A total of 303 African digital companies have raised a total of US$1,184,220,000 between August 11 and August 11, 2021, up 69 percent over the US$701,460,565 raised in the full year of 2020.
According to data gathered by Disrupt Africa in preparation of the launch of its flagship fundraising tracker in January 2022, this is the case. The report, which was the first of its type when it originally came out in 2016 and is currently in its seventh edition, analyses investment in Africa’s startup ecosystem and highlights increase in financing for African digital firms.
Disrupt Africa, in collaboration with Catalyst Fund, RTB House, Quona Capital, 4Di Capital, Villgro Africa, Lateral Capital, and Otundi Ventures, released the African Tech Startups Funding Report 2020, which was open-sourced and made available to anyone for free for the first time. The next iteration will be open to everyone in the same way, with Disrupt Africa announcing its first set of partners soon.
With only half of the year gone, the next edition of the report will detail a 2021 in which records have been shattered. The financing target for 2020 was met months ago, and the industry just broke the $1 billion investment barrier for the first time. If things continue in the same fashion for the remainder of the year, last year’s record of 397 financed companies will be handily beaten.
Nigeria leads the way, with rounds for Flutterwave, Kuda, TeamApt, FairMoney, and Moove contributing significantly to the remarkable financing amount, but there have also been significant rounds for MaxAB (Egypt), Trella (Egypt), Yoco (South Africa), and LifeQ (South Africa) (South Africa).
Since Disrupt Africa began publishing its yearly fundraising report, the number of businesses that have received funding as well as overall investment has steadily grown. Only 125 companies received funding in 2015. This number increased to 146 the following year, 159 the following year, and 210 the following year. In 2019, the number jumped to 311 and is expected to rise to 397 in 2020.
For the past five years, the amount of money coming to African companies has risen year after year (with a decrease from 2015 to 2016 preventing the clean sweep). The continent’s companies raised a total of US $185,785,500 when the Disrupt Africa records began in 2015. In 2016, the amount fell by 30.5 percent to US$129,113,200. Following that, total funds raised climbed by 51% to US $195,060,845 in 2017, soared by 71.5 percent to US$334,520,500 in 2018, expanded by 46.7 percent to US$491,623,400 in 2019, and increased by 42.7 percent to US $701,460,565 in 2020.
