African Tech startup funding reaches $3billion mark

African Tech Startups Funding has for the first time passed the $3 billion mark.

This was revealed by Disrupt Africa in its annual African Tech Startups Funding report.

While this might not be as big a leap as in 2021, when the sector passed both the $1 billion and $2 billion mark, it’s a sign of continuous investors’ confidence in the sector’s opportunities.

The report cautions that measuring this kind of funding is not an exact science, as the definition of “African startup” itself remains controversial.

“In the clearest scenario, an African startup would be headquartered in Africa, founded by an African, and have Africa as its primary market. This, however, is rarely the case,” the document states.

According to the report, tracking this one particular source of startup funding data over time shows the impressive growth of the African startup sector.

“When Disrupt Africa put out their first edition of the report in 2015, 125 tech startups had raised $187 million that year. Less than a decade later, the number of startups has grown by 406% and funding raised has increased by close to 1,700%,” the report says.

Disrupts Africa explains that Fintech continues to dominate funding. It accounts for 43.4% of the total raised by the continent’s startups as well as counting for some of the largest deals, but there was also growth across all sectors including in other leading sectors such as e-commerce, e-health, logistics, edtech, energy, agri-tech, and transport.

“The “big four” markets of Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa still dominate startup funding—accounting for 76% of funding this year, down from 80% last year—but other startup hubs are also starting to bloom with a record-breaking year of funding for both Ghana and Tunisia.”

African startup funding overall makes up just a tiny fraction of global startup funding, but Disrupt Africa’s figures show that, despite a global downturn in investments, Africa has held its own.