It ain't over yet.

Funding raised by start-ups in Africa reaches a 6-month high in November, courtesy of MNT-Halan

All transaction types considered, start-ups in Africa raised at least $270 million in new funding in November, mostly debt ($154m) and equity ($101m). The largest transaction by far was MNT Halan’s $130m securitised bond issuance, which represented almost half of all the funding tracked, and was the first non-M&A 9-digit deal since May when Sun King and M-Kopa had raised a combined $350 in debt financing.

Actually, Debt is king in 2023, with nearly $1.1 billion in debt raised as of November 30th compared to $676m and $257m at the same time in 2022 and 2021 respectively. For every $1 of equity announced, 70¢ in debt were raised in 2023 so far versus 19¢ in 2022 and 7¢ in 2021. While debt numbers might have been underreported in the past (either not announced or rolled in with equity numbers), this evolution points to a trend in start-ups on the continent using debt to finance their growth, especially through large deals: with almost $700m of debt raised this year so far, MTN-Halan, Sun King and M-Kopa represent nearly two thirds of the total.

The total amount of funding raised by start-ups in Africa this year so far (equity + debt + grants over $100k) has now reached $2.6 billion, including $1.5 billion in equity (see equity graph at the bottom of this post). While this is only 60% of the total amount raised at the same time last year, the drop is probably less catastrophic than most observers could have feared earlier in the year. The trend is a little less encouraging though when it comes to equity only, with the 2023 tally to date representing only 40% of its 2022 and 2021 level ($3.7 billion).

Voilà. We now have to wait for a month until we know how the year will have ended. But it will most likely go by quite fast as while the last deals get inked, a lot of us will be busy with well-deserved end of year celebrations and family time :) Oh, and don’t forget that if you need to access all the underlying data, you can do so thanks to our database, which you lovely readers get to enjoy with a discount. Bye for now!