Disclosed by Africa: The Big Deal, the amount raised was well below the $276 million recorded in January 2025 and also under the average monthly total of $263 million seen over the past 12 months. 

Still, it was higher than January figures from earlier years, including 2023 and 2024, when funding volumes were far lower.

What stood out in January was not just the money, but the number of deals. 

Only 26 startups across the continent announced funding of $100,000 or more. That figure is unusually low and the weakest monthly count since at least 2020. 

A small group of companies accounted for much of the funding announced during the month. In Egypt, fintech firm valU secured $64 million in debt from the National Bank. 

Nigeria-based mobility financing company MAX raised $24 million through a mix of equity and asset-backed debt.

Several other firms closed double-digit rounds. NowPay, another Egyptian fintech, raised $20 million in equity. Moroccan proptech start-up Yakeey announced a $15 million Series A round. 

Terra Industries raised $12 million, while Côte d’Ivoire fintech company Cauridor announced a round of more than $10 million.

There were also transactions that did not count towards the funding total. Flutterwave acquired Nigerian startup Mono in an all-stock deal valued at about $30 million. 

Tech talent company Savannah was acquired by Commit, and Izili Group took over off-grid solar firm Qotto.

January is usually a slow month for startup funding, both African and international, especially after a busy December, and similar dips were recorded at the start of 2023, 2024 and 2025, not just 2026. 

Even so, the thin deal flow this time has shown how tough investors have become.

Fintech continued to attract the largest share of capital, but deals in property technology, mobility and defence showed that interest was spread across sectors. 

Egypt and Nigeria led activity, while Morocco and Côte d’Ivoire featured through fewer but sizeable transactions.

By the end of March, only $50 million had been raised, one of the worst months for African startup funding since late 2020.

As revealed in the latest report by Africa: The Big Deal, the impact was a first-quarter total of $460 million—just 5% lower than Q1 2024’s $486 million, but that’s hardly reassuring. 

The previous year wasn’t great either, and this quarter now ranks as the second-worst since 2020. The number of startups raising at least $1 million remained stable at 52, keeping pace with the 2023–2024 average. But the bigger issue is no big deals, no momentum, and no sign of improvement in March.

As usual, the bulk of the money flowed into the continent’s established tech hubs. Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa each pulled in roughly $100 million (24%, 24%, and 22% of the total, respectively). 

Egypt followed with $61 million (14%). Togo made a rare appearance in the top five, solely due to Gozem’s $30 million Series B round.

Fintech, the usual magnet for funding, held its grip on the market, attracting 46% of the total investment. Notable deals included LemFi’s $53 million and Naked Insurance’s $38 million. Energy startups secured 18% of the funding, while logistics and transportation claimed 10%.

Female Founders Get Just 1% of the Money

The gender funding gap refuses to close. Startups with female CEOs raised only $10 million in Q1—just over 2% of the total. Strip out grants, and that figure collapses to an abysmal 0.7%. The single largest funding round for a female-led startup was a $6.2 million grant awarded to South African biotech firm African Biologics.

Meanwhile, the industry is still overwhelmingly male-dominated. Solo male founders took 11% of total funding, and all-male founding teams pocketed 67%. Diverse teams—those with at least one female co-founder—secured 20%. But solo female founders or all-female teams? Just 1% of the pie.

The most striking feature of Q1 2025 wasn’t just the drop in funding—it was the absence of major deals. In March, not a single startup announced a funding round exceeding $10 million. That’s unusual, and it raises serious questions about investor confidence.

So, what happens next? The market isn’t in free fall, but it’s not thriving either. Investors seem hesitant, large-scale bets are disappearing, and if this trend continues, African startups could be in for a rough year.

It’s not all doom and gloom, though. The long-term trend still shows resilience, and startup activity hasn’t dropped dramatically. But without major deals to drive momentum, the ecosystem is running on fumes.

As revealed by Africa: The Big Deal, that’s nearly 3.5 times more than the $85 million raised in January last year. This funding majorly came from the renewable energy, fintech, insurtech, and education sectors.

Investors are pouring money into Africa’s innovation sector, not allowing the challenges sway them. More than 90% of January’s funding—$262 million—came from equity deals, making it the second-largest January for startup equity financing since 2019, only behind the funding frenzy of 2022.

Big Money, Big Players

While there were 40 funding deals above $100,000 last month, the real game-changers were the 26 deals that were over $1 million—more than last year’s 21 high-value transactions. 

However, nearly 60% of the total funding was swallowed up by just four major deals, all originating from Africa’s biggest startup hubs: Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa.

The biggest winners of the month were:

• PowerGen (Energy): Raised over $50 million to expand its distributed renewable energy solutions across Africa.
• LemFi (Fintech): Secured $53 million to push into Asia and Europe, proving African fintech is now a global export.
• Naked (Insurtech): Bagged $38 million in a Series B round to automate and diversify its insurance offerings.
• Enko Education: Pulled in $24 million to continue expanding its African school network.

Where Does This Leave the Rest of Us?

