All eyes on Africa

7 out of 10 investors involved in $100k+ deals in Africa in 2021 so far are HQ'ed outside the continent

A few weeks ago, we looked at investors who had done at least 10 deals in Africa: Launch Africa (Mauritius), Kepple Ventures Africa (Japan), Y Combinator (US) and Flat6Labs (Egypt). They have since been joined by Norrsken (Sweden), and we thought we’d look at where investors in Africa come from: 

• Of the 369 investors who have been involved in at least one $100k+ deal in Africa this year, 110 (30%) are headquartered on the continent. They tend to be quite active: 40% have been involved in more than one deal in the past 6 months. The 'Big Four’ are home to 84% of active ‘local’ investors, with South Africa (30) leading the way, followed by Nigeria (28) and Egypt (23); Kenya is quite further behind, with 11 active investors so far this year, none of which are in the Top20 in terms of number of deals. 

• The US is home to more investors involved in a deal in Africa than Africa itself: 133. US-based investors are however significantly less active than Africa-based investors: 87% of them have so far only participated in one deal.

• In Europe, the UK and France combined (with 20 each) make up more than half of investors active in Africa this year; the remaining 39 investors originate from quite a diverse group of countries, 12 in total.

• Japan (9) is by far the country with the most active investors from Asia-Pacific (23 in total); the absence of almost any recorded activity from China-based investors is worth noting. Finally, of the 21 active investors based in the Middle East, the majority are from either the UAE (8) or Saudi Arabia (7).