparison’s sake, according to our data, start-ups in Africa have raised a total of $13bn in equity during the same period.

---

Do you need access to a full list of deals for unicorns, soonicorns and any start-up that has raised at least $100k since 2019? Then don’t miss out on an opportunity to get a sweet little discount and subscribe to our database HERE.

---

I appreciate it’s a pretty long post already, but I wanted to finish on a bit of a crystal ball moment 🔮, interrogating who could be the next unicorns - or ‘soonicorns’ - or maybe even hidden unicorns on the continent, by looking at the ventures that have raised significant funding but not yet earned their badge (at least ‘officially’, as some might have decided not to communicate on their valuation). They fall roughly into four categories:

1. The Fintech players, of course. After all, seven out of the eight existing unicorns are Fintech… TymeBank ($280m+ equity raised since 2019) recently announced a valuation ‘close to $1bn’ and are rumoured to be planning a $150m Series D, which would almost certainly earn them their unicorn status. Other potential contenders could include onafriq ($203m+), Jumo ($175m+; latest valuation shared of $400m when they last raised in 2021), PalmPay ($140m+; who also haven’t raised since 2021) and Yoco with its $83m Series C back in July 2021. We could also add Kuda ($92m+) to the list, who announced a $55m Series B back in August 2021, at a $500m valuation; however doubts were raised earlier this year about their ability to maintain this valuation.

2. The Energy guys that have built a lot of traction thanks to their ‘BNPL’/pay-as-you-go models could also be contenders. In this group, you would find Sun King ($400m+ equity raised since 2019 | $641m+ if we include debt), M-Kopa ($140m+ | $460m+) - who have now seriously branched out of the energy space -, and to a lesser extent d.light ($34m+ | $312m+) and Bboxx ($81m+ | $134m+)

3. The ‘mobility’ folks also come to mind, though only moove ($242m+ | $422m+) - who after their $110m investment in March are now valued at $750m -, and Yassir ($181m+) - who at the time of their $150m Series B in November 2022 dubbed themselves ‘the most valuable startup in North Africa’ (no offense, MNT-Halan) - could potentially claim the coveted unicorn badge in the near future. Planet 42 ($47m+ | $171m+) might get there in the longer run. Spiro has also raised $113m+ since 2019, but most of it seems to have been debt.

4. Finally the ‘retailers’ are worth mentioning, though they might have a much harder time joining the unicorn list as the current economic climate (inflation, FX etc.) has affected them heavily in some cases. In this category, you would find Wasoko+MaxAB ($243m+ combined) whose merger was completed this summer, but also TradeDepot ($120m+) or Twiga Foods ($120m+ | $149m+), though the latest news on the latter are not so encouraging. Copia Global would have once made this list of aspirant unicorns, but has since gone under.

My last mention before I close will go to InstaDeep. Had they not been acquired by BioNTech last year, they would most probably today have a very special spot on Africa’s unicorn hall of fame… 🎖️

We’re going to stop here, cause that’s quite a bit of information. As you’ll have seen, I have included links to a lot of sources - in particular for existing unicorns - but you can find a detailed list of deals for all the companies mentioned above - including unicorn hopefuls, and so many more - in our comprehensive deal database. If you like special discounts, you’ll want to make sure you use this link when subscribing. Ciao! Max

Best October on record 🌳💜

Start-ups in Africa raised $250m+ in funding last month, while Moniepoint made headlines

By now, we assume that you’ve all checked out our 3-part series (1, 2 & 3) on Q3 numbers, and have downloaded the underlying deck. So let’s move on, shall we:

Believe it or not, it’s November already, as you can tell by the jacarandas blooming all over Nairobi, and Southern Africa’s main cities. And purple must be a lucky colour as October 2024 was a good vintage: 42 start-ups raised a total of $254m in funding through $100k+ equity, debt and grant deals (excluding exits) last month. From an amount perspective, this is the second-best month this year (after July), and almost 50% over the previous 12-month average. As a matter of fact, it is the best October on record since 2019!

