Venture capital funding in Africa’s tech ecosystem continues to decline. Founders only raised $779.7 million in H1 2024, the lowest amount since 2020, according to the latest edition of the State of Tech in Africa (SOTIA) report by TechCabal Insights. Over a quarter of this funding was from non-equity raises; debt deals, and grants, meaning founders continue to reserve more ownership of their companies.
The decline in equity deals continues despite startups refocusing on becoming profitable and taking cost-cutting measures including layoffs.
“There’s no glossing over some of the difficulties the African tech ecosystem has seen in the period under review as layoffs continued and mega deals were nowhere to be found,” the report said.
The number of equity deals halved and the value of the investments reduced by 24%, year on year, according to SOTIA. Founders secured the most funding from debt deals, about $254 million.
However, venture deals remain the most common form of funding, and most of it went to early-stage startups. In 16 rounds pre-seed startups raised about $12.9 million. As seed-stage startups raised $66.2 million in 20 rounds. But the most venture deal funding—$155 million— came from only 4 series-B rounds.
The least funding came from grants—$12.7 million.
In this persistent decline, most of what has remained the same is the destination of the funds. Investors continue to show confidence in the Big Four. Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya accounted for 65% of the funding.
However, that may change soon, as Benin and Ghana raised—$50 million and $18.6 million respectively— more funds than Nigeria and South Africa in Q2 2024.
More new developments can be seen in the sector investors favoured in H1 2024. Fintech which got $863 million in H1 of 2023 lost its first place to the logistics and transportation sector which raised over $218 million. The fintech sector got $185 million, followed closely by the energy and water industry, which attracted about $132 million.
The telecom, media & entertainment industry was most impacted by the funding crunch, raising only 3.5 million, its lowest since 2021, per the report.
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