H1 2026: Mapping the money📍

Egypt in the lead while Nigeria regains territory. South Africa - and to a lesser extent Kenya - underperform.

Last week, we looked at high-level H1 2026 numbers, including how much was raised, deal volume, equity vs. debt, exits… This week, let’s focus on the markets where most of the money was raised and deals happened:

Egypt is the country that attracted most funding in H1 with a total of $327m, followed by Nigeria ($254m), Kenya ($126m) and South Africa ($83m). Benin-born Spiro* alone raised as much as all Egyptian ventures ($270m equity + $57m debt); given their heavy operations in Kenya, it puts Kenya’s decline in perspective a bit. The Big Four attracted ‘only’ 58% of the funding, though there is a Spiro effect here of course. If we focus purely on equity, Nigeria actually came on top ($214m) with Egypt second ($183m), and the other two some distance behind ($66m in South Africa, $46m in Kenya). Beyond the Big Four, three markets attracted more than $25m in total funding in H1: Tanzania, Côte d’Ivoire, and Morocco.

We also find Morocco on the list of ecosystems with at least 10 start-ups raising $100k+ in H1 along with Tanzania, and Ghana (which underperformed in terms of funding raised, placing only #11). Zooming back on the Big Four (110 out of 190 $100k+ deals i.e. 58%), Nigeria is head and shoulders above its peers, with Egypt and Kenya almost tying, and South Africa in fourth position again. If you compare with what the two maps above looked like a year ago (I kept the same scale and design), you’ll see quite a bit of continuity, but also some dramatic changes (inc. on funding raised in Senegal and South Africa, or on number of ventures funded in Egypt and South Africa):

Same Lineup, Different ranking 🏆

If we spend a little more time on the dynamics at the top, first from a total funding raised perspective**, we see that both Egypt and Nigeria have been quite consistent in the past four periods. At 27%, Egypt’s share of the total funding raised on the continent in H1 was at its highest since we started tracking. Nigeria‘s amount has been remarkably stable since as far back as H2 2022, though it surpassed the $250m mark for the first time since 2022. On the opposite side of the spectrum, after a pretty impressive H2 2025 Kenya fell to its lowest level since early 2021. South Africa, which was topping the charts a year ago, did not reach $100m in funding in H1.

Finally, if we focus on the number of ventures raising at least $100k (exc. grants) during the period, Nigeria is back on top after an underwhelming H2 2025. The drops we’re seeing in the rest of the Big Four - both HoH and YoY - echo the concerns we have been raising repeatedly since the beginning of the year about the concentration of the money on larger deals and the lack of early-stage tickets, especially at the lower end of the range…

As you know, a full and detailed breakdown of deals for all countries is available in our comprehensive deal database. If you don’t mind a discount, be sure to subscribe via this link. Bonne semaine! Max

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*While Spiro ceased to be Benin-focused around 2022-2023, moving its HQ to Nairobi while the holding is in Dubai, we had continued to ‘tag’ them as Benin in our database to recognise their roots. To reflect the pan-African nature of their operations, we will tag them as ‘Africa’ moving forward.

**If you prefer to look at the share rather than the amount, try this graph: