Raise like an Egyptian 🎶

Northern Africa keeps growing its share of African funding, with Egypt leading the charge

Following the very positive feedback on our Eastern Africa post - and while we wait anxiously for the Q2 results - we thought we’d look at another region this week. And as Maxime was in Cairo last week, Northern Africa it is! Overall, close to $1.5bn have been invested in start-ups in Northern Africa since 2019, which represents 15% of the total invested on the continent. Things really took off in 2021 when the total raised grew fourfold YoY compared to 2021 ($685m vs. $172m). And the numbers in 2022 are also very solid so far: between January and May 2022, start-ups in the region have already raised $475m, which is 3.2x times the amount they had raised over the same period last year. Northern Africa is also growing faster than the continental average (3.2x vs. 2.3x). With $1.25bn raised since 2019, Egypt clearly dominates the region. Its numbers are not so much driven by a handful of mega deals, but rather by a healthy mix of early- and later-stage deals; in 2022 so far, a new deal is signed every 2.5 days, which is on par with the 2021 performance. Its share of the regional funding is progressively decreasing though: it came down from 93% in 2019, to 76% in Jan-May 2022. The 10 largest deals recorded in the region between 2019 and 2021 had all happened in Egypt… until InstaDeep raised its $100m Series B in January 2022. The deal helped consolidate Tunisia’s position as the runner-up in the region - though still far behind Egypt - with an enviable growth trajectory: $7m in 2019, $14m in 2020, $23m in 2021, and already $104m in 2022, as of May. It is followed by Morocco ($47m through 35 deals since 2019), and Algeria ($35m, most of which are Yassir’s $30m Series A in 2021). With a growing early-stage scene, 15 start-ups from the region part of Y Combinator (including Yassir actually), one can hope the region has even more growth up its sleeve…

As last week’s post on Eastern Africa got quite a bit of traction on both Linkedin and Twitter (300+ likes each), I am curious to see what the response will be from the Northern Africa folks. Just saying… 😉 Meanwhile, if you want to get into the weeds, you can always refer to our comprehensive database of deals, available at a discount for you readers here.