The tech sector is clearly off to a strong start in 2025, but this cash inflow is a big contrast to the financial issues of everyday Africans. While startups thrive, inflation keeps rising, wages remain stagnant, and the naira keeps playing hide and seek with stability.

Last year, African startups raised a total of $2.2 billion, a drop from the $2.9 billion in 2023, but the numbers show that there could be a rebound. 

If this pace continues, investors will keep betting big on Africa’s tech—even if the rest of the continent is left wondering when that wealth will finally trickle down.

This took up 29% of the total raised across Africa and topped the regional figures for East Africa, which as a whole, secured $725 million in funding, equivalent to one-third of Africa’s total startup investments. 

Being the second consecutive year the region maintained its top spot, even though there was an 18% year-over-year decline, Kenya received investments in sectors such as climate tech, including companies like d.light, SunCulture, and Basigo. 

Meanwhile, Tanzania and Uganda contributed $53 million and $19 million, respectively, making smaller but notable contributions to the region’s performance.

West Africa’s Recovery and Nigeria’s Steadfast Performance

West Africa ranked second in 2024, recording $587 million in funding—27% of the continent’s total. Nigeria led the region with over $400 million raised, maintaining parity with its 2023 performance and placing it among Africa’s top three startup markets. 

Major deals included Moove’s $110 million and Moniepoint’s $110 million, which helped boost the country’s startup sector despite economic challenges.

What further supported West Africa’s growth was its balanced contributions from other nations. Ghana raised $68 million, Benin $50 million, Côte d’Ivoire $33 million, and Senegal $22 million. 

This diversity strengthened the region’s place and mitigated the minor 3% decline in funding compared to the previous year.

North and Southern Africa Funding Declines

Northern and Southern Africa experienced funding contractions in 2024. North Africa raised $478 million, a 35% drop compared to 2023, primarily due to a 37% decline in Egypt, which accounted for 84% of the region’s funding. Morocco held steady with $70 million, but it was insufficient to offset Egypt’s steep decline.

In Southern Africa, funding fell by 36%, amounting to $397 million. South Africa, which accounted for 99.4% of the region’s funding, experienced a 34% drop. 

The region’s heavy reliance on South Africa continued to emphasize the limited contributions from neighbouring countries, further revealing its challenges in diversifying funding sources.

Central Africa Struggles to Gain Traction

Central Africa remained the least funded region, raising only $5 million in 2024—a sharp decline from its already low 2023 figures. The negligible contribution pointed to the region’s limited role in Africa’s startup industry.

Africa’s Big Four

Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa collectively accounted for 84% of all startup funding in Africa in 2024, maintaining a trend that started since 2019. These nations remain key in bolstering the continent’s investment sector.

According to the report, Kenya accounts for $437 million, equivalent to 31%, while Egypt accounts for $373 million, indicating 27%. Thus, the duo comes out on top again, with a total of 58% of all the funding raised on the continent in 2024.

For both countries, it is their highest share of funding on record since 2019, whether we compare full years or Q1-Q3 periods. On the opposite side, this means that their other two “Big Four” peers are underperforming.

The report, however, noted that Nigeria managed to capture $218 million, representing 15% of the total funding raised by startups. “Actually, Nigeria’s share (15%, $218 million) is comparable to what it was last year (14%).

However, as you may remember, 2023 had seen quite a dramatic shift for Nigeria compared to previous years when the country had represented a much larger share of the funding (35% between 2019 and 2022). With 9% ($125 million) of the funding raised in 2024 so far, South Africa is currently recording its worst performance since 2019 in terms of its share of continental funding (6%), much below its average share in the past few years (18% between 2020 and 2023).

So far this year, only 18% of the funding has gone to the “rest of Africa,” with 23 markets recording at least one deal of $100,000 or more since January 1st. Only five of them have claimed at least 10 such deals since the beginning of the year: Tanzania, Ghana, Morocco, Uganda, and Rwanda. For the three markets where at least $50 million was raised this year so far, one deal tends to drive the numbers: Spiro in Benin ($50 million out of $50 million), Nala in Tanzania ($40 million out of $53 million), and, to a lesser extent, Fido in Ghana ($30 million out of $64 million). The latter two are showing encouraging signs of growth and maturity.

Overall numbers and trends, equity vs. debt, sectors, and now it’s time to look at the geographical split. If we focus on Q3 first, as you can imagine, the d.light and MNT-Halan deals (which, as a reminder, represented more than half of the funding raised last quarter) are skewing the numbers heavily.

As a result, Egypt ($272 million, 43%) topped the charts, followed by Kenya ($201 million, 32%), which also means that three-quarters of the funding raised in Africa in Q3 went to these two markets alone.

What’s happening in the rest of the continent? Four other markets attracted $10 million or more in funding during the period: Tanzania ($43 million), South Africa ($40 million), Ghana ($35 million), and Nigeria ($26 million). Ten additional countries attracted at least one deal of $100,000 or more. However, 38 markets registered no significant startup funding activity during the period.