Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa and Kenya Remain Africa’s “Big Four” from a Funding Perspective

Investment into the African tech startup ecosystem almost trebled over the course of a record-breaking 2021 that saw total funding pass the $2bn mark for the first time. This is according to the 7th edition of the annual African Tech Startups Funding Report released by startup news and research portal Disrupt Africa, which is available free to all as part of an open-sourcing initiative ( DISRUPT AFRICA). The report shows an extraordinary 2021 in which more startups raised more funding than ever before. In all, 564 startups raised a combined US$2,038,627,500 in 2021. This represented incredible growth.

The number of funded startups grew by 42.1% in 2020, and the funding total was almost treble – up 190.6% – the US$701,460,565 banked the previous year. In all, the number of African startups securing investment has increased by 351.2% since 2015. Though growth had slowed a little in 2020, partly due to the impact of COVID, investors increased their activities in 2021, with the number of different investors increasing by more than 100% to 771 from 370 the previous year. The fintech sector was, yet again, the most attractive to investors in 2020, with more startups securing funding than any other sector and a combined total that dwarfed all others. The sector broke the US$1bn funding barrier, with fintech accounting for more than half of total investment.