🏅 Milestone alert 🏅 2025 beats 2023 🏅
Start-ups in Africa have now raised more funding this year than they had back in 2023
We’ve been monitoring the numbers closely — as always — and let’s be honest: the fact that the ecosystem has performed better in 2025 than in 2024 on start-up fundraising would already be a good story in itself. After two years of YoY decline (-35% YoY in 2023 and another -25% YoY in 2024), seeing positive double-digit growth (+33% YoY so far) is a real breath of fresh air. But the fact that start-ups on the continent have now raised more in 2025 than not only in 2024, but also in 2023, feels extra special. It was ‘nearly $3bn’ in 2023; it will be ‘over $3bn’ in 2025 — and the year isn’t even over yet!
Another important point: it’s not just total funding raised (exc. exits) that has surpassed 2023 levels; equity funding specifically has too. Add to that the first two IPOs in November after more than six years, plus some serious exit activity (including Walletdoc’s $23m+ acquisition announced yesterday), and we hope most of you will agree with this early end-of-year statement: 2025 has been a pretty good year.
We’ll keep it short for today, but make sure you subscribe to this newsletter to receive the latest news about start-up funding in Africa, as well as to our deals database (with this discount code) to receive an updated list of $100k+ deals every month. Obviously the full December numbers won’t drop until early January (we can’t read into the future just yet), but we already have the data from the past 6.9 years to keep you busy ;) Have a good day! Max