🔎 Monthly highlights - Sept '23: Ouch 🤕
September 2023 was the second-lowest month in terms of start-up funding raised in africa since early 2021
Before we start: Have you heard?! On Wednesday next week, we will be holding our very first Quarterly Start-Up Funding Round-up, looking at the latest trends in funding in Africa, as of the end of Q3 2023:
It will come with a deck which we may or may not share after the live event, depending on how many of you turn up, and how nicely you ask 😉 In all seriousness, it is quite a big effort for us given how busy things are at the moment, but we’ve been asked for one of those for so long that it was really time to indulge! Now, for the grim news…
There’s no nice way to put this, really: September 2023 was the second-lowest month this year in terms of funding raised by start-ups in Africa, and that’s whether you look only at equity funding, or at all types of transactions (debt, grants, exits…). Actually, September 2023 was the second-lowest month for start-up funding in Africa since 2021…
Three transactions (equity + debt) made up 58% of all the funding raised last month: Wetility (South Africa) raised ~$48m in a mix of debt and equity; SunCulture secured $12m in debt; and Lupiya (Zambia, female-led) closed its $8.25m Series A, the first $1m+ transaction in the country in 2023 so far. There were no exits announced in September, however, it is worth noting that the shutdown of 54gene (Nigeria) was confirmed last month, after a $15m Series A in April 2020 and a $25m Series B in September 2021.
We won’t let you jump to conclusions too quickly though: this counter-performance absolutely doesn’t mean that investors are turning their backs on Africa. As a matter of fact, last month alone Enza Capital closed $58m across two funds (Hi Mike!👋), P1 Ventures reached $25m first close for its second round, and Catalyst Fund reached the first close of its fund ($8.6m; full disclosure: Maxime is a partner there). And we know Launch Africa and others are actively raising their next funds…
In cumulative terms, start-ups in Africa raised $1.4b in equity funding in the first 9 months of 2023, less than half the amount they had raised in the same period in 2022 and 2021. If we include debt and grants, 2023 numbers still track much below 2022 and 2021 numbers, though slightly less dramatically (-40% and -26% respectively). What is particularly pulling the numbers down is the fact that It has now been more than a quarter since the last $100m+ transaction was recorded, and that there have been many fewer of those in 2023 so far compared to the previous two years.
One last thing: I’m sure you have registered to our Linkedin Live on October 11 by now, but Are you 100% sure all your friends know about it? What about you nan? And her cat? Don’t hesitate to tag us on social media if you share there, and we’ll help amplify, and also feel very special at the same time. Like we did when Rosemond raised her virtual hand to help us put together the Linkedin Live (because believe it or not, we can be technically-challenged sometimes). Anyway, enough babbling… Don’t forget to take your discount code to our database on the way out! Ci vediamo! (: