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Mega deals aside, Ghana is most likely to challenge the Big Four... one day
It is a known fact that the ‘Big Four’ are attracting most of the investment, of the attention - and of the talent - on the continent: start-ups in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Egypt have raised 83% of all the funding and signed 78% of all $1m+ deals since 2019. And there is no sign of things changing any time soon as these percentages are also very consistent over time. Nigeria is leading the pack with an average of one $1m+ deal announced every week since 2019 (192 in total), and $20m raised weekly on average, almost twice as much as its runner-up Kenya. But which countries can pretend - or hope - to be joining this exclusive group in the future? A year after our previous post on the topic, let’s have another look at the 5 markets that have claimed at least 1% of the funding since 2019:
Ghana (2.6% of the total) is by far the most consistent: it is the only market to have claimed at least 1% of the total raised yearly since 2019. Overall, start-ups in Ghana have raised $250m+ since 2019. In 2019, it didn’t come too far from the lowest performing ‘Big Four’ market South Africa that year ($81m vs. $55m). However, over the full period Ghana remains far behind the ‘Big Four’, with 4.5 times less money raised and $1m+ deals announced than the #4, Egypt. In 2022TD though, the gap isn’t so big, at least in terms of funding raised: start-ups in Ghana have raised half of what their Egyptian or South African counterparts have raised so far...
Senegal (2.5%)’s performance is almost entirely driven by Wave’s 2021 $200m Series A, which represents more than 4/5th of the total raised by start-ups in the country over the period.
Tanzania (1.6%) managed to claim more than 2% of the total raised in both 2020 and 2021. Beyond Zola’s $90m raise in 2021 though, start-ups in Tanzania have barely raised over $60m since 2019.
Comparably to Senegal, Tunisia (1.5%)’s numbers are mostly driven by one deal: InstaDeep’s recently announced $100m Series B, which makes up 2/3rd of the amount raised in the country since 2019.
Finally Uganda (1.3%) claims a decent number of $1m+ deals (~5 a year on average).
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