A $1m+ deal a day...

Since July 2021, a $1m+ deal is announced on average every day by an African start-up

If you’re tracking deals in Africa like us, you might have found it a bit hard to keep up lately, due to the sheer number of those: since early July, there has been on average one $1m+ deal announced every single day. And the acceleration is clear: in 2019, a $1m+ deal was announced on average every 3 days; every other day in 2020; and every 1.6 days in the first half of 2021. Until July 2021, there had never been a month when more than a $1m+ deal a day was announced; since then, it’s also happened in August, and in October. And this momentum is seen across the board. For instance, back in 2019, there only was a $1m+ deal announced outside the ‘Big Four’ (Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Egypt) every other week on average; in 2021 so far it’s happening every week. In the same period, the ecosystem went from a $1m+ fintech deal announced every 10 days, to 2 such deals announced a week. In 2019, one had to wait on average 6 weeks (!) between two $1m+ deals announced for a female-led start-up; in 2021 one comes across one of those every 10 days. It is an impressive increase, but shouldn’t hide the big gap that remains between female- and male-led start-ups: during this average 10-day period it takes for the $1m+ deal by a female-lead start-up to be announced, 7 such deals from male-led start-ups will have made the news…

Thanks for being with us this week again. It’s so exciting to see so much happening in the ecosystem, and with the end of the year in sight, we’re excited to be able to update some of our analysis for the whole year. In the meanwhile, remember that if you know anyone around you who think would enjoy this newsletter, a share might also get them a chance to get a free subscription to the database if they subscribe by the 10th!