🖋️ Who are the investors signing all these deals?!

A look at the 10 most active investors in Africa in 2021

To sign hundreds and hundreds of $100k+ deals like it happened in Africa in 2021 - more than 800 of them in total -, you need a very active investor community. As a matter of fact, we’ve identified over 800 unique investors involved in at least one deal on the continent last year. However, most of them (70%) only dipped a toe and were involved in just one deal; this number reaches 81% if you include investors who have ‘only’ done 1 or 2 deals. But this week, we’re looking at those who have gone all in! Though it’s not impossible a deal or two might have escaped us - due to the sheer number of them, and some being undisclosed - some heavy hitters clearly emerge. Of the most active investors in Africa in 2021, Launch Africa is leading both in terms of number of deals (we tracked 67!) and of countries they invested in (13). Though they come at #2, Google’s Black Founders Fund (BFF) is a bit different in that the $5m they allocated in 2021 were ‘non-diluted cash awards’. If we decide not to count Google’s BFF, the investor Top 3 is made of Launch Africa, LoftyInc Capital and Flat6Labs, 3 VCs headquartered in Africa (Mauritius/South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt respectively). Future Africa is the 4th Africa-HQ’ed one in the Top 10. Three - on top of BFF - are HQ’ed in the US: Y Combinator and Techstars (both global in scope) and 4DX ventures (Africa-focused). Kepple Africa (Japan) and Norrsken (Norway) complete the Top 10. Now, where are they investing? Almost all of them have done at least a deal in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Ghana in 2021. The only exception is Flat6Labs who have exclusively invested in Northern Africa. In terms of attractiveness, Egypt comes next (7 investors out of the Top 10), followed closely by Côte d’Ivoire (6/10) and Senegal (5/10), though the former registered considerably more deals in absolute numbers. Collectively, they have invested in 21 different countries, looking way beyond the ‘Big Four’. Bearing in mind that all these players are mostly investing at pre-seed and seed stage, they’re creating a very strong pipe of later stage deals that will hopefully make headlines in 2022 and beyond!

Now, are you curious to know what deals they have invested in? Maybe you’re a VC yourself looking for your next Series A investment, or a start-up looking to raise their first round? In any case, you can find out all this info - and more - in our curated database. But wait… because we really appreciate you reading this newsletter, you can subscribe with a discount if you click this link ;)