Nigerian startups get largest share of $4b investment in Africa
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Nigerian startups this year raised $1.4 billion fund, 35 per cent of total $4 billion garnered across Africa, according to a report by thebigdeal.gumroad.com which tracked continental deals from $100,000 and above.
The Big Four startup investment destinations on the continent – in ranking order: Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, and Kenya – attracted 80 per cent of the total sum.
- Nigeria raised $1.4 billion from 215 deals
- South Africa $838 million from 118
- Egypt $588 million from 119
- Kenya $375 million from 119
- Senegal $222 million from 18
GSMA Head of Mobile for Development, Max Cuvellier, said:
“Most of you won’t be too surprised to find the ‘Big Four’ usual suspects (Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt and Kenya) dominate the charts with 80 per cent of the total raised on the continent so far this year (35 per cent for Nigeria alone).
“Next in terms of total amount raised are Senegal ($222m) and Tanzania ($96m), with a very big difference compared to the Big Four though: in both cases, a single deal represents more than 90 per cent of the total raised this year (Wave and Zola Electric).
“With 18 and 5 $100k+ deals respectively, they are far behind the Big Four: Nigeria boasts 200+ deals; the other three 100+ deals each.
“Eight countries on top of Tanzania have seen between $10m and $100m raised in 2021TD, with strong disparities though: for instance, start-ups in Ghana have raised close to 40 deals this year so far, while the $30m raised in Algeria come from one single deal.”
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Share of deals worth $100m and above
Cuvellier disclosed that nine more countries raised between $1 million and $10 million, followed by a final six with less than $1 million, per reporting by The PUNCH.
These were often single deals except for Zimbabwe (six) and Botswana (two).
The share of deals worth $100 million and above spreads out thus
- Senegal – 90 per cent
- Nigeria – 55 per cent
- South Africa – 39 per cent
- Egypt – 37 per cent
- Kenya – zero per cent (largest deal – $85 million in a Series B round)
“Another way to look at it is how much the single largest deal so far this year represents in the total raised: 90 per cent in Senegal still, 28 per cent in Nigeria (OPay), 23 per cent in Kenya (Gro), 20 per cent in Egypt (MNT-Halan) and 14 per cent in South Africa (Jumo),” Cuvellier said.
According to him, 11 deals made up 44 per cent of the funding raised so far, the remaining 743 deals raised $2.23 billion.
