Of Series and Seeds

A quick look at the size of typical funding rounds in Africa

Pre-Seed, Seed, Pre-Series A, Series A… What do these labels mean in Africa? First of all, it is worth noting that just two-thirds of funding announcements do refer to one such ‘category’; a third simply don’t bother. Though the terms are widely used, they tend to refer to chronological milestones rather than to rigid definitions and pre-defined funding amounts. Indeed, the range of funding raised under each of those is very wide: you can actually come across a $5m deal labelled as a Series B, Series A, Seed, or even pre-Seed (Telda) round. Beyond those extremes, we found that:

• Most pre-Seed rounds fall between $100k and $300k, with a median at $125k

• Seed rounds most often range from $0.5m to $2.5m. The median is $1m. If we compare key countries, Seed rounds in Kenya tend to be slightly bigger ($1.25m median), comparable to the African average in Nigeria and South Africa, and quite smaller in Egypt ($0.5m median)

• At Series A level, the median deal is $3.5m, and most deals fall in the $1.5m to $15m bracket. Kenya and Egypt are aligned with the African average ($3.8m median) while deals tend to be smaller in South Africa ($2.5m median), and considerably larger in Nigeria ($9m median)

• Series B rounds mostly range from $8m to $38m, with a median at $20m

Finally, beyond pre-Seed, the use of ‘pre-’ rounds is limited. The median for the 12 pre-Series A rounds we identified is actually below that of Seed rounds ($900k vs. $1m). And pre-Series B rounds are a very rare sighting, understandably so.