Nigerian Fintech Moniepoint’s $110m Series C (43% of the total) was on everybody’s lips last week, and understandably so. The continent is thought to have minted its 8th unicorn (though the valuation of some of Moniepoint’s peers is based on their last raise which in some cases is getting quite old…). The other two largest rounds last month were BasiGo’s $42m Series A and cryptocurrency exchange Yellow Card’s $33m Series C. Overall, 60% of the funding in October went to start-ups in Nigeria, and 60% to Fintech; 98% was invested in start-ups with a male CEO; 97% in ventures without a female founder (#notimpressed). One exit was also announced last month: OmniRetail acquired Traction Apps in Nigeria.

In 2024 so far, start-ups in Africa have now raised $1.7 billion in total (exc. exits), down -32% YoY compared to the same time in 2023. Last year, this much had already been announced by early June i.e. almost 5 months earlier than in 2024. 393 ventures have already raised $100k or more in 2024 (-10% YoY), 137 of which have announced $1m or more in funding (-20% YoY). Now… Bring it on, November!

Do you need access to the full list of deals? If you haven’t already, you can subscribe to our database with a little discount using this link. We’re talking less than $15 monthly to receive an updated list of all $100k+ deals in Africa every month. That’s around 35¢ a deal, and we have ~30 data points per deal … How much would you need to spend if you wanted to compile this data yourself? Anyway, if you don’t need that level of detail, you’re still welcome to our free (almost) weekly insights here of course! Bonne journée :) Max

A not so chilly funding winter for Kenya ⛰️

Sharing our full Q3 Round-Up deck, and a quick zoom on Kenyan numbers

First of all, you can find the link to download the deck behind the three-part Q3 2024 Round-Up we published in the past couple of weeks 👉👉here👈 👈 . We’re always very happy to see our content pop up all over your decks and social media; we’re just asking you to make sure you quote us when you use it, just so others can know how to find more…

Also, I am actually in Nairobi this week for a bit of a last-minute trip and I was looking at our database on the plane to get a sense of the trends in start-up funding in Kenya, and I couldn’t resist putting together a quick graph and analysis to share with you all.

Overall, the trend we can observe when it comes to start-up funding in Kenya in the past 6 years is very much in line with the overall dynamics at continent level. But I was mostly curious to see how Kenya was faring compared to its ‘Big Four’ counterparts (who together have attracted more than 80% of all the funding since 2019). And the short answer is: Kenya’s doing pretty well. Indeed, in both 2023 and 2024 so far, Kenya ranks number 1 as the country on the continent that has attracted the most funding over both periods. With 27% of all the start-up funding in 2023 and 31% in 2024YTD, it is punching above its weight compared to its share of Africa’s population and nominal GDP (~4%, #7). Apart from 2021, it has been at either #1 or #2 since 2019, but its share of total funding (31%) is currently at its highest over the whole period. Another indicator which is usually quite telling is the number of ventures in the country who raise at least $1m in the period. Here again, the dynamics are positive: while Kenya’s share has always hovered around 20%, since 2023 it is ranking second (to Nigeria in 2023, and to Egypt in 2024TD).

Overall, it feels like Kenya is doing pretty well relatively to its peers in the funding winter in particular. Indeed, during the funding heatwave (mid-2021 to mid-2022), the country attracted about 18% of the staggering $6.3 billion raised by start-ups on the continent during the 12-month period, ranking second behind Nigeria, but a very distant second as start-ups in Nigeria had raised twice as much as in Kenya then. Since the end of the funding heatwave and the beginning of the consecutive ‘funding winter’ in mid-2022, Kenya is now #1 with 26% of the funding, attracting 1.5x the amount raised in Nigeria (now #3, with Egypt at #2). In terms of number of ventures raising at least $1m during each period, Kenya went from #3 (18%) during the funding heatwave to #2 (20%) since, with Nigeria retaining the lead.

Voilà! That’s it for today, but we’ll be back soon, before you get a chance to miss us. Thanks again for your ongoing support here on substack (11k+ followers) but also on Linkedin (14k followers). And a special shout-out to those of you who are subscribed to our database and using the data to ensure Africa gets the attention - and funding! - it deserves. Have a good week and See you soon. Max

And in case you’ve been living under a rock and missed our Q3 Round-Up, you can bring yourself up to speed here:

🌅 Here comes the Q3 Round-Up [1/3]

🌄 The Q3 Round-Up continues [2/3]

🌇 Wrapping up the Q3 Round-Up [3/3]