🗺️ 5+ years in one map

A quick look at start-up funding in Africa since 2019

While the latest news in terms of start-up funding on the continent might not be the most uplifting, this week we’re taking a step back and bringing you a quick geographical analysis of all the deals (excluding exits) included in our database i.e. almost $15 billions worth of transactions since 2019.

The most striking is obviously the relative weight of the Big Four, which have attracted 84% of all the start-up funding in Africa since 2019, with Nigeria alone representing 30% of the total. Kenya comes second, South Africa third, and Egypt a close fourth. The Big Four is also home to more than three quarters (25% for Nigeria) of all ventures having raised $1m or more during the period. In terms of $1m+ start-ups, South Africa is slightly ahead of Kenya. Things are shifting over time though: for a more detailed analysis of Big Four dynamics, check out our previous post:

🍰 2023 🍰 Big Four domination. Yes, but... 🍰

The two closest runner-ups are Senegal and Ghana, though they have claimed almost 6 times less funding than Egypt since 2019. While they might be neck and neck in absolute terms, Ghana’s position feels stronger than Senegal’s as a potential Big Five contender in the long run, with nearly 3 times as many start-ups having raised $1m+, including 13 that have crossed the $10m mark in funding over the period, versus ‘only’ four in Senegal where 76% of all the start-up funding since 2019 has gone to Wave alone.

Most of the other markets where start-ups have raised over $100m since 2019 - with the exception of DRC - are located in East (Tanzania, Uganda) and North Africa (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco). In the latter, there are however strong discrepancies between the three markets: in Algeria only a couple start-ups have disclosed funding over $1m in the period, with Yassir alone claiming 98% of the total amount. Tunisia is home to a dozen ventures that raised $1m+ but more than two thirds of the capital has gone to InstaDeep (pre-acquisition of course). Morocco however shows a much more balanced picture with close to 40 ventures having raised $1m or more since 2019.

Beyond those, 12 countries have attracted between $10m and $100m in the past five years, and an additional 11 have seen some level of activity, sometimes very limited. 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 $100k mark.

I am now on a well-deserved two-week break and Maxime is at VivaTech in Paris this week and at the Techne Summit in Cairo next week (you should definitely reach out to him if you’re also around!), so we will be a bit more quiet than usual in the next couple of weeks, but don’t worry, we keep tracking all the deals, and those of you who subscribe to our database will obviously receive their latest monthly update in early June. Ciao, Max

Oh… and in case you’re not a map person (weird!):