🧩 Mapping the Unmappable: Start-up investments vs. GDP (PPP) per capita
Comparing start-up investments with GDP (PPP) per capita in Africa
As you may remember, last month we published a post looking at the ranking of the main ecosystems on the continent in terms of start-up funding (2019-2024), compared to how the same countries rank in terms of population and GDP. You can refresh your memory here:
Cream always rises to the top, they say
Are the largest African countries in terms of economy and population also those attracting the most start-up funding?
We loved your reactions and comments - as always -, including some of the suggestions that were shared in terms of improving the analysis. In particular, some of you pointed out that GDP (PPP) was a ‘better’ metric to use than nominal GDP. Fair point. Another recurrent suggestion expressed the need to show the information for all 54 African nations, as opposed to the Top 10.
So, I went back to the drawing board, and after quite a few failed attempts, found what I think is the most visual way to display all of that in one graph: basically using total start-up funding since 2019 as the y-axis, and GDP (PPP) per capita as the x-axis, to account for both the size of the economy and the size of the population; and breaking both down in ranges as opposed to using exact values: I tried a bubble graph at first but it wasn’t a viable option due to the high level of disparity between countries for both metrics. (The nerdiest of you might suggest using a logarithmic scale, but I generally refrain from doing that, as I’ve seen too many misinterpretations when I tried it in the past). So, Here you go:
Don’t worry, I’m not going to do a full country-by-country description of the graph... But for those of you who might be getting slightly overwhelmed, I will just point out that the way to read this is basically by drawing a diagonal from the top left corner to the bottom right corner. Any country above the line is ‘punching above its weight’, i.e. its start-up ecosystem is relatively better at attracting funding that its economic/demographic weight might suggest. The farthest away from the line the better. The most telling example here is DRC which ranks at #13 in terms of total start-up funding raised since 2019 ($114m), despite being antepenultimate (basically #52 out of 54, $1.2k pc) when it comes to GDP (PPP) per capita.
OK, I’ll leave you to zoom in now - or zoom out - on this graph… You know the drill: if you need all the underlying data in terms of start-up funding, you should check out our database, which you can access here at a discount. If you need the graph itself at a higher, here is a pdf version:
And if for whatever reason you need the data I used for the graph specifically, message me on Linkedin and I can clean up my Excel table and share it with you.
We’ll see you in early May now, for a look at April numbers. Spoiler alert: at the time of writing, more than $230m have already been raised. So it’s not going to be a repeat of the March disappointment :) A bientôt! Max
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As useful as usual Max and Maxime