3 records for the price of one
OPay's $400m mega round (but not only) takes the ecosystem to new heights
Where do we begin?…
Back in mid July, the ecosystem had already raised as much as it had in the whole of 2019 through $1m+ deals*. As of last Friday - and even before ‘The News’ that dropped yesterday (see below) -, the total amount raised by start-ups in Africa so far this year had just surpassed the total amount raised in 2020 overall ($1.6bn).
And then on Monday, the rumours of an upcoming mega round by OPay - which had been going around since May - were confirmed to be true: the company just announced a $400m funding round. This is the largest round on record for the continent. And it means the ecosystem has now reached another milestone with over $2bn raised in 2021 so far.
Finally, it goes without saying that with the very good level of activity the ecosystem had already seen this month, and this extra $400m top-up, August 2021 will be the most successful month on record, a title held until now by November 2019, with $475m raised, driven by Interswitch’s unicorn-making round, and… OPay’s $120m Series B.
As they say: Onward and Upward!
We’re still enjoying a bit of a break but we’ll be back very soon with our regular Monday morning posts. In the meanwhile, you can always go back to previous posts, make a bit of noise on social media, give us ideas for future analysis… or just sit back and enjoy a m/cocktail 🍹
* For comparability’s sake with 2019 and 2020, all the numbers used include only deals $1m & over. Deals between $100k and $1m represent at least an extra $42m in 2021 so far. For a full list of those, check out the database here.