Comparison is the thief of joy. Or is it?
A look at the most active countries in terms of VC funding in Africa, compared to their regional GDP and population rankings
This week we’re considering the Top 10 most active countries in terms of VC funding raised in 2022, and looking at whether it’s just about right they are on this list, because they’re also in the Top 10 in terms of GDP and population (🫳) or if they’ve punched about their weight as they don’t feature in the GDP and/or population Top 10 (👍). We also have to consider those that did not make it to the VC funding Top 10 despite being in the top 10 in terms of GDP and/or population (👎)... So, Who are they?
🫳 In the first group, we find our Big Four usual suspects: Nigeria (1-1-1)*, Kenya (7-2-7), Egypt (3-3-3), and South Africa (2-4-6). Kenya’s performance is particularly noteworthy. Algeria (4-6-10) also makes this list, despite only registering three $100k+ deals in 2022, one of which being Yassir’s $150m Series B which catapulted the country in the Top 10. Tanzania (10-9-5) completes the list.
👍 Tunisia (13-7-31) and Senegal (19-8-25) performed extremely well in 2022, as the two countries weren’t in either the GDP Top 10 or the population Top 10 last year, yet made it to the Top 10 in VC funding raised. Ghana (8-5-13) ranked fifth in terms of VC funding despite not being one of the ten most populous countries on the continent. Uganda (16-10-8) completed the VC Top 10 despite not being part of the ten African countries with the highest GDP in 2022.
👎 Ethiopia (6-21-2) was the only market in both the GDP and the population Top 10, but not in the VC Top 10 (it ranked as low as #21). While they were both in the Top 10 in terms of GDP, Cote d’Ivoire (9-12-16) and Morocco (5-13-11) did not make the VC Top 10 in 2022; however, they came quite close at #12 and #13 respectively. The same goes for DRC (12-11-4) who just about missed the VC funding Top 10 despite being the fourth most populous country on the continent. Finally Sudan (17-20-9), another one of Africa’s ten most populous countries, ranked #20 in VC funding raised in 2022.
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Thanks everyone for being with us yet another week. Next week will be our 100th post! Who would have thought when we launched this newsletter in 2021 that we’d manage to keep producing insights every week (OK, almost every week) for two years? I’ll be honest, I had my doubts … But here we are, going strong with more than 7,000 faithful weekly readers, and enough positive feedback to fuel a rocket ;) And while two years is an achievement, think about the database, which Maxime - now with Elodie’s help - has been updating continuously… for more than four years now! 😅
* (nominal GDP - VC funding - Population): the ‘scores’ next to each country name correspond to the country’s regional ranking along the three dimensions.